ABRAZOS: TANGO IN BUENOS AIRES
Directed by Daniel Rivas, 2003

This faithful and exhilarating representation of the 5th Buenos Aires Tango Festival brings to the screen all the squeezes of the accordion, quick kicks, and guttural songs of heartbreak, deceit and national pride. Today's biggest names in tango perform onstage and off, from the hilariously tense preparations to dozens of performances and intimate interviews with established and rising stars. In Spanish with English subtitles.

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AFRO-LATINO MUSIC:
SONS OF BENKOS and HANDS OF GOD
Sons of Benkos directed by Lucas Silva, 2003
Hands of God directed by Delia Ackerman, 2004

Sons of Benkos shows the evolution of Afro-Colombian music over generations while exploring the presence of African culture in Colombia. The title pays homage to Benkos, an important Black leader in the fight for freedom during the era of slavery in Colombia. The title "Sons of Benkos" suggests the ongoing struggle for the recognition of African influences on Colombia's artistic heritage. Hands of God tells the story of Peruvian percussionist Julio "Chocolate" Algendones, a legendary musician famous for his speed and dexterity on the cajon drum. Mixing traditional African influences with contemporary jazz, Algendones composed, taught, and performed many musical styles all over the world.

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ARTAUD
Directed by Gérard Mordillat and Jérôme Prieur, 1993

A 2-DVD set shedding light on Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) who remains one of the most influential figures in 20th century art, theater, and cinema. Included are My Life and Times With Antonin Artaud and The True Story of Artaud the Momo. French with English subtitles.

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DRESS REHEARSAL: THE BRAVE HURR'S TA'ZIEH
Directed by Nasser Taghvai, 2005

From Nasser Taghvai (Tales of Kish), one of the original filmmakers of the Iranian New Wave, comes his latest documentary. This rare glimpse into Iranian culture chronicles the performance of a ta'zieh, an ancient and uniquely Iranian passion play that celebrates the glory of martyrdom for the sake of justice. In Persian with English subtitles.

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HAMLET/BROOK BY BROOK
Directed by Peter Brook/Simon Brook, 1971/2001

Filmmaker and theater director Peter Brook, renowned for his innovative and controversial stage plays (Marat/Sade, The Mahabharata), interprets Hamlet in a gripping, stripped-down production that highlights the tragic heart of the play. The documentary Brook by Brook offers an intimate look at the theater legend.

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I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOUR EYES HAVE DONE TO ME
Directed by Sergio Wolf & Lorena Muñoz, 2003

Argentine singer and tango legend Ada Falcón disappeared without a trace in 1942, at the height of her career. Sixty years later, the filmmakers trace the life of the enigmatic performer in this unique documentary, told in the style of a classic thriller. The investigation finally locates the reclusive superstar, sequestered away as a Franciscan nun. In Spanish with English subtitles.

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JAMAICAN MUSIC & SOUL:
MADE IN JAMAICA/THE JOURNEY OF THE LION
Made in Jamaica directed by Jerome Laperrousaz, 2006
The Journey of the Lion directed by Fritz Baumann, 1992

Jamaican Music & Soul offers two films about Jamaica's world-renown home-grown music. Made in Jamaica features wall-to-all music from 19 bands, including Bunny Wailer, Toots & the Maytals, Third World, Doc Marshall, and Sly Dunbar & Robby Shakespeare. Through music, interviews, and performances, this documentary explores the roots and influence of reggae and its evolution into island, rap and dancehall music. The Journey of the Lion is a rare docudrama starring Rastafarian musician Brother Howie, who dreams of the land of his ancestors— Africa. On a journey in search of his roots and his destiny he travels across three continents with his humor and sensitivity intact.

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LEAR '87 ARCHIVE
Directed by Jill Godmilow, 2001

Jill Godmilow's six-hour archive of the Mibou Mines ensemble's controversial 1990, gender-reversed production of Shakespeare's King Lear documents the first the first two-week workshop on the play at the Theatrical Outfit in Atlanta.

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LISTEN
Directed by Miroslav Sebestik, 1992

Some of the world's most daring composers and musicologists probe the nature of sound and hearing in this unique documentary. Includes insights from John Cage, Luciano Berio and Knud Victor.

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MARGARET GARNER
Directed by Mustapha Hasnaoui, 2006

Margaret Garner was a slave who was separated from her husband by a white slave-owner and forced to become his mistress. In 1856, she fled from Kentucky with her husband and two children to the supposedly free state of Ohio. Rather than allow their children to be taken back into slavery, Margaret tried to kill her two little girls. The case became the subject of a heated national debate. Co-produced by the Michigan Opera Theatre, the Cincinnati Opera and the Opera Company of Philadelphia.

