The Metropolitan Opera: The Exterminating Angel

After the acclaimed Met premiere of Thomas Adès's "The Tempest" in 2012, the composer returned with another masterpiece, this time inspired by filmmaker Luis Buñuel's seminal surrealist classic "El Ángel Exterminador", during the 2017–18 season. As the opera opens, a group of elegant socialites gather for a lavish dinner party, but when it is time to leave for the night, no one is able to escape. Soon, their behavior becomes increasingly erratic and savage. The large ensemble cast tackles both the vocal and dramatic demands of Adès's opera with one riveting performance after another. Tom Cairns, who also penned the work's libretto, directs an engrossing and inventive production, using a towering wooden archway to trap the characters onstage. And Adès himself takes the podium to conduct the frenzied score, which features a host of unconventional instruments, including the eerie electronic ondes Martenot.

Maria

Maria Callas, the world's greatest opera singer, lives the last days of her life in 1970s Paris, as she confronts her identity and life.

Magical Mystery Tour

While on a coach tour, The Beatles and a few dozen friends experience strange happenings caused by magicians.

Frank Zappa – Summer '82: When Zappa Came to Sicily

In the feature documentary, Summer 82 – When Zappa Came to Sicily, filmmaker and Zappa fan Salvo Cuccia tells the behind-the-scenes story of Frank Zappa's star-crossed concert in Palermo, Sicily, the wrap-up to a European tour that ended in public disturbances and police intervention. Cuccia had a ticket to the concert but never made it. Thirty years later, collaborating with Zappa's family, he re-creates the events through a combination of rare concert and backstage footage; photographs; anecdotes from family, band members, and concertgoers; and insights from Zappa biographer and friend Massimo Bassoli. The story is also a personal one, as Cuccia interweaves the story of Zappa's trip to Sicily with his own memories from that summer.

Frank Zappa: The Torture Never Stops

Halloween, New York City, 1981 Live at The Palladium with Ray White, Steve Vai, Bobby Martin, Tommy Mars, Ed Mann, Scott Thunes, Chad Wackerman

Cirque du Soleil: Luzia

LUZIA takes you to an imaginary Mexico, like in a waking dream, where light (“luz” in Spanish) quenches the spirit and rain (“lluvia”) soothes the soul. With a surrealistic series of grand visual surprises and breathtaking acrobatic performances, LUZIA cleverly brings to the stage multiple places, faces and sounds of Mexico taken from both tradition and modernity.

Aria

Ten short pieces directed by ten different directors, including Ken Russell, Jean-Luc Godard, Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford, and Nicolas Roeg. Each short uses an aria as soundtrack/sound, and is an interpretation of the particular aria.

Plague Mass

A conceptual live concert by Diamanda Galás, "Plague Mass" continues the themes of the suffering and misery of the infected found in her "Masque of the Red Death" trilogy.

The Singing Detective

Tormented and bedridden by a debilitating disease, a mystery writer relives his detective stories through his imagination and hallucinations.

Frank Zappa: Music In Review

Idiosyncratic composer, unique musician and ground-breaking film director…..Frank Zappa packed more into his short lifetime than most men would manage in two. His restless, challenging, creative spirit meant that he never stood still during a career that bought huge critical and commercial success – Zappa sold more than 60 million albums both as a solo artist and with the Mothers of Invention. The life and work of Frank Zappa are examined in this superb new critical review, which features new in-depth interviews with industry insiders, rock journalists and respected critics plus highlights from the songs that re-drew the face of rock music.

Destino

Short film to a song of love lost and rediscovered, a woman sees and undergoes surreal transformations. Her lover's face melts off, she dons a dress from the shadow of a bell and becomes a dandelion, ants crawl out of a hand and become Frenchmen riding bicycles. Not to mention the turtles with faces on their backs that collide to form a ballerina, or the bizarre baseball game.

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared 3

During a chicken picnic, Yellow Guy gets upset after Green Bird kills a butterfly. Yellow Guy then meets a butterfly that takes him on a journey to discover his concept of love.

Metaphysics of Sound

Adopting mainly hand contact printing with photographic enlarger, «Metaphysics of sound» started from September of 2006 and completed in July of 2007. With a 35mm soundtrack image, I made a hand-drawn soundtrack on the 16mm film strip. The sounds were made either by directly contact printing the 35mm sound tracks or collaging the scratch images. According to pattern of sound on the 20% blank of 16mm film strip (normally used as space for optical recording), I edited whole image and made structure of film. Hence the margin is a where image is sound, and vice versa. Later, I studied the sound patterns which varied according to the kinds of images used or the concentration of the image, and made various attempts at rearranging the structure of the sound with the image.

The Tales of Hoffmann

A melancholy poet reflects on three women he loved and lost in the past: a mechanical performing doll, a Venetian courtesan, and the consumptive daughter of a celebrated composer.

Time Piece

Dislocation in time, time signatures, time as a philosophical concept, and slavery to time are some of the themes touched upon in this 9-minute experimental film, which was written, directed, and produced by Jim Henson. Screened for the first time at the Museum of Modern Art in May of 1965, "Time Piece" enjoyed an eighteen-month run at one Manhattan movie theater and was nominated for an Academy Award for Outstanding Short Subject.

Dream of a Summer Night

Rock musical adaptation of William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Good Morning, Mr. Orwell

In his book "1984", George Orwell saw the television of the future as a control instrument in the hands of Big Brother. Right at the start of the much-anticipated Orwellian year, Paik and Co. were keen to demonstrate satellite TV's ability to serve positive ends-- Namely, the intercontinental exchange of culture, combining both highbrow and entertainment elements. A live broadcast shared between WNET TV in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, linked up with broadcasters in Germany and South Korea, reached a worldwide audience of over 10 or even 25 million (including the later repeat transmissions).

