WORLD PREMIERE Gazi “Dusty” Simelane and Linda “Stones” are country music singers living in Swaziland. The film captures their wondrous ten-day road trip through the American south, gifting us with great music and leaving us questioning the intersectional issues of race, power, and whether any demographic can lay claim to country music, or any other […]
NYC PREMIERE A drum master from Japan and a Korean adoptee from Minnesota boldly convene an all-female troupe to perform Taiko, the Japanese drumming art that has been off-limits to women for centuries. As the early menace of Covid rumbles in the background, the group faces down hurdles to prepare for a historic performance in […]
NYC PREMIERE If you listen to 1970s pop music, you’ve undoubtedly heard these guys play, but do you know their names? This documentary highlights five talented men—Danny, Leland, Rus, Waddy, and Steve— who shunned the spotlight for themselves yet enjoyed decades of success as session musicians on iconic tracks. Interviewees include their collaborators James Taylor, […]
WORLD PREMIERE Roberta Flack’s place in music history was assured when she became the first artist to win back-to-back Grammy Awards for Record of the Year with “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” (1973) and “Killing Me Softly with His Song” (1974). The depth and complexity of her lyrical and thematic choices, as […]
NYC PREMIERE Blues and soul singer Lee Fields’ career spans 50 years, from his early days playing Harlem clubs to stints with Kool & the Gang and Sharon Jones, to inspiring today’s rappers Travis Scott and A$ap Rocky. Despite comparisons to James Brown, Lee is his own man: loving husband, dynamic performer, and oh, that […]
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE Three children from the impoverished Venezuelan district of Las Brisas channel their pain and joy into music as part of a unique, government-sponsored orchestral music program, El Sistema. For ten years, as her native Venezuela gradually collapsed in the background, director Marianela Maldonado followed the students, developing an intimacy that gives their […]
NYC PREMIERE Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso) crafts a portrait of the legendary composer Ennio Morricone. With a treasure trove of footage and interviews with directors, screenwriters, musicians, songwriters, critics and collaborators including Hans Zimmer, Bernardo Bertolucci, Oliver Stone, Quentin Tarantino, and Bruce Springsteen, the film is an extraordinary tribute to the man and his legacy. […]
WORLD PREMIERE In Santiago de Cuba, rival conga bands scour the sparse marketplace for materials to create show-stopping numbers for the annual Carnival competition. O’Reilly’s film follows young, innovative Lázaro, who is determined to beat “the Shark,” his older and more establishment-favored competitor. Tensions build and tempers flare as the government restrictions and scarcity of […]
NYC PREMIERE The challenges of getting accepted to top colleges for today’s American high schoolers are captured by two Sacramento teachers in a new original musical theater production that speaks to the present moment like nothing else. As schools from Silicon Valley to West Virginia to The Bronx’s Fordham High School for the Arts mount […]
WORLD PREMIERE Patriarch of the famed “First Family of Jazz,” Ellis Marsalis was a master jazz pianist, composer and educator. This intimate documentary delves into the life and career of this music icon, interlaced with rare footage of key moments in US history, and footage of his final live performances. Anecdotes from sons Wynton, Branford, […]