Miriam Makeba was one of the first African musicians who won international stardom and whose music was always anchored in her traditional South African roots. Miriam Makeba was forced into exile in 1959. She sang for John F. Kennedy, performed with Harry Belafonte and Nina Simone, was married to Hugh Masekela and also Stokely Carmichael. Her life was tumultuous. She always stood for truth and justice. She fought for the oppressed most importantly for black Africans, as a campaigner against apartheid. She died November 2008 after a concert in Italy. Mika Kaurismäki’s documentary, traces fifty years of her music and her performing life. Through rare archive footage of her performances and through interviews with her contemporaries we discover the remarkable journey of Miriam Makeba.
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Dave Navarro is a trauma survivor of the highest order. When Dave was only 15 years old his mother was brutally murdered by her estranged ex-boyfriend. For 8 long years her killer avoided capture while Dave dealt with his deepest, darkest fears through drugs, art and escapism. In a heartbreaking, inspirational journey, Dave confronts the events that changed his life forever. Through revelations from friends and family, to the cold hard facts from police and FBI agents, Dave attempts to come to terms with his mother’s senseless murder and the horrific realities of domestic violence.
Before forensics, DNA, and CSI we had dollhouses – an unimaginable collection of miniature crime scenes, known as the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death. Created in the 1930s and 1940s by a crime-fighting grandmother, Frances Glessner Lee created the Nutshells to help homicide detectives hone their investigative skills. These surreal dollhouses reveal a dystopic and disturbing slice of domestic life with doll corpses representing actual murder victims, or perhaps something that just looks like murder. Despite all the advances in forensics, the Nutshells are still used today to train detectives. Documentary film, Of Dolls and Murder, explores the dioramas, the woman who created them, and their relationship to modern day forensics. From the iconic CSI television show to the Body Farm and criminally minded college students, legendary filmmaker and true crime aficionado, John Waters narrates the tiny world of big time murder.
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In an invisible territory at the margins of society, at the border between anarchy and illegality, lives a wounded community that is trying to respond to a threat: of being forgotten by political institutions and having their rights as citizens trampled. Disarmed veterans, taciturn adolescents, drug addicts trying to escape addiction through love, ex-special forces soldiers still at war with the world, floundering young women and future mothers, and old people who have not lost their desire to live. Through this hidden pocket of humanity, the door opens to the abyss of today’s America.
Salam is a feature length documentary about the Nobel prize winning Pakistani physicist, Abdus Salam. The film reveals the extraordinary life of the charismatic Abdus Salam, in all its color, vitality and tragedy. It is the story of a man who traversed two worlds with ease: one of science and religion, modernity and tradition, war and peace and obscurity and celebrity.
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Filmed live during Morrissey’s most intimate gig in decades at the Hollywood High School in Los Angeles on 2 March 2013, this is the first authorised Morrissey film for nine years and marks 25 years of the solo career of one of the world’s most iconic and enigmatic performers. The film opens with fans talking about their unwavering devotion to the singer and the unique appeal of this unusual venue – a striking contrast to the sold out arena concert at the Staples Center on the previous night. Tickets to the concert in the 1,800-seater school auditorium were sold out in 12 seconds and this now legendary concert became Morrissey’s penultimate performance on the US Tour. Featuring many classic tracks from the artist’s prolific repertoire including Meat Is Murder, Everyday Is Like Sunday, Please, Please Please Let Me Get What I Want and The Boy With The Thorn In His Side, Morrissey 25: Live is an unmissable cinema event for fans worldwide.
