NYC PREMIERE Havana, Cuba. An up-and-coming singer searches for confidence, a young woman in love longs for motherhood and a veteran of the Revolution comes to terms with the death of her husband. Three women, united by blindness and a desire for independence, guide us through Cuba’s current economic and social landscape while pursuing their […]
NYC PREMIERE Since her death from a heroin overdose in 1970 at age 27, Janis Joplin has been a ubiquitous presence on posters, t-shirts and classic rock radio. This documentary transforms the icon back into a human being. The film excavates unseen material, interviews Joplin’s confidants and uncovers personal letters. The resulting portrait gives us […]
US PREMIERE Sharon Jones is a true soul survivor. She’s been called “the female James Brown” for the energy she brings to the stage backed by her band The Dap-Kings. In Miss Sharon Jones!, we follow her on an emotional journey as she goes through chemotherapy and struggles to mount a comeback show at New […]
NYC PREMIERE An intimate look into the lives of ‘Unlocking the Truth’, an up and coming heavy metal band who’s members are middle schoolers between the ages of 11 & 12. Follow them as they rehearse in a cramped basement after school, talk about their life styles and how others in school view them, right up […]
NYC PREMIERE Andrew & Wendy is a 30 minute documentary film that tells the story of a New York upper West Side couple at a crisis point. Andrew, who is in a coma, is not responding to anything and his prognosis is frighteningly bleak. Wendy’s inspired idea to play Bach for him actually brings him […]
Celebrating mentorship as much as music, Alan Hicks’s inspirational and poignant film explores the common bonds between a 92-year-old jazz legend and his 23-year-old protégé. In his storied career, Clark Terry has played with luminaries like Count Basie and Duke Ellington, and counts Quincy Jones and Miles Davis among his past pupils. Now, as he […]
During the fertile early years of Drew Associates following the breakthrough of Primary, came this seldom-seen portrait of David Allen, a jazz trumpeter struggling in the Santa Monica drug rehabilitation center Synanon House. Pennebaker’s love of music drew him to David and the film prefigures later portraits such as Dont Look Back. He teamed with […]
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster requires no affinity for heavy metal music to appreciate the many pleasures of this documentary classic. Oscar-nominated filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky (Paradise Lost) follow the members of the band over several years as they engage in group therapy. Reviewing the film for the New […]
NYC PREMIERE Young love—and heartbreak—is captured through a tailor-made soundtrack in Elvira Lind’s sweetly observed naturalistic portrait. 18-year-old hopeless romantic Ryan writes songs about his 16-year-old girlfriend Alexis as the couple navigates a long-distance relationship between Long Island and San Francisco. But in contrast to his supportive family, Alexis’s father doesn’t approve of their relationship […]
WORLD PREMIERE As a teenager in the 1980s, Scott Crawford began a fanzine documenting the explosion of a distinctive brand of hardcore punk music in Washington, DC, exemplified by bands like Minor Threat, Bad Brains and Fugazi. Drawing from his own immersion in that world, and featuring a who’s who of musicians, label owners, photographers […]