The Sensual Nature of Sound portrays four New York based composers and performers in terms of their musical lives and artistic passion. Though Laurie Anderson, Tania Leon, Meredith Monk and Pauline Oliveros are all pioneers in American music, each composer pursues a distinct direction of her own. Their rehearsals and performances show a common pursuit of lyrical storytelling through which a new set of contemporary narratives has been forged. Through body, sound, movement and composition, these women have forged their own path through the wild world of modern music.
The turbulent life of soul and blues singer, the late Joe Cocker. A former gas fitter from Sheffield, catapulted to world stardom in 1969 at Woodstock with his legendary performance of the Beatles song, "A Little Help from My Friends". But in the early 1970s, Joe Cocker's inner demons nearly killed him. Overcoming his struggles with alcohol and drugs, he rebuilt his reputation as "one of the great primal rock and roll vocalists of all time" (Billy Joel's description). The film mixes Joe Cocker's own words, with rare archive. His wife (Pam Cocker) & family, friends and the legendary songwriters and musicians he collaborated with, tell Joe Cocker's story. The film has raw, historic, electric performance footage throughout. Extensive interviews of key people through his life include: Pam Cocker, Ben Fong-Torres (Rolling Stone magazine editor), Randy Newman, Jimmy Webb, Billy Joel, Rita Coolidge, Deric Dyer, Glyn Johns, and numerous others.
On October 12th, 1978, New York Police discovered the lifeless body of a young woman, slumped under the bathroom sink in a hotel room. She was Nancy Spungen, an ex-prostitute, sometimes stripper, heroin addict, and girlfriend of Sex Pistols' bassist Sid Vicious.
The film is a day in the life of a young artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat, who needs to raise money to reclaim the apartment from which he has been evicted. He wanders the downtown streets carrying a painting he hopes to sell, encountering friends, whose lives (and performances) we peek into.
The American comedian/actor delivers a story about the alternative Hip Hop scene. A small town Ohio mans moves to Brooklyn, New York, to throw an unprecedented block party.
Jake wants nothing more than to spend his Christmas vacation with his girlfriend Abbey. So when Abbey volunteers for her church’s Christmas play, Jake is ready to skip Christmas this year until an unexpected turn of events lands him in a field outside Bethlehem on the night Jesus was born. While on his journey with the shepherds to find the promised Messiah, Jake discovers the true meaning of Christmas.
Forced to return to his struggling hometown after an expensive college degree, Killian gathers former childhood friends to audition for a music festival coming to their once prosperous steel town.
Eugen and Roger Cicero were father and son, but above all they were extraordinary artists. While Eugen achieved fame as a piano virtuoso in the 1960s and performed with star singers such as Ella Fitzgerald and Shirley Bassey, Roger filled huge concert halls years later as one of Germany's most gifted singers. Their life stories are inextricably interwoven and show fascinating parallels - genius paired with an unparalleled passion, the overcoming of boundaries, the balancing act between commercial success and artistic integrity and ultimately the tragic outcome that still shakes the music world today.
In February 2017, Journey went to Japan for a special show at Tokyo’s Budokan that featured a complete performance of 1981’s Escape and 1983’s Frontiers at the request of legendary Japanese concert promoter Mr. Udo in honor of his 50th anniversary in the business. “There’s a few songs I don’t even recall playing, like [the Frontiers track] ‘Troubled Child,” Journey guitarist Neal Schon told Rolling Stone at the time. “Digging back into that stuff has been a lot of fun.”
Mike Figgis’ enthralling documentary about the turbulent life and career of Ronnie Wood, legendary rock guitarist and long-time member of The Rolling Stones.
A dark-themed and redesigned West End production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's seminal Broadway musical tells the story of farm girl Laurey and her courtship by two rival suitors, cowboy Curly and the sinister and frightening farmhand Jud.
Unusually elaborate for a PRC film, Minstrel Man is a lively musical drama built around the talents of veteran vaudevillian Benny Fields. The star is cast as Dixie Boy Johnson, who rises from the ranks of minstrel shows to become a top Broadway attraction. On the opening night of his greatest stage triumph, Dixie Boy's wife dies in childbirth. Profoundly shaken, he walks out of the show, leaving the baby to be raised by his showbiz pals Mae and Lasses White (Gladys George, Roscoe Karns). The kid grows up to be an attractive young woman named Caroline (Judy Clark), who follows in her dad's footsteps by billing herself as-that's right-Dixie Girl Johnson. This leads to a tearful reunion between Caroline and the father she'd long assumed to be dead. If Minstrel Man seems at times to be a dress rehearsal for Columbia's The Jolson Story (1946), it shouldn't surprising: the PRC film was directed by Joseph H. Lewis, who went on to helm Jolson Story's musical highlights.
Johnny Cash: American Rebel is built around 12 essential Johnny Cash tracks spanning four decades that each deliver the passion, musicality and messages against war, injustice, racism and prejudice, including “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Jackson,” “San Quentin,” “Man in Black,” “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” “Ring of Fire” and “Hurt.” Each song illustrates a chapter in his life, as well the story of an ever-changing America from the 1950s to modern day, as told through interviews, archival concert footage, photographs and personal artifacts from the Cash family.
Record executives want a highly-regarded record producer to focus on a white pop act whom they feel has the sound America wants. To keep his creative integrity, Buckmaster carefully begins to fight the system that has made him the respected producer he has become.