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MAXWELL STREET BLUES
Directed by Linda Williams & Raul Zaritsky, 1981

Chicago's legendary Maxwell Street was home to an open-air market that thrived for decades. It was there that the Chicago blues was born as African American street musicians, who had fled the rural South for the city, played regularly on the dirty corners, empty lots, and broken sidewalks. Together, they hammered out a hard-driving, electrified sound that influenced the world.

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NOT 4 $ALE: TV SHERIFF & THE TRAILBUDDIES
2007

Emerging from the LA underground in the year 2000, a self - proclaimed "video band" called TV Sheriff & the Trailbuddies hit the scene with their twisted take on performance art and VJ remixing. They have since taken their unique act to venues worldwide, providing animated commentary on the state of mind control in the USA.

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THE POPOVICH BROTHERS OF SOUTH CHICAGO
Directed by Jill Godmilow, 1978

In a small community of steel workers, truck drivers, and teachers on the South Side of Chicago, a musical group called the Popovich Brothers maintained the traditional music and rich culture of their Serbian homeland by performing in local venues. During the 1970s, when this poignant but entertaining documentary was produced, the Popovich Brothers had been performing for almost 50 years, bringing this music to young generations eager to embrace the culture and values of their parents’ native country. The brothers play with an earnest passion, making their love of the music and traditions infectious.

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ROY COHN/JACK SMITH
Directed by Jill Godmilow, 1995

In Roy Cohn/Jack Smith, actor Ron Vawter’s legendary, tour de force performance as two public figures who were both gay is captured by director Jill Godmilow. Vawter (Sex, Lies and Videotape; Silence of the Lambs) dazzles in a dual role as the rabid, conservative lawyer Roy Cohn and the flamboyant experimental filmmaker Jack Smith. Representing two extremes of the political spectrum, Cohn and Smith nonetheless shared something in common -- they both died of AIDS.

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SI SOS BRUJO: A STORY OF TANGO
Directed by Caroline Neal, 2005

Si Sos Brujo is a heartfelt, inspiring film that could do for Argentine Tango what the Buena Vista Social Club did for the music and musicians of Cuba -- illuminating an evolving culture, a way of life and the triumph of preserving one of the most intricate musical traditions of the world, following nearly 50 years of relative obscurity. In Spanish with English subtitles.

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SONATA FOR VIOLA
Directed by Semyon Aranovich & Alexander Sokurov, 1981

Sokurov's film is regarded as the definitive document on one of the 20th century's most important composers, Dmitri Shostakovich. Miraculously preserved from the hands of the KGB who wanted it destroyed, Sonata for Viola has been fully restored after being hidden for years. In Russian with English subtitles.

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SONIC OUTLAWS
Directed by Craig Baldwin, 1995

Craig Baldwin (Tribulation 99) follows intellectual property controversies across the contemporary arts scene. Playful and ironic, his cut-and-paste collage-essay surveys the prospects for an "electronic folk culture" in the midst of an increasingly commodified corporate media landscape.

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TANGO: OUR DANCE
Directed by Jorge Zanada, 1988

A fascinating exploration of the tango's complicated role within the social and personal landscape of Argentina. With a special appearance by Robert Duvall. Spanish with English subtitles.

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THE THEATRE OF TADEUSZ KANTOR
Directed by Denis Bablet, 1991

A lengthy and very comprehensive exploration of the life and work of one of the great theatre artists of the 20th Century. Featured are rare footage of Kantor at work with his dedicated actors, and extensive segments from some of their most famous works, including Dead Class. In French and English with English subtitles.

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WHAT'S UNDERGROUND ABOUT MARSHMALLOWS?
Directed by Jill Godmilow, 1996

What's Underground About Marshmallows? was the second part of Ron Vawter’s highly acclaimed theater piece Roy Cohn/Jack Smith, first staged in 1989 in New York City and then performed nationally until Vawter's death from AIDS in 1994. Jack Smith was a vanguard underground filmmaker, who was sometimes hailed as the father of performance art. In his later films and performances, such as the one re-imagined here, Smith explored a deceptively frivolous camp aesthetic that transformed bits of Hollywood "B" movies into socio-political critique and high art.

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WITH JERZY GROTOWSKI, NIENADÓWKA 1980
Directed by Jill Godmilow, 1980

Jerzy Grotowski, a leading figure of the theatrical avant garde in the 20th century, invited a film crew to travel with him to the small village of Nienadówka, Poland in 1980. It was there that he, his mother, and his brother had been hidden by a peasant family during the Nazi occupation. Grotowski returns for the first time since the war, hoping to find the people and places, the images and the sounds of his intensely lived childhood -- memories that are indelibly linked to his art.

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