IT CAME FROM AQUARIUS RECORDS tells the story about the San Francisco based independent record store, Aquarius Records. Having closed in 2016 after 47 years, this small apartment-sized store championed local, underground, independent, and challenging music to the masses – most memorably with their infamous bi-weekly, college essay-length, new-release lists. Six years in the making, interviewing collectors, musicians, and store owners, the film has a very personal angle, with lots of behind-the-scenes footage (and drama) that shows both the joy and excruciating stress that comes with running — and closing — a store like this, helped in no part by the changing city around them.
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In 1972, Miyuki tells her ex-lover Kazuo that she’s going to Okinawa with their son. Kazuo decides to film her. He narrates his visits to her there: first while her flatmate is Sugako, a woman Miyuki is attracted to; then, while she works at a bar and is with Paul, an African-American soldier. Once, Kazuo brings his girlfriend, Sachiko. We see Miyuki with her son, with other bar girls, and with Sachiko. Miyuki, pregnant, returns to Tokyo and delivers a mixed-race child on her own with Kazuo and Sachiko filming. She joins a women’s commune, talks about possibilities, enjoys motherhood, and is uninterested in a traditional family. Does the filmmaker have a point of view?
“A Film About Coffee” is a love letter to, and meditation on, specialty coffee. It examines what it takes, and what it means, for coffee to be defined as “specialty.” The film whisks audiences on a trip around the world, from farms in Honduras and Rwanda to coffee shops in Tokyo, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco and New York. Through the eyes and experiences of farmers and baristas, the film offers a unique overview of all the elements-the processes, preferences and preparations; traditions old and new-that come together to create the best cups. This is a film that bridges gaps both intellectual and geographical, evoking flavor and pleasure, and providing both as well.
Filmmaker Kevin Macdonald examines the life and career of singer Whitney Houston. Features never-before-seen archival footage, exclusive recordings, rare performances and interviews with the people who knew her best.
“McConkey,” a 90-minute documentary to be released in 2013, is a heartfelt examination of the legacy one athlete left to the progression of his sports, and the path he paved to conquer his dreams. Shane McConkey is revered as the pioneer of freeskiing and ski base jumping, and through his talent and unique outlook on life, he inspired countless lives. In a new film from Red Bull Media House in association with Matchstick Productions, “McConkey” celebrates the life of one of the world’s ultimate innovators
The discovery of woolly mammoth remains raises important questions.
James Castrission and Justin Jones, dare to not only tackle the perilous journey across Antarctica to the South Pole and return, but to do it completely unassisted – no sled dogs, no wind kites, just two men dragging their food, their shelter and themselves across 1140 kilometres of barren ice. And back again. As they battle frostbite, hypothermia, crevasses and starvation over three months of torture in the harshest place on Earth, Cas and Jonesy discover their limits, the nature of sportsmanship and the boundaries of the human spirit.
Cuba’s enforced isolation has resulted in the unlikeliest of marine reserves: a huge, rambling archipelago known as Jardines de la Reina, or “Gardens of the Queen.” Stretching around 140 miles along the southern coast of Cuba, it’s one of the longest barrier reef systems in the world. Get an up-close look at Fidel Castro’s diving playground, a forgotten ocean paradise unseen for half a century, and witness exotic species rarely seen elsewhere in the region. It’s the lost jewel of the Caribbean, but how long can this pristine wilderness survive?
Four brave women set out to row across the Pacific Ocean from America to Australia.
Erbarme dich – Matthäus Passion Stories is a labyrinthine narrative in which notables such as Peter Sellars, Emio Greco, Simon Halsey and painter Rinke Nijburg explain their special relationship with Bach’s St Matthew Passion to Ramón Gieling (Johan Cruijff: en un momento dado). They speak against the backdrop of a church which has fallen into disrepair, while a choir of homeless people and Pieter Jan Leusink’s Bach Choir & Orchestra rehearse the Passion. Leusink isn’t just the conductor, he is one of the main characters himself, with a painful past in which this musical piece has played a dominant role. Stories from the others alternate seamlessly with this. We learn how the St Matthew Passion played a decisive role in the relations between men and women, fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, mothers and their unborn children, and finally that in spite of our differences we all find a common denominator in the secret of Bach’s music.
Elizabeth Windsor tells the story of the girl who was never supposed to be Queen. Born the first daughter of ‘the spare’, the Duke of York, Princess Elizabeth’s life was destined to be nothing more than a bit part in the privileged shadows of the British Royal family.
A landmark court decision in Massachusetts allows gay people in that state to marry – forcing activists, legislators, and ordinary people to reconsider how they view same-sex relationships.
In 1969 at a concert in Monterey James Brown announced his intention to retire from touring but it wasn’t until 1975 that he finally stopped. Then in 1979 three young television producers convinced him to make a comeback performance. This outstanding concert was captured and then due to unfortunate circumstances the videotapes were locked in a vault for twelve years and only now can they be seen.