In 1970s New York, Martha Cooper captured the birth of the global graffiti art movement. Decades later, she is celebrated as the an icon, and at 75 years of age she continues to document not only the dynamic street art and graffiti movement but has also produced decades of photographs that capture the humanity and joy of people living on the fringes of society, within subcultures that, if not for Martha, would remain unseen.
Quest of the Muscle Nerd is a quirky and heartwarming documentary about one man’s dream to host the first ever Bodybuilding/Cosplay competition and the two men who drag their bodies through hell to claim the crown.
For 20 years indie record store Other Music was an influential hub of music culture in NYC. Featuring Vampire Weekend, Animal Collective, Interpol and more, the film reminds us that the spirit of the much-loved destination will live on.
SUZI Q is the definitive, unexpurgated story of American rock singer-songwriter -bass player- author- actor Suzi Quatro, who helped redefine the role of women in rock ‘n’ roll when she broke out into the mainstream 1973; has sold more than 50 million records worldwide; is still on the road and recording 55 years after she first started playing professionally. The film includes testimony from a host of rock luminaries, including Alice Cooper, Joan Jett, Deborah Harry, Cherie Currie, KT Tunstall, Tina Weymouth and Suzi’s musical family; and follows Quatro as she returns to her hometown, Detroit.
Cypher is a fictional pseudo-music documentary about the artist Tierra Whack and the conspiracy theory that secret societies run the music world.
Stephen Smith explores the extraordinary life and work of the virtuoso jeweller Carl Faberge. He talks to HRH Prince Michael of Kent about Faberge items in the Royal Collection and to Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, who spent $100 million acquiring nine exquisite Faberge eggs. The bejewelled trinkets Faberge made for the last tsars of Russia in the twilight of their rule have become some of the most sought-after treasures in the world, sometimes worth millions. Smith follows in Faberge’s footsteps, from the legendary Green Vaults in Dresden to the palaces of the tsars and the corridors of the Kremlin museum, as he discovers how this fin de siecle genius transformed his father’s modest business into the world’s most famous supplier of luxury items.
Chris Hemsworth seeks to understand the reason behind the increase in local shark attacks and the different species and behaviors of sharks.
The documentary covers Oppenheimer’s contribution to nuclear physics as a professor and leader of the Los Alamos Laboratory.
In 1981, young Issei Sagawa of Japan murdered a Dutch student in Paris and ate part of his body. Declared mentally ill, he did not face a normal trial, and after spending two years in a French clinic, he returned to Japan. There he wrote a book, published a manga about his crime and even appeared in pornography. In an attempt to unravel the dark motives that led him to cannibalism, the anthropologists and film-makers Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor perform in ‘Caniba’, their third full-length film, an atypical and sensory portrait of Sagawa, who more than thirty-five years after the events in Paris, lives suffering a paralysis that keeps him partially immobilized.
The Elvis’s ’68 Comeback Special is another incredible treasure trove of footage documenting a high point of the King’s career and a milestone of televised musical performances. Taped and broadcast in 1968 after Elvis had seemingly abandoned live performing in favor of a movie career, the ’68 Comeback Special was a remarkably intimate show, Elvis singing his old songs on a small stage, often alone, surrounded on all sides by a rapt audience. The show’s numbers fall into three general categories: the black leather stand-up shows, in which Elvis performs solo on stage; the black leather sit-down shows, in which Elvis jams with former bandmates Scotty Moore and D.J. Fontana and others; and big production numbers, often overdone and now looking as dated as any other 1960s variety show.
