The 1920s saw a revolution in technology, the advent of the recording industry, that created the first class of African-American women to sing their way to fame and fortune. Blues divas such as Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Alberta Hunter created and promoted a working-class vision of blues life that provided an alternative to the Victorian gentility of middle-class manners. In their lives and music, blues women presented themselves as strong, independent women who lived hard lives and were unapologetic about their unconventional choices in clothes, recreational activities, and bed partners. Blues singers disseminated a Black feminism that celebrated emotional resilience and sexual pleasure, no matter the source.
As a sci-fi obsessed woman living in near isolation, Beverly Glenn-Copeland wrote and self-released Keyboard Fantasies in Huntsville, Ontario back in 1986. Recorded in an Atari-powered home-studio, the cassette featured seven tracks of a curious folk-electronica hybrid, a sound realized far before its time. Three decades on, the musician – now Glenn Copeland – began to receive emails from people across the world, thanking him for the music they’d recently discovered.
When Leipzig pianist Kyra Steckeweh realized that her repertoire almost exclusively consisted of music composed by men, she began searching for pieces written by female composers. Her research in archives, libraries, and publishing houses quickly brought to light a variety of remarkable piano pieces that have been buried in history and rarely performed.
Mantra — Sounds into Silence is a feature-length documentary that explores the musical and social phenomenon of chant and response meditation. With music and Performances from Deva Premal & Miten with Manose, Krishna Das, Snatam Kaur, Jai Uttal, MC Yogi, Dave Stringer, Lama Gyurme & Jean-Philippe Rykiel, C.C. White, Mirabai Ceiba, Gaura Vani, Nina Rao, Charlie Braun & Others
Razz accidentally shoots his wife Martha when his hunting rifle drops on the floor and discharges. The church congregation gathers at Martha’s bedside to pray for her recovery, and during this period an angel arrives to take Martha’s spirit from her body, but she is tempted by the slick Judas Green, who is an agent for Satan.
Jim decides to leave his tribal area to seek his fortune in Johannesburg. As soon as he arrives, three gangsters mug him. When he regains consciousness, a friendly night watchman takes care of him. With the watchman's help, Jim gets a job in a nightclub as a waiter.
The decade that began with peace and love was shattered in the late 1960s amidst riots, assassinations and a war that wouldn't end. The Rolling Stones became the voice of this new era, which came to a horrific end at the Altamont festival.
Vienna, 1813-1819: Beethoven (played by Donatas Banionis) is at the peak of his fame. Orchestras all over the world play his music, but he lives modestly and is dependent upon private patrons. Nagged by his patronizing brothers, spied upon by officials for his republican beliefs and faced by his progressive hearing loss, the composer becomes more and more isolated. Seeman’s poetic film explores the joys, heartbreak and artistic spirit of the great composer as he works on his Ninth Symphony.
In the musical road movie, New Zealand musician Hayden Chisholm sets out on a journey of discovery across Germany in search of German folk music. As a stranger with an unbiased view of German culture and an open ear for the lyrics and melodies of modern and traditional musicians, he encounters a lively diversity of regional customs and activities. In Sound of Heimat – Deutschland singt, directors Arne Birkenstock and Jan Tengeler also shed light on the ambivalent attitude toward folk music and the understanding of one's own homeland that is so widespread in Germany. These are topics that have been forgotten in many places due to past ideologization and the "ideal world" of the Musikantenstadl.
The stars of Europe's ascendant chip music movement demonstrate the repurposing of old videogame and home computer hardware like Nintendo's GameBoy and NES, Atari's ST, and Commodore's Amiga and C64 into tools by which they have created a new sound, a modern tempo and an innovative musical style.
A dance of shapes. A title card tells us this is an experiment in conveying the mental images of music in a visual form. Liszt's "Second Hungarian Rhapsody" is the music. The shapes, all two-dimensional, are circles primarily, with some squares and rectangles, and a few triangles. The shapes move rhythmically to the music: receding from view or moving across the screen. Red circles on a blue background; light blue squares; white rectangles. Then, a red background of many circles with a few in the foreground. Red gives way to blue then to white. Shapes reappear as Liszt's themes re-occur. Then, with a few staccato notes and images, it's over.
'At the end of the day, it remains a secret why some can conduct and others can’t', Sir Georg Solti once said. CONDUCT! explores this secret. The struggle of five young artists for success at the International Conductors Competition in Frankfurt provides real-life drama that tests not only musical abilities but, above all, characters. CONDUCT! explores the secret of conducting with a unique intensity that culminates in a great showdown at Frankfurt’s Opera.
Although it is often credited with spurring the "third wave" of feminism, Riot Grrrl seemed to many to be a blip in the media. Riot Grrrl paved the way for the more mainstream "girl power" phenomenon, but was ultimately forgotten until recently. This film tackles the past thirty years of female involvement in Do It Yourself music, and aims to give a more complete picture of how women have participated in the D.I.Y. community, and how it affects their daily lives.
Mighty Uke travels the world to discover why so many people of different nations, cultures, ages and musical tastes are turning to the ukulele to express themselves, connect with the past, and with each other.
On the heels of a tragedy and the COVID-19 pandemic, a Dallas-based theatre troupe comprised of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are determined to write, rehearse, and perform their 11th annual original musical.
A powerful documentary starring Morgan Freeman about the genesis of The Blues in the South and the music spreading around the world. Morgan Freeman shares his story of his experience of growing up in Clarksdale, Mississippi and his love for the Blues.
Half a million people descend upon a tiny Serbian village for the 50th anniversary of the world's largest trumpet festival. Brasslands chronicles the cultural and musical collisions through the personal journeys of 3 musicians - American, Serbian, Roma - whose lives are bound to Balkan brass for very different reasons.
Texas Style centers on three generations of Westmoreland family fiddlers, bringing you to the Homecoming, Rodeo, Reunion and Fiddling Contest in Gustine, Texas, where there are armadillo races, tobacco-spitting and frog hopping contests, cow chip throwing and young and old comparing their hog calling skills. Inside a canvas tent, some of Texas' most remarkable fiddlers compete to the foot-stomping delight of their audience.