NYC PREMIERE Elliott Smith was unexpectedly thrust into the mainstream spotlight when his song “Miss Misery” was nominated for an Oscar in 1998. He died just five years later, at the age of 34. Structured as both an expansive overview of the singer/songwriter’s life and as an elegiac city symphony focused on the influence of […]
NYC PREMIERE A fascinating exploration of history as reflected through a nation’s popular culture, John Pirozzi’s film excavates Cambodia’s lost era of American-inflected music. Just as traditional Cambodian songs took on a French colonial influence in the 1950s and ‘60s, the presence of US Armed Forces Radio during the Vietnam War inspired a fusion of funk, […]
NYC PREMIERE Commissioned to create a first-of-its-kind concerto for the banjo and an 80-piece symphony orchestra, virtuoso musician Béla Fleck faces an intensely personal challenge of collaboration and composition. Named after classical composers, can he live up to the legacy of his namesakes? Directed by Fleck and his brother Sascha Paladino, working together again after […]
WORLD PREMIERE In a rock band twist on the 7 Up series, Lucy Kostelanetz intermittently checks in on a white teen funk band—three brothers and their friend—whose plan of making it big in 1980s NYC didn’t exactly pan out. In 1983, Miller, Miller, Miller & Sloan seemed on the brink of stardom, with positive press […]
NYC PREMIERE Kathleen Hanna, known to many as the lead singer of seminal bands Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, was one of the music world’s most outspoken performers and a pioneer of the riot grrrl movement—until she inexplicably vanished from the scene for several years. Sini Anderson’s candid and intimate portrait reveals why, while also […]
WORLD PREMIERE Emerging from the first blast of 1977 U.K. punk rock, the Mekons were notorious, as critic Greil Marcus notes, for being “the band that took punk ideology most seriously.” Charting the group’s progression from socialist art students with no musical skills through its reinvention as rabble-rousing progeny of Hank Williams, the film reveals […]
NYC PREMIERE With millions of records sold, thousands of concerts all over the world, and countless fans (and detractors), Mercedes Sosa left behind an indelible legacy. Featuring unforgettable performances that span Sosa’s 60-year career and interviews with musicians like Pablo Milanés, Chico Buarque and David Byrne, this stirring portrait takes us on an in-depth, intimate […]
WORLD PREMIERE The Reverend Gary Davis, blind since infancy, honed his music in North Carolina’s blues scene before moving to Harlem in the 1940s, preaching and performing on street corners. The 1960s folk revival saw a renewed interest in the virtuoso guitarist, culminating in a memorable performance at the Newport Folk Festival. This tribute gives […]
NYC PREMIERE A love letter to a musical genre and an intimate portrait of working artists in America, Sara Terry’s film explores the understated but thriving subculture of folk music. While its mass appeal peaked in the 1960s, musicians like Raina Rose, Hilary Claire Adamson, and Dirk Hamilton—ranging in age from 30 to 60—are still […]
NYC PREMIERE Sonia runs the Okutiuka orphanage in Huambo, Angola’s second largest city, nearly decimated by decades of civil war. Her boyfriend, Wilker, is a death metal guitarist. To raise awareness and funds for the orphanage, the industrious couple organizes the country’s first-ever national rock concert, tapping into the unexpected healing power hardcore music can […]