Oscar (2016)
Brilliantly mixing animated sequences and archival footage, Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre paints a touching portrait of virtuoso pianist Oscar Peterson.
Brilliantly mixing animated sequences and archival footage, Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre paints a touching portrait of virtuoso pianist Oscar Peterson.
Oscar Peterson
Mark CamachoAdditional VoiceIn this rotoscope animation, Tom Waits sings about "The One That Got Away."
A documentary that explores the challenges that a life in music can bring.
The Life & Times of Bobby Keys ... decades-long Sax player with The Rolling Stones, best friend to Keith Richards, and session player with John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Delaney & Bonnie, George Harrison, Dr. John, Joe Cocker, Harry Nilsson, Ian McLagan, Keith Moon, Etta James, Ronnie Wood, Sheryl Crow, Ringo Starr, Joe Ely, Warren Zevon, Billy Preston, Donovan, Marvin Gaye, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Carly Simon, Barbra Streisand, John Hiatt, Yoko Ono and B.B. King.

When Werner Herzog was still a child, his father was beaten to death before his eyes. His mother was overwhelmed with his upbringing and thereupon shipped him off to one of the toughest youth welfare institutions in Freistatt. This was followed by a career as a bouncer in the city's most notorious music club and an attempt to start a family. Today, the 77-year-old from Bielefeld lives with his dog Lucky in a lonely house in the country. Despite adverse living conditions, he has survived in his own unique and inimitable way.
A video letter to Nancy Holt, made in homage to a shared interest in terminal lakes, framed views, monuments and time. Filmed on and around the Great Salt Lake, Mono Lake and Meteor Crater.
The documentary relates how in the second half of the 20th century the agent Berthold Barluschke was first a henchman of the State Security Service of the GDR and then of the West German Federal Intelligence Service.
This film tells the story of Markus Anatol Weisse, who, astonishingly enough, became an artist, in spite of being only very partially sighted. Markus also builds strange machine-like beings and wishes that he himself were a biological robot, or cyborg.

Set to a classic Duke Ellington recording "Daybreak Express", this is a five-minute short of the soon-to-be-demolished Third Avenue elevated subway station in New York City.

Passing the Torch documents a ninety year old Jazz master, Jimmy Heath, mentoring teenage musicians with a thirst for knowledge and an appreciation of America's homegrown art form, Jazz. Director Bret Primack captures Heath's gentle, humorous sharing of life lessons and the non-threatening way he guides aspiring artists to musical excellence. An esteemed mentor, Mr. Heath reaches a much younger generation by understanding his role, to be dependable, engaged, authentic, and finely tuned to their needs.

During the same summer as Woodstock, over 300,000 people attended the Harlem Cultural Festival, celebrating African American music and culture, and promoting Black pride and unity. The footage from the festival sat in a basement, unseen for over 50 years, keeping this incredible event in America's history lost — until now.

Pianist, entertainer and Grammy winner Chilly Gonzales performs traditional Christmas songs and new pop standards in this "Christmas Special." But there's no Christmas without family, so Gonzales has invited his musical gang to celebrate a special holiday with them. Because only together can they help Santa out of his impending depression. "A Very Chilly Christmas" takes the beloved old Christmas shows on TV as its model and subjects them to a contemporary makeover. For Santa, like all of us, has had an exhausting and challenging year. Overwhelmed by the world of goods and the consumer frenzy, he has to undergo therapy. So it's a good thing that Chilly Gonzales and his friends like Jarvis Cocker and Feist are on hand to help out musically. Because only together can they help Santa out of his impending depression and convince him to keep going - thus ending the year on a conciliatory note for him and all of us....

In the French music world, the beginning of the 2000s was marked by the arrival of a young rapper, Diam's. Over the course of three albums, she has become a phenomenon in France, as well as in many countries around the world. Diam's has won some of the most prestigious awards in French music, graced the covers of countless magazines, and sold millions of records. However, in 2010, at the height of her fame, Diam's made a life choice that shocked the French: she converted to Islam. How did a tortured and suicidal artist find her way to peace? For the first time Diam's, known to her family as Mélanie, tells us the real story.

In this short animation film we see a world, where the monkeys are music-lovers. As two young chimpanzees are separated by a musical dispute.

In her often pioneering work, historian Michelle Perrot has continually questioned the fate of those on the margins of our society, giving them a voice to break the silence of history. In her Histoire de chambres (History of Bedrooms), published in 2009, Michelle Perrot speaks in the first person for the first time. She explores the social and intimate role of bedrooms throughout history. Inspired by these reflections, Teri Wehn Damisch paints a "bedroom" portrait of the historian: we enter with Michelle Perrot into the bedrooms of the house in Nohant, where the rebel George Sand, her first heroine, lived. The defining events of her childhood, the awakening of her political consciousness, her daring research, her decisive encounters, her view of feminism: Michelle Perrot immerses us in the episodes that shaped her life as a free woman and placed her among the most influential intellectual figures of our time.

Impassivity and silence are Mads Mikkelsen's trademarks, and roles without reply his specialty. His sculptural allure is such that his mere presence takes on a dramatic dimension. For him, everything starts with the body. It's his main working tool, which he shapes and engages for each film. For the majority of world audiences, the Danish actor remains associated with his "villain" characters in Hollywood blockbusters - Casino Royale, Doctor Strange, Hannibal, Fantastic Beasts... Yet he finds with uncommon ease a balance between major American film franchises and more modest, confidential independent films. If the actor manages to move from one universe to another without being stereotyped, it's because he has a very physical - thanks to his former career as a gymnast - and pragmatic approach to his art.

"Ars longa, vita brevis" – art is long, life is short. This is one of Japanese music icon Ryuichi Sakamoto's favorite quotes, and the message that he leaves for viewers at the end of his final concert film, shot before he succumbed to cancer in March 2023. Consisting of only Sakamoto and his piano, Opus features the final live performances of 20 songs that Sakamoto meticulously curated to encapsulate his distinguished 40-year career.

A biographical film featuring the music and times of Bill Evans with interviews from Tony Bennett, Jack Dejohnette, Billy Taylor, Paul Motian, Jon Hendricks, Orin Keepnews, Bobby Brookmeyer, Pat Evans and more, including family and friends who knew Bill Evans well.

Atlanta musicians behind some of the biggest names in music embark on an uncertain journey into the spotlight with a new genre of music that fuses trap music with jazz.

"It must schwing!" was the motto of Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, two German Jewish immigrants who in 1939 set up Blue Note Records, the jazz label that was home to such greats as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins. Blue Note, the most successful movie ever made about jazz, is a testimony to the passion and vision of these two men and certainly swings like the propulsive sounds that made their label so famous.