Fueled by archival film clips and captivating anecdotes from friends and family, this unauthorized biography of John Lennon captures a lesser-known side of the Beatle who caused as much a stir with his personal causes as he did with his music. Highlights include rarely told stories about Lennon's upbringing from his half sister, Julia Baird, and tales from former members of Lennon's first band, the Quarrymen.
Famous New Yorkers and the pooches they love are the focus of this refreshingly honest and endearing series of interviews that celebrates the meaningful connections people share with their pups. Gossip columnist Cindy Adams, playwright Edward Albee, designer Isaac Mizrahi, and actors Glenn Close, Edie Falco and Richard Gere are among the many celebs who pay tribute to their beloved canine companions.
AC/DC has long reigned as a titanic force in the world of hard rock, and never more so than when they were anchored by their original singer and resident wildman, Bon Scott. AC/DC - The Bon Scott Years movie This program offers a critical review of the band's Bon Scott years--from his first appearance in the early 1970s to his death in 1980--through rare archival material, interviews with rock critics and musicologists, and previously unreleased live performances of classics like "Whole Lotta Rosie" and "Let There Be Rock."
Following nearly 40 years of unrelenting war, peace and reconstruction are slowly arriving to Angola. Huambo, Angola’s second largest city, finds 55 children in the Okutiuka orphanage under the care of Sonia Ferreira. Her boyfriend, Wilker Flores, is a death metal guitarist who uses sounds and rhythms of this hardcore music as a path to healing. Or, as Sonia says, “to clear out the debris from all these years of war.” The feature documentary follows Wilker and Sonia’s attempts to stage Angola’s first-ever national rock concert, bringing together members from different strands of the Angolan hardcore scene from different provinces, as it all unfolds in fits and starts, against the bombed out and mined backdrop of the formerly stately Huambo.
Stunning macro 3D filmmaking takes viewers on an unforgettable journey from lake bottom battles for territory to lovelorn toads searching for a mate to lizards prowling the forest for a meal. We humans are but lumbering, clumsy giants striding through these miniature ecosystems that thrive without us... even in spite of us.
BREATH MADE VISIBLE is the first feature length film about the life and career of Anna Halprin, the American dance pioneer who has helped redefine our notion of modern art with her belief in dance's power to teach, heal, and transform at all ages of life. This cinematic portrait blends recent interviews with counterparts such as the late Merce Cunningham, archival footage, including her establishment of the first multiracial dance company in the U.S., and excerpts of current performances such as "Parades and Changes" at the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris, to weave a stunning, inspiring account of one of the most important cultural icons in modern dance.
Examines the reasons behind the rising costs of health care in the United States. Looks at the dangers of over-diagnosis and over-treatment and investigates how waste pervades our medical system. Also looks at how some hospitals are working to create less expensive and high quality alternatives to the present system.
It's the greatest mystery of all time; who wrote the works of Shakespeare? DEREK JACOBI leads an impressive cast on a quest to uncover the truth behind the world's most elusive author and discovers a forgotten nobleman whose story could rewrite history.
A modern day Oskar Schindler story that focuses on Kirk Johnson, a young American fighting to save thousands of Iraqis whose lives are in danger because they worked for the U.S. to help rebuild Iraq. After leading reconstruction teams in Baghdad and Fallujah, Kirk returns home only to discover that many of his former Iraqi colleagues are being killed, kidnapped or forced into exile by radical militias. Frustrated by a stagnating government bureaucracy in the U.S. that has failed to protect its 'Iraqi allies,' Kirk begins compiling a list of their names and helps them find refuge and a new life in America.
