The Accordian Kings
2010 · 73m · Documentary
Once every decade in a small Colombian village, musicians engage in a fierce battle for the title of the Accordion King. Travel down to Colombia, and go behind the scenes of the Vallenato Kings Festival where, each April, the world's greatest accordionists assemble to perform, compete, and celebrate the squeezebox. Meet the players and hear their stories, including professors of the Turco Gil Academy, where over two thousand children dedicate themselves to their instrument, and Yeime, a young girl who overcame cultural stereotypes to become the first woman to win the competition in over forty years.
More Like This
Los Primeros Ensayos del Cine Parlante Nacional
1937
The first Colombian film with synchronous optical sound.
More info →
Bluegrass Country Soul
1972
Capturing the sights, sounds, and magic of Carlton Haney’s 1971 Labor Day Festival in Camp Springs, North Carolina; a three-day outdoor festival—the first of its kind—featuring bluegrass veterans and future stars alike sharing the primitive wood and cinder block stage. More than just capturing one of the largest bluegrass festivals of that decade, this documentary is also an interesting mixture of live performances, interviews, impromptu jam sessions and crowd footage of live music set in a small town surrounded by the now long gone red clay and tobacco shacks of North Carolina.
More info →
Snake Man
2014 · ★ 5.7
It is with an old bus an about thirty snakes that Franz Florez struggles for the preservation of nature in Colombia, one of the most environmentally diverse country in the world. His snakes are his pass to enter the deep jungle, where guerrillas fight the regular army and where narco-traffickers meet coca growers. Facing the threat of the industrial exploitation of these preserved areas, he tries to gather support among the population, including the armed actors.
More info →
Live from Bonnaroo Music Festival 2002
2002 · ★ 8
The Bonnaroo Music Festival first turned up on the radar of the mainstream press and music industry when it posted some remarkable numbers in the spring of 2002. Folks in the know wondered how could a first-time event in rural Tennessee sell out all 70,000 of its tickets in a matter of days, with no advertising except email and word of mouth. And why would anyone, with the riots of Woodstock '99 a not-too-distant memory, even attempt such an event. The answer is that Bonnaroo, staged on a green expanse of Tennessee farmland June 21-23 2002, is the apotheosis of a movement that has quietly gained momentum for over a decade, existing as a parallel music universe.
More info →
Jaguar: Voice of a Territory
2021 · ★ 7
Jaguar voice of a territory is a Colombian production that took a decade to complete. It talks about love, affection, respect, humility, temperance and courage. It talks about balance with oneself and the other. It is the voice of a territory and a tradition where the jaguar dwells and seeks to be heard. It is a tour through the mountains, jungles and plains where the jaguar has directly engaged with humans, creating a millenary journey of chants, myths and cultural traditions which narrate the history of the man-jaguar relationship, and speak to the importance of preserving this species which finds itself severely threatened.
More info →Whoop Dreams
2014
A documentary covering the 2013 Gathering of the Juggalos in Cave-In-Rock, IL.
More info →Bluegrass Journey
2004 · ★ 8.5
This passionate and affecting performance documentary celebrates the virtuoso artistry and joyous community of contemporary bluegrass music. Musically depicting many of the traditional roots and some of the more far-reaching branches of the genre by employing verite footage, thoughtful interviews, and vividly captured extended performances to weave a seamless tapestry that transports and enraptures the devoted fan and newcomer alike.
More info →
The Pan-African Festival in Algiers
1969 · ★ 6
Festival panafricain d'Alger is a documentary by William Klein of the music and dance festival held 40 years ago in the streets and in venues all across Algiers. Klein follows the preparations, the rehearsals, the concerts… He blends images of interviews made to writers and advocates of the freedom movements with stock images, thus allowing him to touch on such matters as colonialism, neocolonialism, colonial exploitation, the struggles and battles of the revolutionary movements for Independence.
More info →
Long Live Rock... Celebrate the Chaos
2021 · ★ 6.2
Featuring exclusive interviews with the leading titans of rock that include: Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Slipknot, Korn, Avenged Sevenfold, Rob Zombie, Five Finger Death Punch, Prophets Of Rage, Greta Van Fleet, Halestorm, and many, many more, "Long Live Rock" is a deep dive into the fandom of this often misunderstood but beloved genre of music.
More info →
The Red Elvis
2007 · ★ 7.2
A documentary on the late American entertainer Dean Reed, who became a huge star in East Germany after settling there in 1973.
More info →
The Order Of Israfel - Live At Sweden Rock Festival June 3rd 2015
2016 · ★ 10
Swedish metal band The Order Of Israfel perform a selection of songs off their first album 'Wisdom' at the Sweden Rock Festival on June 3rd, 2015.
More info →
Plains: Testimony of an Ethnocide
1971 · ★ 6.7
A documentary on the massacre of Planas in the Colombian east plains in 1970. An Indigenous community formed a cooperative to defend their rights from settlers and colonists, but the government organized a military operation to protect the latter and foreign companies.
More info →