A small-town California boy planned to be a minister like his father, but instead became the greatest conductor of choral music the world has ever known. With no formal musical training, he moved from stunning early success in popular music to legendary interpretations of classical music's great choral masterpieces.
The Landau String Quartet come together to rehearse. Together they make wonderful music and yet each has traveled a very different path to become a musician. This dramatised documentary reveals each musician's intimate story centred around the long journey they have traveled with their instrument. Leon, the first-born son of Polish Jewish migrants to Australia is destined to become a great violinist, but his life moves in unexpected directions under the influence of his abusive teacher. Julia loses her innocence and discovers her own deep sensuality through her experience with music, and a handsome conductor. Richard plays the violin to escape his stifling suburban family. He encounters the dark and fearful world of his own psyche on his travels to the city to play.. Christie, a young cellist, throws off the shackles of her disciplined musician's life and escapes on an adventure with a handsome stranger, a journey that ultimately brings her face to face with herself.
The Art of Listening is a documentary film about the journey music takes to reach a listener’s ear, from the intent of an instrument maker and composer, to the producers and engineers who capture and preserve an artist’s voice. This journey is narrated by intimate conversations with artists, engineers and producers about the philosophy of their work and the intent behind each musical note they create.
It's midnight in a graveyard. The principal characters are spooks, ghosts, bats, bells, and, at the end, the sun. As midnight strikes, 12 spooks appear, then two ghosts. They move to the music's rhythm. Against the black night, they are blue and yellow. Bats appear as does a xylophone of bones. Mist rises, spooks swirl. A bell tolls. The sky turns light blue, the ghosts' dance slows. Then black night returns bringing intimations of frenzy. Bones play snare drums; spooks peek out of square graves. Scary faces appear. Frenetic movement takes over. A rooster crows and all return to earth as the sun's light appears.
One of the short little films featuring Don Aspiazu of his own orchestra, a good example of the style of Cubano jazz in the 1920's and 1930's, combined with some sporadic, picturesque images of contemporary Cuba.
This documentary on the effect the talent competition "Afghan Star" has on the incredibly diverse inhabitants of Afghanistan affords a glimpse into a country rarely seen. Contestants risk their lives to appear on the television show that is a raging success with the public and also monitored closely by the government.
The story of Alex, a 16 year old teenager living with his grandma.He has various plans for the summer: writing a new song with his rock band, finding a job and having his first sexual experience. He also becomes aware that his grandma is increasingly dependent on him. As summer draws on, Alex realizes that things are going to change forever and that he will have to grow up and learn to say goodbye.
Krishna Das is on a journey to India to discover legendary spiritual teacher Neem Karoli Baba, through drug addiction and depression, to his eventual emergence as a world-famous Kirtan singer.
You See Me Laughin' is a personal journey into the lives and music of the last of the hill country bluesmen who've kept their music alive on the back porches and in the tiny juke joints of the Mississippi backwoods.
The strange patrons of a bar become even stranger when the moon falls from the night sky. Confusion reigns; a business mogul’s pedantry clashes with a diva’s hypnotic lyrics, the bartender’s smile grows suspicious, and the bus boy spills every drink he touches. And all the while the moon herself wanders the unfamiliar earth, her search for balance pulling on the tide of human emotions that awaits her in the bar.
Actor and writer Stephen Fry explores his passion for the world's most controversial composer, Richard Wagner. As a life-long fan can Stephen, who is Jewish and lost family in the Holocaust, salvage Wagner's music from its dark associations with anti-Semitism and Hitler?
This creative educational film by Pieter Van Deusen features a variety of wind instruments performed by noted musicians Eli Hollander & Tony Plog. The film crew included Les Blank as 2nd Camera along with assistant Skip Gerson. This film was part of a music film series for Churchill Films: WIND SOUNDS, Percussion Sounds, and an offshoot film by Pieter with Les Blank entitled Christopher Tree.
Amir, shot during the height of the Afghan civil war in the 1980s, investigates and portrays the life of Afghan refugees living in and around the city of Peshawar in northern Pakistan through the experiences of the musician Amir. The aspirations of Afghan refugees are expressed through their political songs dealing with the civil war in Afghanistan, with exile, with Afghan nationalism and with the Islamic revolution. In highly charged and tragic circumstances, music can be used in very direct ways, both to promote solidarity and as an agent of catharsis.
Two best friends spent the last fifteen years touring the country in their performance art punk band. When one of them decides to quit, they both face deeper challenges than expected.
After a childhood of playing cantinas and honky tonks from Texas to Tennessee, this band of brothers 'Los Lonely Boys' from San Angelo Texas rocked their way to the top of the American music industry, determined to fulfill their father's long held dream.