The story of how George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley’s Wham! turned one song into a cultural phenomenon. As well as new interviews with Wham! fans and friends, figures such as Mary J Blige, Sir Bob Geldof, Neil Tennant and Sam Smith give their views on the song’s themes of unrequited love and loss.
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It often happens that at the moment of death, transgender individuals are shorn of their identity. Their families are ashamed, the funeral takes place in secret, and on the tomb appears the name the deceased had before their transition, in one stroke nullifying the entire life path they had chosen. The same thing happened to Antonia. Her girlfriends gather to honor her memory and give her back her identity denied. In telling her story, the film’s stars, all drawn from the variegated transgender world, interweave the narrative with tales of their own lives, experiences, and memories.
Nev, a 24-year-old New York-based photographer, has no idea what he’s in for when Abby, an eight-year-old girl from rural Michigan, contacts him on Facebook, seeking permission to paint one of his photographs. When he receives her remarkable painting, Nev begins a friendship and correspondence with Abby’s family. But things really get interesting when he develops a cyber-romance with Abby’s attractive older sister, Megan, a musician and model. Prompted by some startling revelations about Megan, Nev and his buddies embark on a road trip in search of the truth.
A former reporter comes back home after serving in the army during World War I and finds that it’s much more difficult to find work than he expected. Desperate, one day he crashes a wedding attended by many of the city’s rich and powerful, meets a beautiful girl named Kay who turns out to be his ticket to meeting those rich and powerful people, and he soon manages to land a job on a newspaper. He gets caught up in the “make money at all costs” game but receives a rude awakening when the stock market crashes in 1929.
It’s 1984 and Venice Beach, CA, is at the epicenter of a pop culture explosion. Young people of color seeking refuge from the turmoil of inner city life flock to the eclectic ocean community to create a brand new phenomenon: roller dancing! The talent and vibrant personality of this multicultural roller ‘family’ draws massive crowds and influence Hollywood. But just as roller dancing flourishes, politics, money and gentrification conspire to take their dreams away.
David Byrne is a visual artist as well as a musician, and ever since his early days as a member of Talking Heads, he’s wanted his concerts to be more than just a static performance. In 1984, Byrne and filmmaker Jonathan Demme redefined the boundaries of the concert film with the Talking Heads documentary STOP MAKING SENSE, and more than 25 years later Byrne has teamed up with David Hillman to create RIDE, RISE, ROAR, which documents Byrne’s 2008-2009 concert tour, in which he performs new material written in collaboration with Brian Eno as well as favorites from his solo career as well as his tenure in Talking Heads. Using costumes and inventive choreography, Byrne and his musicians and dancers give his music a stage presentation as exciting as the music.
Hamburg, St. Pauli, New Year’s Eve. Oskar Wrobel runs a music club in an old hospital at the edge of the Reeperbahn. While fireworks go off in the streets of St. Pauli, he prepares the big final party – the club has to close. Thankfully there is no time to think about it because the chaos is breaking into his living room, all while hell break loose at the club. The film, based on the novel by Tino Hanekamp, was filmed with hundreds of extras attending a real-life three-night-long party.
This time-lapse documentary follows the last years of former President Václav Havel’s life, creating a multi-layered portrait of a world-famous political icon and important playwright, but also an ordinary man plagued by health problems. Havel allows the filmmakers a glimpse behind the scenes of his life, revealing purely personal moments that present him in previously unrecognised contours. With a sense of humour, he reflects on his political legacy and universal human issues. The central motif is formed by the parallels between Havel’s life and the successful play Leaving, which Havel always wanted to direct as a film adaptation.
Warren Miller’s Flow State is a place of such singular focus and connection with the environment that, in this place, the faster you ride, the slower time passes. The Flow State exists anywhere crisp winter air shocks your lungs and sunlight refracts snowflakes, allowing you to emerge from this state improved – happier, more confident and more aware of your surroundings. So buckle up, because Warren Miller’s 63rd film will take you into the zone…the moment…the groove…the center…the Flow State.
A short kid from a Canadian army base becomes the international pop culture darling of the 1980s—only to find the course of his life altered by a stunning diagnosis. What happens when an incurable optimist confronts an incurable disease?
The NCAA is the face for college athletics, and it generates billions of dollars every year for the top universities in the United States. This is the first documentary that challenges the NCAA from the perspective of former student-athletes. Director Bob DeMars, a former USC football player, interviewed former student-athletes to find the problems and potential solutions regarding players’ rights.
A young woman struggles to move on with her life after the death of her husband, an acclaimed folk singer, when a brash New York writer forces her to confront her loss and the ambiguous circumstances of his death.
Portishead concert in the Roseland Ballroom, New York City, on the 24th July 1997 with tracks from the albums “Dummy” and “Portishead” played by the band and a 30 piece orchestra.