Performing Arts
Expanding on footage of Monk’s 1967 tour shot by Christian Blackwood, Charlotte Zwering (Gimme Shelter) has created the definitive filmic portrait of the master bop pianist-composer. This captivating DVD digs deeper into the life of the famously eccentric pianist-composer than the Ken Burns’s tepid coffeetable documentary Jazz ever thought to.
In this exquisite concert film directed by Jonathan Demme, Neil Young expresses modest hopes for his two-night stint at Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium, the home of the original Grand Ole Opry. He states he wants to “play well, share the stage with my friends, and let the muse have us.” He succeeds magnificently, as does Demme, who keeps the music and
Some unsung heroes of pop music get long-overdue recognition in Standing in the Shadows of Motown, a heartfelt documentary directed by Paul Justman. They called themselves the Funk Brothers, a talented group of a dozen or so musicians who were recruited by Berry Gordy from the jazz and blues clubs of Detroit to record the musical tracks for Gordy’s Motown label.
At a time when independent artists in the music industry have more power and control over their careers than ever before, “What is INDIE?” tries to determine just what it really means to be ‘indie’. The film features interviews with indie music experts including Panos Panay, Derek Sivers and Suzanne Glass, as well as with 20 artists including Penny Lang, Ember Swift and
Cirque du Soleil is considered a stunning concept in modern performance art and circus craft. There are no dancing bears here, though there are a few clowns. The performers are all human and each exhibits a superhuman ability at acrobatic feats and the ability to spread awe or mirth over the spectators. Quidam is the featured Cirque du Soleil extravaganza in this
This DVD of Pare Lorentz’s remarkable agitprop documentaries… bring to light not only the poetry of their scripts… but also the spare elegance of Virgil Thomson’s music. The Plow That Broke the Plainscontains a new performance of Virgil Thomson’s renowned score for the film from the 1930s. Conductor Angel Gil-Ordonez showcases Thomson’s material from that film as
Elvis Presley was a man who knew how to rise to a challenge, and, in 1973, his manager, Col. Tom Parker, came up with one of the biggest stunts of their career — staging a live concert in Hawaii that would be beamed by satellite for TV broadcast in 40 countries to a global audience of 1.5 billion people. Elvis responded with a typically dynamic show, and this home video
TDF (Top Documentary Films) is basically "one man show" (driven by one enthusiast) and the content here is created with a passion for documentary films. The site is in open form and it is allowing readers to add comments about documentary films they like or dislike... more
