Terror Mandelão addresses sound, technology, and the job market in the universe of baile funk in São Paulo's favelas. The film follows the journey of DJ K, one of the main DJs of Baile do Helipa, the street party of Heliópolis favela, and his friend Zero K, who got his first hit after 10 years as MC. Combining documentary, fictional elements, and visual experimentation, it portrays the ups and downs faced by young artists on the outskirts.
Made on a wind-up Bolex camera, The Sound of Seeing announced the arrival of 21-year-old filmmaker Tony Williams. Based around a painter and a composer wandering the city (and beyond), the film meshes music and imagery to show the duo taking inspiration from their surroundings.
James Brown's legacy has influenced rap, soul, funk and R&B. But along with his huge talent, there's a dark side to Brown's success that includes stints in prison and unceasing tabloid speculation. This in-depth documentary takes a look at the meteoric highs and deep lows of Brown's career, offering some fascinating insights from the Godfather of Soul himself, as well as interview footage with Chuck D, Little Richard, Wyclef Jean and many others.
Playboy Video Magazine was literally a video version of the publication. It included candid celebrity interviews, video editorials, the trademark playmate pictorials, interwoven with commercial parodies and short comedy sketches. The series also covered trends in media; sex, politics, culture, and pop culture.
Cecil Taylor was the grand master of free jazz piano. "All the Notes" captures in breezy fashion the unconventional stance of this media-shy modern musical genius, regarded as one of the true giants of post-war music. Seated at his beloved and battered piano in his Brooklyn brownstone the maestro holds court with frequent stentorian pronouncements on life, art and music.
Miroslav Vitouš – jazzová legenda
Tenor saxophone master Sonny Rollins has long been hailed as one of the most important artists in jazz history, and still, today, he is viewed as the greatest living jazz improviser. In 1986, filmmaker Robert Mugge produced Saxophone Colossus, a feature-length portrait of Rollins, named after one of his most celebrated albums.
"It must schwing!" was the motto of Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, two German Jewish immigrants who in 1939 set up Blue Note Records, the jazz label that was home to such greats as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins. Blue Note, the most successful movie ever made about jazz, is a testimony to the passion and vision of these two men and certainly swings like the propulsive sounds that made their label so famous.
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers features what many consider to be one of the fi nest line-ups in the history of jazzÂBobby Timmons (Piano), Jymie Merritt (Bass), Benny Golson (Sax) and the legendary trumpet player, Lee Morgan. Lost for nearly 50 years, this historic 55 minute concert, fi lmed in Belgium in 1958, one month to the day after they recorded their masterpiece Moanin, is the only known visual document of this infl uential band who were together for only six months.
A short documentary on jazz trombonist, Ryan Porter.
Chronicles the extraordinary rise of Haitian-American jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant, anchored by a pristine recording of a live concert.
Three basketball players step onto the court, each with a rhythm of their own. As their movements are studied and reimagined, their game is then recontextualized into jazz, revealing the artistry within sport and the music hidden in motion.
Combining footage unseen since WWI with original scores from the era, this film tells the story of Noble Sissle's incredible journey that spans "The Harlem Hellfighters" of World War I, Broadway Theatre, the Civil Rights movement, and decades of Black cultural development.
Set to a classic Duke Ellington recording "Daybreak Express", this is a five-minute short of the soon-to-be-demolished Third Avenue elevated subway station in New York City.
Brüder Kühn: Zwei Musiker spielen sich frei
San Francisco's North Beach in the 50's - A mix of jazz, poetry and art - The Beach recreates the atmosphere that prevailed through first-hand accounts from the actual "players" along with photographs and artwork from that vibrant time.
The young American Pablo Menéndez came to Cuba to study Music at the National School of Art. Here he formed a family and became one more Cuban. Member of the Sound Experimentation Group of ICAIC and promoter of the teaching of the electric guitar in Cuba, he is, together with his group Mezcla, one of our most original musicians.
Documentary short showcasing the genius of jazz greats Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge, Cozy Cole, and Milt Hinton, among others.
Between segregation and cosmic revelation, The Magic City traces the birth of Sun Ra, where a city becomes myth and a man, a galaxy.
A documentary about the jazz standard and it's roots in Jewish and African-American culture/