Artistic endeavour isn’t about competing; even so, applicants still have to be placed in order of merit at the academy’s entrance exams. But how do you assess artistic talent? And what role can art play in today’s world? A layered, observational documentary which presents a portrait of an institution and a light generational statement in one.
Since the 1960s, the Rolling Stones, the incarnation of "sex, drugs and rock'n'roll", have had a special relationship with France. From the chaotic concert at the Salle Vallier in Marseille in 1966, to the recording of "Exile on Main Street", their album written under the influence in a villa on the Côte d'Azur, to Mick Jagger's mythical wedding in Saint-Tropez, the British rock band has lived through some crazy French years. Never-before-seen images and interviews with collaborators, rock critics and musicians lift the veil on the Stones' passionate relationship with France.
Extending a lifetime’s worth of zero-waste activism, visionary designer Bakker devises the Future Food System, a self-sufficient residence that provides shelter, food and energy while reusing any by-products as fuel or fertiliser. Joined by esteemed chefs Matt Stone and Jo Barrett, he works with a team of builders, engineers, and experts in agriculture, aquaponics and biochemistry to realise the project at Melbourne’s Fed Square – culminating in the launch of a unique farm-to-table restaurant.
As a transgender woman in Texas, Frankie Gonzales-Wolfe expected to encounter resistance to her campaign for city council. She did not anticipate questioning her relationship to identity, activism and civic engagement. On the campaign trail, she finds herself on an unexpected journey of self-discovery and healing.
“Luminous” tells the story of the first astronomer in history to publicly predict the near-future explosion of a star. But will he be right? Others in the astronomical community are skeptical, and professional reputations hang in the balance. In production since 2014, “Luminous” follows Calvin College astronomy professor Larry Molnar’s five-year journey to test his unprecedented prediction, knowing that its success or failure will unfold squarely in the international spotlight.
Lift shines a spotlight on the invisible story of homelessness in America through the eyes of a group of young homeless and home-insecure ballet dancers in New York City and the mentor that inspires them.
In the golden age of documentaries, who benefits? SUBJECT reveals the unintended consequences – good, bad, and complicated – of having your life shared on screen. Featuring the protagonists of acclaimed documentaries The Staircase, Hoop Dreams, The Wolfpack, Capturing the Friedmans, and The Square, as well as the filmmakers of Minding the Gap, Cameraperson, An Inconvenient Truth, and more.
May Pang lovingly recounts her life in rock & roll and the whirlwind 18 months spent as friend, lover, and confidante to one of the towering figures of popular culture, John Lennon, in this funny, touching, and vibrant portrait of first love.
Dewayne Johnson, a Bay Area groundskeeper, suffered from rashes in 2014 and wondered if they were caused by the herbicide he'd been using for the past couple years. As his health deteriorated, Johnson became the face of a David-and-Goliath legal battle to hold a multi-national agrochemical corporation accountable for a product with allegedly misleading labelling.
This is Not Me tells the story of unhappy gay men who have had to marry women to hide their sexual orientation in the face of societal and family pressure in Turkey, and their own internal conflicts. The three main characters of the film, Mustafa, Mehmet and Yusuf migrated to Istanbul from small towns and come from conservative families. The film reveals each characters’ world: exhausted from continually playing at social roles and lying about their identity, faltering between their reality and their dreams, frustrated and stuck in their lives. It also looks at the subject from the aspect of women who are the other victims of these marriages. Mehmet and Yusuf, both married to women, act the part of heterosexual males and family men within their own social circles.
A filmmaker unearths a pervasive history of multigenerational trauma in her Italian-American family. As decades of secrets, home movies, and long-avoided conversations surface, a family once bound by tradition forges a new path forward.
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing taught millions globally, but the software's Haitian-born cover model vanished decades ago. Two DIY detectives search for the model while posing questions about identity and artificial intelligence.
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.
Whoopi Goldberg is an award-winning comedian actress and human rights advocate. She has achieved amazing success in the entertainment industry. From the streets of New York to the stage of Broadway and the Hollywood Walk of Fame, this is her story.
A Yazidi refugee camp in Iraqi Kurdistan is home tomore than 20,000 refugees, many of whom are victims of terrorist attacks by ISIS. Shilan is a young Kurdish nurse who volunteered to take care of them. Every tent in the camp has a story, and Shilan takes the responsibility of hearing the refugees out, empathising with the pain they are suffering. One day Shilan hears about a tent where a woman is refusing to eat her food or have any sort of contact with the outside. She decides to take action.
WORST TO FIRST is a feature-length documentary that portrays the against-all-odds inspirational story of the launch of the iconic and most successful radio station in history, New York City's Z100.
A hybrid doc/narrative following Tony winning performer and comedian Sarah Jones. As a mixed-race Black woman in America, Sarah, alongside the multicultural characters she's known for, explores her own personal relationship to one of the most relevant issues in our current cultural climate: the sex industry, and the surprisingly diverse range of people whose lives it touches. Through interviews and monologues, this film poses the question: how can we as a society have a healthy relationship to sex, power, race and our economy, without exploitation or stigma? The goal is not to prescribe solutions, but to highlight the human faces and voices at the center of this subject.