Top Rated Music Movies on Kanopy - Page 32

Noble Sissle's Syncopated Ragtime

2018

Noble Sissle's Syncopated Ragtime

2018
Combining footage unseen since WWI with original scores from the era, this film tells the story of Noble Sissle's incredible journey that spans "The Harlem Hellfighters" of World War I, Broadway Theatre, the Civil Rights movement, and decades of Black cultural development.
Treasure of the Lisu

2010

Treasure of the Lisu

2010
In a mountain village in southwestern China, just south of Tibet, one of the last remaining traditional bearers of the Lisu ethnic group is amid the mountains of new changes seeping into every crevice of their lives. Will their tradition survive?
HAM: A Musical Memoir

2019

HAM: A Musical Memoir

2019
In this dazzlingly filmed live performance of Sam Harris’s award-winning one-man musical, Harris belts out original songs and beloved ballads while playing 11 different roles to tell his own life story — from growing up gay in Oklahoma’s Bible Belt to his escape for Los Angeles, where his rendition of “Over the Rainbow” on Star Search led to fame, Broadway, television, platinum records, and Carnegie Hall. But after the highs and lows of a life in show business, Sam ultimately learns to ask: When is enough finally enough?
No Time for Quiet

2019

No Time for Quiet

2019
A group of young girls and gender-fluid youths discover the empowering strength of music through a GIRLS ROCK! camp in Melbourne.
WITCH: We Intend to Cause Havoc

2019

WITCH: We Intend to Cause Havoc

2019
The film follows the 21st Century formation of WITCH (We Intend To Cause Havoc), Zambia's most popular rock band of the 1970s, and documents the life of its lead singer, Jagari, whose name is an Africanisation of Mick Jagger's. Through the resurrection of a music that was forgotten by many and unheard by most, the film explores the life of a former African rock-star, and the excitement around the rediscovery of his music by Western fans, many of whom had yet to be born when his last album was released.
Her Second Mother

1940

Her Second Mother

1940
A young woman tries to repay her adoptive parents' kindness by shielding their biological child, who has gotten involved with an embezzler, from the police.
Fiddlin'

2019

Fiddlin'

2019
Sister filmmakers Julie Simone and Vicki Vlasic return to their Appalachian roots to film at the world's oldest Fiddler's Convention. With multiple generations jamming together, Fiddlin' is a love-letter to American roots and the uplifting power of music.
Ten Years in an Open Necked Shirt

1984

Ten Years in an Open Necked Shirt

1984
A portrait of Salford-born poet, storyteller and comic, John Cooper-Clarke. His poems, a satirical blend of humour and social comment, are delivered at a fast pace, often with musical backing. His style, and that of his contemporary Linton Kwesi Johnson, have influenced a generation of younger poets involved in a revival of popular poetry in Britain.
The Sensual Nature of Sound: 4 Composers Laurie Anderson, Tania Leon, Meredith Monk, Pauline Oliveros

1993

The Sensual Nature of Sound: 4 Composers Laurie Anderson, Tania Leon, Meredith Monk, Pauline Oliveros

1993
The Sensual Nature of Sound portrays four New York based composers and performers in terms of their musical lives and artistic passion. Though Laurie Anderson, Tania Leon, Meredith Monk and Pauline Oliveros are all pioneers in American music, each composer pursues a distinct direction of her own. Their rehearsals and performances show a common pursuit of lyrical storytelling through which a new set of contemporary narratives has been forged. Through body, sound, movement and composition, these women have forged their own path through the wild world of modern music.
Women Composers

2018

Women Composers

2018
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.
The Merry Wives of Windsor - Opéra Royal de Wallonie

2014

The Merry Wives of Windsor - Opéra Royal de Wallonie

2014
At the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège, stage director David Hermann and music director Christian Zacharias lead a production of Otto Nicolai's 1849 opera The Merry Wives of Windsor, a work that draws its inspiration from William Shakespeare's beloved eponymous play.
A Jumpin' Night in the Garden of Eden

1987

A Jumpin' Night in the Garden of Eden

1987
A Jumpin' Night in the Garden of Eden was the first film to document the klezmer revival, tracing the efforts of two founding groups, Kapelye and Boston's Klezmer Conservatory Band, to recover the lost history of klezmer music. For nearly a millennium, this vigorous and soulful music was part of the celebration of Jewish life in Eastern Europe. In the early decades of this century, the music took root in America. Klezmer musicians learned hundreds of tunes by ear and their ears were open to Gypsy, Ukrainian and Greek melodies of the old world, as well as to the new sounds of American jazz. Music born in Eastern Europe lived on in the imaginations of composers for New York's Yiddish theater, men whose tunes entered the mainstream through such unlikely adapters as the Andrew Sisters. Eventually Klezmer went underground as its audience assimilated into mainstream American culture.
The Harvest

2017

The Harvest

2017
Gurwinder comes from Punjab, he’s been working for years as a farm hand in Agro Pontino, not far from Rome. Since he first came in Italy, he’s been living with the rest of the Sikh community in Latina province. Hardeep is also Indian, but her stress is Roman, and she works as a cultural mediator. She, born and raised in Italy, is trying to free herself from the memories of a family that emigrated in another age, while he is forced, against his faith, to take methamphetamine and doping to bear the heavy work pace, to be able to send money in India.
Jazz a la Cuba

1933

Jazz a la Cuba

1933
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.
Wild Women Don't Have the Blues

1989

Wild Women Don't Have the Blues

1989
Recaptures the lives and times of Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ida Cox, Alberta Hunter, Ethel Waters, and the other legendary women who made blues music a vital part of American culture. The film brings together for the first time dozens of rare, classic renditions of the early blues.
Will Work for Views: The Lo-Fi Life of Weird Paul

2017

Will Work for Views: The Lo-Fi Life of Weird Paul

2017
A film exploring the life of “Weird Paul.” After 30 years, 2000 videos, 800 songs, & 42 albums, he’s still not giving up on his dream.
Mind Over Matter

2017

Mind Over Matter

2017
A young man born with Cerebral Palsy battles a paralyzed left hand, bullies and stereotypes about the disabled to defy the odds and make it as a rock and roll guitarist. Ultimately, sharing the stage with the very band that inspired him to start (or to achieve the impossible).
Vince Giordano: There's a Future in the Past

2017

Vince Giordano: There's a Future in the Past

2017
Bandleader Vince Giordano keeps the Jazz Age alive with his 11-member band The Nighthawks, vintage musical instruments, and a collection of more than 60,000 original arrangements from the 1920s and '30s.
Once Around the Sun

2012

Once Around the Sun

2012
AT LAST, the long-lost film inspired by Australia's first rock festival - The Pilgrimage For Pop Festival - at Ourimbah, near Sydney in 1970.
Silent Shakespeare

2000

Silent Shakespeare

2000
A BFI collection of 7 short films from the USA, England and Italy scored for Piano, Guitar and String Quartet.