Bob Dylan: Busy Being Born

Joni Mitchell has been called the queen of folk music and one of the biggest pop stars of the 60s and 70s. Even today, her lyrics and unique guitar style continue to inspire new generations of singers and songwriters.

A short film about Pete Seeger and the birth of banjo music throughout the Southern United States.

Zimbabwean musician, Biggie Tempo, talks to a number of UK folk musicians about their work and their views on traditional music.

A portrait of the Arab musicians Bahaa al Jomaa and Yazan Ibrahim.

The Sfroos - Viaggio nella musica di Lombardia

Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Keller Williams is literally a one-man jam band. His fascinating live shows feature him solo on-stage with a Gibson Echoplex Digital Pro looping unit, and he creates his backing loops in the moment, building and improvising as he goes on his custom-made ten-string guitar. Filmed at The Bluebird in Bloomington Indiana on November 13, 2014.

A poetic film about ancient Lithuanian traditions and rituals.

A short musical film on the Old Harp tradition from East Tennessee, shot around a gathering in a church of the Smoky Mountains

At the Ryman is a 1992 live album by Emmylou Harris and her then-newly formed acoustic backing band, The Nash Ramblers, recorded at the Ryman Auditorium, most famously known as the onetime home of the Grand Ole Opry. This video includes interviews with the artists and live performances from the album.

The dance house movement, which (illegally) brought folk music from the minority Hungarian Gypsies and peasants of Transylvania - now part of Romania - to Budapest, and its effect on views of the value of traditional culture.

For true believers, Mike Scott will always be the man who invented and defined 1980s stadium rock, and then bailed out just as U2 and Simple Minds were hitting their stride. He immersed himself in Irish folk music, releasing the rollicking Fisherman’s Blues and Room to Roam albums to huge acclaim. Since then he has recorded and toured often, under his own name and the band’s. He also set 20 of WB Yeats’s poems to music for a theatrical presentation called An Appointment With Mr. Yeats, so expect a broad range of very different musical ideas at what has to be their seventh Glastonbury, unless you count the three performances in 2007 separately, in which case it’s their ninth appearance at Worthy Farm.

A true Canadian iconoclast, acclaimed transgender country/electro-pop artist Rae Spoon revisits the stretches of rural Alberta that once constituted “home” and confronts memories of growing up queer in an abusive, evangelical household.

The Kingdom of Survival explores modern skepticism in America, challenges the status quo and uncovers provocative links between survivalist philosophy, ecumenical spirituality, radical political theory, and outlaw culture. The audience is invited into a thoughtful conversation with the likes of Prof. Noam Chomsky, Dr. Mark Mirabello, Ramsey Kanaan, and the riveting final interview with beloved author, Joe Bageant. These unique thought leaders cast a rare shadow of doubt over our most blindly accepted American traditions.

Wirklich alles?!

The Comedian Harmonists sing various German folk songs in a picturesque landscape.

In Burma, many people believe in ghost spirits called NATs. They are said to possess the power to assist or devastate the lives of those who recognize them. A PWE is a ceremony held to appease a Nat. Pwes are arranged daily throughout Burma for many purposes including the achievement of success in business, a happy marriage, or improving one's health. A Nat is summoned through a Kadaw; the flamboyant and charismatic master of the Pwe dressed in elegant costume. The Kadaw is a spirit medium, dancer, storyteller, and magician who exposes the crowd to a living incarnation of the Nat brought forth through opening ritual and careful observance of tradition.

Morocco is a land of ingratiating variety and intense contrast. Its people are as diverse as its topography. The cosmopolitan Atlantic coast fuses with the Berber heritage of the northern Rif and Atlas mountain ranges as the ancient Saharan trade routes wind their way from the south into the city of Marrakech, where all points collide, creating a vibrant mixture of the traditional, the exotic and the supernatural.

Folk music of the Sahara is an intoxicating experience of sight and sound captured among the Tuareg and Libyan people of North Central Africa. Filmed from the perspective of actually being one of the performers, this mind-blowing IN YOUR FACE document captures the spirit of Libyan folklore and the essence of emotion armed with pounding rhythms and wailing vocal choruses. Both men and women are featured here equally as overseers of the hybrid forms of expression where central African traditions collide with the tones and colors of the Arab world creating one of the most unique overviews of Saharan folk music ensemble and dance the outside world has ever witnessed. The diversity of faces is extraordinary, every costume is stunning, and the women are among the most beautiful on earth.

"Shot live for TV by the legendary German music show “Rockpalast” this DVD represents the earliest example of a complete Fahey concert performance. The multi-camera filming features detailed close-ups of Fahey’s playing style giving fans a rare insight into what Pete Townsend has called the William Burroughs of the guitar. Fahey’s 1978 visit to Europe saw him in fine wild form performing an 11 track set and as an incredibly rare bonus a short interview with the maverick iconoclast.

In 1962, a group of legendary American blues musicians embarked on a series of tours to the United Kingdom. Footage from these classic concerts, which feature the likes of Muddy Waters, Lightnin' Hopkins, Junior Wells and more, are collected here. Blues fans will relish appearances by Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Lonnie Johnson, Big Joe Williams, Big Joe Turner, Otis Rush ...