Hollywood is perhaps the most elusive animal. "We Want the Airwaves" follows three first time TV makers who set out on the ultimate adventure: to change television as we know it. The trio creates, films and pitches their advocacy docuseries masterpiece, "Manifesto!" all over the world, with the goal of giving a broadcast voice to a generation.
Dave Stevens created The Rocketeer and reintroduced the world to 50's pin-up model Bettie Page. While carving out his own unique corner of importance in comic book and illustration art, Dave showed the world what it's like to pursue the life of a creative individual.
Philip Vincent built the fastest and most glamorous motorcycles in the world - yet he ended his days in poverty. Some 40 years after he died, one of his machines sold for over $1 million. This is his untold story.
Song For Our People is an inspiring new documentary about a group of a professional musicians and artists who come together one day in a Brooklyn recording studio to create a powerful new anthem to honor the perseverance of their African-American ancestors, and to energize the on-going fight for a more just American society.
This intimate and loving portrait of the legendary arbiter of fashion, art and culture illustrates the many stages of Vreeland's remarkable life. Born in Paris in 1903, she was to become New York's "Empress of Fashion" and a celebrated Vogue editor.
Robert Altman's life and career contained multitudes. This father of American independent cinema left an indelible mark, not merely on the evolution of his art form, but also on the western zeitgeist. With its use of rare interviews, representative film clips, archival images, and musings from his family and most recognizable collaborators, Altman is a dynamic and heartfelt mediation on an artist whose expression, passion and appetite knew few bounds.
Fashion designer Amy Powney is at the peak of her career, but she’s troubled by her industry’s wasteful practices. Fashion Reimagined follows her transformative global journey to create a collection that’s sustainable on every level.
A nonfiction account of the Ferguson uprising told by the people who lived it, this is an unflinching look at how the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown inspired a community to fight back—and sparked a global movement.
In the center of the story is the life of the indigenous people of the village Bakhtia at the river Yenisei in the Siberian Taiga. The camera follows the protagonists in the village over a period of a year. The natives, whose daily routines have barely changed over the last centuries, keep living their lives according to their own cultural traditions.
THE LAST OF THE WINTHROPS explores the powerful revelations of a woman who reclaims her sense of self after taking an Ancestry DNA test. Initially she faces the seismic truth that her father, Reginald Winthrop, who could trace his heritage literally to the founders of America, is not her biological father. When Reg and his beautiful French Canadian wife Claire have their “miracle child”, Viviane is raised as an heir to the historic Winthrop exceptionalism and finds pride in her career in dentistry. After she is contacted by an unknown relative through their Ancestry DNA test, Viviane embraces her new identity, where she finds peace after facing powerful themes about love, blood and family.
The House of Suh” tells the story of Andrew and his sister Catherine, and how the values, conflicts, and dysfunctions of their Korean immigrant family led to the murder of Robert O’Dubaine. Eloquently narrated by Andrew, the documentary highlights issues of assimilation and the struggle between freedom and responsibility, raising questions about guilt, innocence, and the illusive gray area in-between.
The Rumble Man was recorded and filmed during Link Wray's UK tour of March 1996 and is a mix of footage and documentary, featuring an extensive interview with the man himself. This is a piece of rock 'n' roll history. In his own words and music, you are about to witness one of the greatest guitar players this planet has ever seen. So, sit back, hit that volume control to distortion and listen to The Rumble Man.
Robert Mann has been a vital force in the world of music for more than seventy years. As founder and first violinist of the Julliard String Quartet, and as a soloist, composer, teacher, and conductor, Mann has brought a refreshing sense of adventure and discovery to chamber music performance, master classes, and orchestral performances worldwide. In Speak the Music, the 93-year-old Mann shares personal anecdotes from his childhood and musical training. Director Allan Miller combines archival performance footage, candid interviews, and glimpses into Mann's private lessons with today's most promising violinists to honor one of classical music's greatest living artists. (C) First Run
Where does creativity come from? Zen calligraphic painter Alok Hsu Kwang-han proposes that it arises from emptiness, from that silent space where the intelligence prior to thought resides. Armed with rice paper, ink, brush and a collection of Zen koans and teachings, Alok opens the door to a world of magical brush strokes and enchanted students. On the verge of his 75th birthday and with a new love in his life, Alok employs his teachings to confront his own personal history. Through his workshops and his art we share a journey of transformation that becomes possible when we are simply 'present, available, playful, and not knowing.' Through Alok we discover that 'in a clear heart, no mountain hides the moon.'
America’s favorite board game, Monopoly, is a love letter to unbridled capitalism and the impulses that make our free-market society tick. Contrary to the folksy legend spread by Parker Brothers, Monopoly’s origin involves a radical feminist and a community of Quakers in Atlantic City. If not for the determination of an economics professor and impassioned anti-monopolist, the real story behind the creation of the game might never have come to light.
In the first decades of the 20th century, when life was being transformed by scientific innovations, researchers made a thrilling new claim: they could tell whether someone was lying by using a machine. Popularly known as the “lie detector,” the device transformed police work, seized headlines and was extolled in movies, TV and comics as an infallible crime-fighting tool. Husbands and wives tested each other’s fidelity. Corporations routinely tested employees’ honesty and government workers were tested for loyalty and “morals.” But the promise of the polygraph turned dark, and the lie detector too often became an apparatus of fear and intimidation. Written and directed by Rob Rapley and executive produced by Cameo George, The Lie Detector is a tale of good intentions, twisted morals and unintended consequences.
Five years after Soleils noirs, Julien Elie returns with a rigorously researched work, asserting itself as a genuine cinematic piece. This time, he turns the spotlight on the regime of terror and violence forged by transnational companies, in collaboration with the Mexican government and organized crime allowing them to appropriate land and exploit resources. With respect and careful attention to detail, the film uncovers the courage and dignity of resistance to this new kind of colonialism that is both destructive and murderous in nature and reigns with utter impunity. The camera hones in on the faces of those who have dared to speak out, and on their daily lives, which have been turned upside down. It magnifies a land of great beauty and richness marked by physical and psychological scars.
The surprising coming of age story of four diverse women who have had their lives dramatically changed by their love of a boyband - Backstreet Boys, One Direction, Take That and The Beatles.