The Tune

Del is a song writer for the obnoxious Mr. Mega, and in love with Didi, Mega's secretary. His quest to write a hit tune brings him to the wacky world of Flooby Nooby, where he just might learn to write songs from the heart. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2016.

Progressive Touch

Sex as dance and comedy: in Progressive Touch Portnoy studies and expands the relationship between sex, choreography and composing music. He introduces complex compositions from progressive rock and math metal during sex, thereby combating the ostensible simplification of rhythm in human movements and gestures. A group of actors perform the new moves in three slapstick-like scenes. Worth trying at home.

Donkey Skin

A fairy godmother helps a princess disguise herself so she won't have to marry her father.

Conversation

To the idly meditating musician received a call from his distant friend with a proposal to write a song about the untimely departed Lady Diana.

Above the Lake

Avant-garde homage to pre-revolution Russian silent movies, and to the poet Aleksandr Blok.

Musangwe: Fight Club

The first rule is that there are no rules. For the bare-knuckle combatants competing in Musangwe fights, anything goes - you can even put a curse on him. The sport, which dates back centuries, has become a South African institution. Any male from the age of nine to ninety can compete. We follow a group of fighters as they slug it out in the ring. Who will be this year's champion?

Divers at Work on the Wreck of the "Maine"

Divers go to work on a wrecked ship (the battleship Maine that was blown up in Havana harbour during the Spanish-American War), surrounded by curiously disproportionate fish.

Fight Club: Members Only

Four friends head off to Bombay and get involved in the mother and father of all gang wars.

Re-Existences

“Re-Existence” is a documentary about migration stories of individuals from the Brazilian queer community.

Fate

Serial killers have plagued the American landscape for decades, committing gruesome atrocities, and providing some tough cases for criminal investigators to crack. Two detectives are on the trail of a bizarre murderer intent on slaughtering his victims, then using them as real-life puppets in a tale that he is trying to tell.

Main Street on the March!

This Best Short Subject Academy Award winning film begins in the spring of 1940, just before the Nazi occupation of the Benelux countries, and ends immediately after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It chronicles how the people of "Main Street America", the country's military forces, and its industrial base were completely transformed when the decision was made to gear up for war. Original footage is interspersed with contemporary newsreels and stock footage.

Murder at the Gallop

Miss Marple and Mr. Stringer are witnesses to the death by heart attack of elderly, rich Mr. Enderby. Yet they have their doubts about what happened. The police don't believe them, thus leading Miss Marple to yet again investigate by herself.

Man

An experimental film through the eyes of a man

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Christmas with The Chipmunks

Collection of the 4 classic holiday episodes, all digitally restored: 1) "A Chipmunk Christmas" (TV Short released in 1981); 2-3) "It's a Wonderful Life, Dave" (Season 6 | Episode 24 | 1988) and "Alvin's Christmas Carol" (Season 7 | Episode 13 | 1989) from the "Alvin & the Chipmunks" (TV Series 1983–1990); 4) "A Chipmunk Celebration" (TV Short released in 1994, theme for Thanksgiving Day).

12

not there yet

A Lure: Teen Fight Club

A community is under siege as three Belmont Highschool coed students go missing with no trace of their whereabouts. The pressure is on the police to capture the culprits responsible. Scouring the school hallways in search of clues, undercover female detective Maggie Rawdon (Jessica Sonnerborn) enters Belmont High as a transfer student in an attempt to solve the hideous disappearance of the students. Maggie makes a few new friends, and gets invited to a private rave in the country. Just as the group begins to suspect that they've taken a wrong turn, however, the trap is sprung and Maggie finds out firsthand what fate has befallen the missing girls.

Stratos

At age 19, Stratos committed a crime of passion. He spent half his life in prison, where underground boss Leonidas took him under his wing. One day during a rival gang attack, Leonidas saved his life. Stratos never forgot this. A free man now, Stratos works the night shift at a bakery workshop, a far cry from the killing contracts he executes by day. He gives away all his money to spring Leonidas out of prison, funding an escape plan managed by Leo’s brother, Yorgos. The fulfillment of his debt is the only thing that matters to Stratos, everything else is indifferent and he lives detached, surrounded by ghosts and fallacies. The day of the escape, the most important day of his life, is near…

Main Sunder Hoon

Sundar, a waiter, is in love with Radha but does not have the courage to tell her. When he becomes a successful comedian, he confesses his feelings to her, only to find that she loves someone else.

Main Krishna Hoon

In answer to an orphan boy's prayers, the divine Lord Krishna comes to Earth, befriends the boy, and helps him find a loving family.

Ice Aged

Bringing humour, grit, and pure joy to the rink, “Ice Aged” follows six senior men and women from around the world as they pursue their childhood dreams of competitive figure skating. From local ice rinks to the grand stage at the World Hobby Figure Skating Championships in Bavaria, their inspiring journey defies age and expectations. Beautifully filmed over nearly three years, the cameras capture every tear, cheer, and broken bone as these skaters pursue their dreams. Not even a global pandemic can stop them from pushing forward in this fairytale on ice.

Unidos por el eje

(re)kindle

Ana and Helen, two divorced women, were close friends as teenagers. Today, amidst the corona virus pandemic and in quarantine, they get in touch after 20 years via internet. Through video conference calls, memories, sensations and emotions reflourishes.