Disco Dancer
B. Subhash, 135 min.
Disco Dancer is a 1982 Bollywood film directed by Babbar Subhash and starring Mithun Chakraborty. The film tells the rags-to-riches story of a young street performer. Today, the movie has become a cult classic and is especially known for its "I am a Disco Dancer" song.
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From Mambo to Hip Hop
Henry Chalfant, 60 min.
"From Mambo to Hip-Hop" dances through the history of a borough that nurtured two musical movements: the mambo that evolved into salsa, and the hip-hop that arose from the most desperate days of the South Bronx. Produced by Elena Martinez and Steve Zeitlin, who are principals in the New York folklore group City Lore, and directed by Henry Chalfant, a longtime chronicler of the South Bronx who collaborated on the early-1980's documentary "Style Wars", "From Mambo" rushes by, driven by rhythms that change through the decades.
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To the other Side
Natalia Almada, 66 min.
Al Otro Lado begins in Sinaloa, the drug capital of Mexico and birthplace of Los Tigres del Norte and Chalino Sanchez, two of the most famous corrido musicians. From the Sierra Mountains where opium and marijuana grow in abundance, down to the Sea of Cortez, where contraband is trafficked north in fishing boats, we look at the economic crisis that forces so many like Magdiel to turn to drug trafficking, or to risk their lives crossing the
border illegally into the United States. Through the regional corrido music that takes its roots from medieval ballads and has the edgy grit of gangsta rap, we travel from Sinaloa north across the border to the streets of South Central and East L.A., the same journey taken by millions of illegal immigrants, tons of narcotics and even corrido music.
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Respect Yourself -The Stax Records Label Story
Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville, 155 min.
Between 1959 and 1975, Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee released international chart-topping hits such as "Soul Man," "Dock of the Bay, "Green Onions," "Midnight Hour," "Respect Yourself," and the theme from SHAFT. The label's artists included Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Booker T. & the MG's, Rufus and Carla Thomas, the Staple Singers, Isaac Hayes, and even Richard Pryor and Jesse Jackson. Founded by a white conservative bank teller who played country fiddle music, Stax became the preeminent soul music label in America, and became identified with the civil rights movement of the 1960s and '70s. RESPECT YOURSELF documents the Stax label, its visionaries, and most of all, its music.
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Suffering and Smiling
Dan Ollman, 60 min.
Dan Ollman's atmospheric Suffering and Smiling highlights the situation in Nigeria. Lone voices cry out against the injustices suffered by the general population while the country's rulers maintain a culture of corruption, self-gratification, and ruthless domination of the people they purport to serve. Suffering and Smiling takes an unusual approach to the problem, as the vitality of at least one segment of Nigeria's cultural history is expressed in the film through the words of African singer and activist Fela Anikulapo Kuti, who started singing about Nigeria's problems following the country's independence in 1960, his son Femi, and their family.
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Desperate Man Blues
Edward Gillan, 52 min.
Desperate Man Blues tells the story of self-proclaimed king of record collectors Joseph E. Bussard, Jr. of Frederick Maryland. Joe has amassed probably the greatest collection of 78 rpm recordings of country, blues, jazz, cajun and gospel music in the world. He has spent most of of his waking hours in pursuit of old 78s. To call it a hobby would be an insult: It's his life.
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Dub Echoes
Bruno Natal, 75 min.
"Dub Echoes" is a documentary that traces the origins of the Jamaican dub music and it's influence on the development of hip hop and electronic music. The film shows how the Jamaican invention called dub ended up influencing much of the music we hear today, from electronic music to hip-hop, transforming the studio in a musical instrument and giving way to all of sonic experiments. "Dub Echoes" was produced by a Brazilian crew, in Kingston (Jamaica), London (UK), NY, Washington, LA (US), Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo (Brazil).
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El Acordeon del Diablo
Stefan Schwieter, 90 min.
El Acordeon del Diablo tells the story of that great old man of Caribbean music, Pacho Rada. It is the tale of a singer and composer who first held an accordion at the age of four and was never to let go of it again. A man who throughout his life travelled around Colombia, moving from village to village and from party to party, singing and playing for a few centavos. He's 93 now and lives in a corrugated iron shack on the outskirts of Santa Marta in Colombia, whilst his songs climb up the hit parades.
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Sleepwalking through Mekong
John Pirozzi, 68 min.
Sleepwalking Through the Mekong follows Los Angeles based band Dengue Fever on their recent journey to Cambodia to perform 60s and 70s Cambodian rock n' roll in the country where it was created and very nearly destroyed. The odyssey is a homecoming for singer Chhom Nimol and a transformation for the rest of the band as they perform with master musicians and record new songs along the way.
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Zaiko Langa Langa
Yves Billon, 53 min.
To the sound of a frantic and rhythmical music and to the urge of their magical motto: "let's liven things up", Zaiko Langa Langa have kept the crowds dancing since 1989. Zaiko have revived and reinvented the old rumba, which sounds Cuban but swings Zairian. It has become part of everyday life. Its rhythms have for ever marked the two nearest capitals in the world, Kinshasa and Brazzaville. From Tokyo to Copenhagen, from Dakar to Luanda, the whole world is swaying on the monotonous rhythm of a tireless guitar.
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Lomax - the song hunter
Roger Kappers , 95 min.
Alan Lomax (1915-2002) was a song collector. For a big part of his life, he travelled around the world with his recording equipment, hunting for the prettiest folk songs. Lomax recorded ordinary people, who gave their heart and soul in front of his microphone. In radio programmes, Lomax warned us that we were squandering age-old music traditions at rapid speed. The film maker visits Lomax one year prior to his death. He cannot speak with him anymore, because Alan has been brought down by a brain haemorrhage. The filmmaker decides to search for people Lomax recorded.
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Living the Hiplife
Jesse Shipley, 62 min.
This film is a musical portrait of street life in urban West Africa. It follows the birth of Hiplife music in Accra, Ghana, a mix of various African musical forms and American hip hop. Archival footage and hip hop music videos are remixed with interviews and the daily lives of rap artists. We follow Reggie Rockstone, the Godfather of Hiplife in the founding of the musical movement, as well as the Mobile Boys a group of aspiring rap artists as they try to make it in the music business.
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Plattln in Umtata - Shoslapping in Africa
Peter Heller, 92 min.
Shoeslapping in Africa follows the Biermoesl Blosn, a Bavarian folklore band, to Africa. Meeting musicians and artists of South Africa's and Namibia's old and new folklore and armed with a harp, a viola, alpenhorns and a barrel organ, the three musicians celebrate a cultural dialogue through music and dance.
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