Saxophonist Art Pepper (1925-1982) lived the kind of jazz life only found in Hollywood movies. His prodigious talent led him to top gigs as a teenager, but drugs and attendant criminal activity knocked him out of commission for virtually all of the 1960s and early 1970s. This documentary, shot shortly after his searing memoir, {-Straight Life}, was published in 1979, shows Pepper in the full flower of a remarkable comeback. His third wife, Laurie, is featured prominently; they met in the drug treatment facility Synanon in 1969 and were married in 1974. She took over his business affairs and helped him write {-Straight Life}. Pepper tells his own story here, but the emphasis is on an evening's performance at a club in Malibu, with the musician in fine form, backed by a terrific trio. (Tom Wiener, Rovi)
The Camden 28 explores how and why 28 individuals intentionally placed themselves at risk of arrest and imprisonment while protesting the war in Vietnam. Featuring a treasure of archival materials and current interviews with former FBI agents involved in the case and scholars such as Howard Zinn, The Camden 28 is a story about a potent form of dissent that has special relevance to our current political climate.
Journalism in times of war has become an increasingly lethal and traumatic endeavor for the men and women who face constant threats to their lives and psyches. With the death toll skyrocketing from only two reporters killed in World War I to almost a journalist a week being killed in the last two decades, UNDER FIRE weaves together portraits, battlefield accounts and combat footage to reveal what the reporters see, think and feel. Martyn Burke, documentary filmmaker whose work has brought him to battlefields around the world, and Anthony Feinstein, the psychiatrist who works with journalists to heal the trauma, delve into the experiences of top tier correspondents from AP, New York Times, BBC, and LA Times, among others, bringing a unique understanding and insight into the psychological cost of covering war
CHOOSING CHILDREN is a pioneering film about parenting in non-traditional families and helped to open dialogue about the meaning and reality of the "modern family." This film takes an intimate look at the issues faced by lesbians and gay men who decide to become parents after coming out.
A perpetual state of welfare exists in the U.S., creating a form of modern slavery for a large percentage of African-Americans. Rev. C.L. Bryant presents an insightful and compelling look at how freedom can be restored.
Filmmaker Paul Saltzman (Prom Night in Mississippi) presents the world premiere of his latest work. A former Civil Rights worker and 1960s activist, Saltzman returns to Mississippi to encounter the man who once assaulted him — Byron "Delay" De La Beckwith, a KKK member and the son of the man convicted of murdering Medgar Evers — in this affecting documentary about racism, the South and the possibility of reconciliation. (TIFF)
Oma & Bella is an intimate glimpse into the world of Regina Karolinski (Oma) and Bella Katz, two friends who live together in Berlin. Having survived the Holocaust and then stayed in Germany after the war, it is the food they cook together that they remember their childhoods, maintain a bond to each other and answer questions of heritage, memory and identity. As the film follows them through their daily lives, a portrait emerges of two women with a light sense of humor, vivid stories, and a deep fondness for good food. Created by Oma's granddaughter Alexa, the film captures their ongoing struggle to retain a part of their past while remaining very much engaged in the present.
Famed for her extraordinary vocal range and uncanny ability to reach the emotional core of a song, We Will Always Love You pays tribute to that magnificent body of work and takes a closer look at the woman who brought it to life.Blessed with a once-in-a-lifetime talent and nurtured as an artist by legendary mentors Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston's life had all of the makings of a modern fairytale and, in many ways, it was. The singer scored a remarkable ten #1 hit singles, and even made a successful transition to the silver screen in The Bodyguard, for which she recorded her immortal version of 'I Will Always Love You'. However, behind the beautiful face and the girl next-door charm that endeared her to millions of fans, there lurked a vulnerability that brought a searing intensity to her music and, eventually, tragedy into her life.Now, for the first time on DVD, the complete saga of Whitney Houston's glorious career.
Swedish filmmaker Mikael Kristersson directs this austere yet beautiful experimental documentary about two European falcons. Shot over the course of two years, Kristersson manages to fashion a narrative without the use of voice-overs or music, showing the falcons as they forage for food and tend to their eggs. Much of this film, though, is spent viewing the world from the falcons' vantage point -- high up on a 13th century church steeple, watching the groundskeeper tending to the village cemetery and the choir boys growing tired of a long religious procession. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi