In the middle of Australia’s divisive marriage equality vote, Melbourne hosted a gala event to honour and celebrate its LGBTIQ elders. These are their stories.
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Talan Skeels-Piggins was paralysed in 2003 when a car side-swiped him and he ploughed his motorbike head-on into oncoming traffic. He was told he had just a 30 percent chance of survival and would never walk again if he lived. Today, Talan and a team of three additional disabled riders continue to strap themselves to motorbikes and race against able bodied competitors in one of the most dangerous sports on the planet. In a 90 minute documentary, DREAM THE IMPOSSIBLE captures four unique and inspiring stories in a life-affirming message to never give up. The film follows the remarkable journey of the team Talan Racing as they embark on their first season together and make history as the world’s first disabled motorcycle race team.
Explore how Florida teenager Jahseh Onfroy became SoundCloud rapper XXXTENTACION, one of the most streamed artists on the planet. Through frank commentary from family, friends and romantic partners, and unseen archival footage, this documentary offers a sensitive portrayal of an artist whose acts of violence, raw musical talent and open struggles with mental health left an indelible mark on his generation before his death at the age of 20.
Born Strong is the story of the four strongest men on the planet. Each year, the Arnold Strongman Classic crowns the winner in the purest test of strength on the planet. This year’s Arnolds are unique with each of these four weighing more than 400 pounds. Lithuanian Zydrunas Savickas, 40, is the acknowledged Strongest Man Ever, who may have passed his prime. American Brian Shaw is the defending champion, a 6’8’, 425-pound giant who seems poised to take the crown. England’s Eddie Hall is “the hungry wolf, ” knocking on the door. “I’ll do anything, ” he says. “I’ll die, if I have to. ” Finally, there’s Icelander Hafthor Bjornsson, who plays the Mountain on Game of Thrones. He’s the youngest of the group, but with perhaps the greatest potential. “It’s great to see these Monsters, ” says Arnold Schwarzenegger, the host of the competition and a former bodybuilding champion. Born Strong revels in the drama when these remarkable giants clash.
An in-depth exploration of a seminal moment in DC music history (circa 1976 to 1984) and the rise of harDCore. The film is made up of a mix of rare archive material, conversational interviews, and a collage editing style. Features early DC punk and hardcore bands like Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Slickee Boys, The Faith and more.
This 3-D film chronicles the love, community, and life of festival-goers during Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas, the largest music festival in the U.S. Behind-the-scenes footage and exclusive interviews with Insomniac’s Pasquale Rotella reveal the magic that makes this three-night, 345,000-person event a global phenomenon.
Tommy Cooper was a national comedy institution whose catchphrases still remain in the language today. This bumbling giant with outsized feet and hands, whose mere entrance on stage had audiences erupting with uncontrollable laughter, was born in Caerphilly in 1921, where a statue is now erected in his honour – unveiled by Sir Anthony Hopkins. This programme looks at the life and art of the man in the fez, whose clumsy, fumbling stage magic tricks hid a real talent as a magician. His private life was complicated and often difficult, but as far as his audiences were concerned, he was first and foremost a clown whose confusion with the mechanisms of everyday life made for hilarious viewing.
Ludwig II of Bavaria, more commonly known by his nicknames the Swan King or the Dream King, is a legendary figure – the handsome boy-king, loved by his people, betrayed by his cabinet and found dead in tragic and mysterious circumstances. He spent his life in pursuit of the ideal of beauty, an ideal that found expression in three of the most extraordinary, ornate architectural schemes imaginable – the castle of Neuschwanstein and the palaces of Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee. Today, these three buildings are among Germany’s biggest tourist attractions. Dan Cruickshank explores the rich aesthetic of Ludwig II – from the mock-medievalism of Neuschwanstein, the iconic fairytale castle that became the inspiration for the one in Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, to the rich Baroque splendour of Herrenchiemsee, Ludwig’s answer to Versailles. Dan argues that Ludwig’s castles are more than flamboyant kitsch and are, in fact, the key to unravelling the eternal enigma of Ludwig II.
‘Hitting the Apex’ is the inside story of six fighters – six of the fastest motorcycle racers of all time – and of the fates that awaited them at the peak of the sport. It’s the story of what is at stake for all of them: all that can be won, and all that can be lost, when you go chasing glory at over two hundred miles an hour – on a motorcycle.
Documentary which uses the latest, most detailed imagery to reveal the monthly life cycle of the moon. From Wales to Wyoming, Hong Kong to Croydon, the programme finds out how the moon shapes life on Earth, as well as exploring its mysterious dark side and discovering how the moon’s journey around Earth delivers one of nature’s most awe-inspiring events – a total solar eclipse. And at the end of a remarkable year of lunar activity, we find out why so many supermoons have been lighting up the night sky.
The story of what daily life was like in Poland under communism: private conversations, cruel interrogations, recruitment attempts, recorded and filmed with hidden devices; of how the secret services spied on every activity of ordinary citizens: nothing escaped the brutal system of control developed by the Soviets in the name of freedom.
World War II was not just the most destructive conflict in humanity, it was also the greatest theft in history: lives, families, communities, property, culture and heritage were all stolen. The story of Nazi Germany’s plundering of Europe’s great works of art during World War II and Allied efforts to minimize the damage.
This intimate ethnographic study of Voudoun dances and rituals was shot by Maya Deren during her years in Haiti (1947-1951); she never edited the footage, so this “finished” version was made by Teiji Ito and Cherel Ito after Deren’s death.