Social & External
The people behind it
Manu Dibango
sax/vocals
Daniel Rallo
guitar
Jerry Malelkani
Frédéric Gaillardet
keyboard
William Nfor
bass/vocals
Brice Wassy
drum/vocals
Laurant Coatalen
percussions
For 23 straight Saturday nights of 1982, The Chicago Party dance show assaulted Chicagoland UHF eyeballs with Spandex, Southside fly guys, tender tenderonies, magicians, contortionists, prismatic video gimmickry, and lip-synched singles by a rising regime of local post-disco casualties. Unfettered nightlife and outlandish humor poured out of oddball outpost The CopHerBox II and onto TV screens. Pooling business acumen with music scene prominence, James Christopher and Willie Woods opened the CopHerBox II in 1979 at 117th and Halsted on Chicago’s Southside. To promote their venture, they purchased airtime on Chicago’s WCIU-TV Channel 26 for weekly installments of The Chicago Party. Each Saturday, the club’s adult clientele filled the illuminated dance floor, providing vibrant B-roll between tapings of breakdancing magicians and Jheri curled ventriloquists, giving an audience to a rising regime of Chicago Soul heavyweights.
Explore the vision behind the iconic American jazz record label. Since 1939, Blue Note artists have been encouraged to push creative boundaries in search of uncompromising expressions. Through current recording sessions, rare archive and conversations with iconic Blue Note artists, the film reveals an intimate perspective of a legacy that continues to be vital in today’s political climate.
Wild Man Blues is a 1998 documentary film directed by Barbara Kopple, about the musical avocation of actor/director/comic Woody Allen. The film takes its name from a jazz composition sometimes attributed to Jelly Roll Morton and sometimes to Louis Armstrong and recorded by both (among others). Allen's love of early 20th century New Orleans music is depicted through his 1996 tour of Europe with his New Orleans Jazz Band. Allen has played clarinet with this band for over 25 years. Although Allen's European tour is the film's primary focus, it was also notable as the first major public showcase for Allen's relationship with Soon-Yi Previn.
The untold true story: The rise and fall of the greatest funk band ever, Parliament Funkadelic.
When four jazz musicians—trumpeter Serge Adam, pianist Benoît Delbecq, bassist Francky Mwele, and drummer Emile Biayenda—prepare for an African tour with the aim of engaging in dialogue with the musicians they meet along the way, certain clichés prove hard to shake. The jazzmen themselves are well aware of this; after all, isn't their very starting point a desire to avoid them? Musical curiosity must be reciprocal, and, after all, jazz is surely the territory that—even if not strictly shared—serves as an initial "no man's land" for an encounter. Beyond that lies the adventure...
Chet Baker silently wanders through an Antonioniesque landscape in a Felliniesque state of wonderment as his improvised trumpet solos alternate between earnestly offering the obvious and mocking the artiness of the whole affair.
The story of R&B singer Al Green, who gave up a successful singing career to become a gospel minister.
Kirk Whalum presents this music documentary-cum-live concert performance exploring the impact of jazz on modern retellings of the Gospel. The film includes performances by Kirk Whalum himself along with George Duke, Lalah Hathaway, Doc Powell and Kevin Whalum.
Jake Blues, just released from prison, puts his old band back together to save the Catholic home where he and his brother Elwood were raised.
Set to a classic Duke Ellington recording "Daybreak Express", this is a five-minute short of the soon-to-be-demolished Third Avenue elevated subway station in New York City.
Double bassist, singer, composer and arranger Avishai Cohen is renowned for his virtuoso playing and emotional live performances. And he's unrivalled at finding the musicians who have the potential to take over from the jazz greats.
On the occasion of his 80th birthday, an intimate documentary follows the illustrious pianist and great French jazz musician, Alain Jean-Marie from Guadeloupe, on a recent trip to Cuba. He talks about his career, his adolescence, and his youth in Guadeloupe, where he was rocked and deeply influenced by Cuban music. Director Bertrand Fèvre followed this now essential artist in Havana, to be discovered or rediscovered through a film set to jazz.
When lively lounge singer Deloris sees her mobster beau commit murder, she is relocated for her protection. Set up in the guise of a nun in a California convent, she proceeds to upend the quiet lives of the resident sisters.
Exploring how punk influenced politics in late-1970s Britain, when a group of artists united to take on the National Front, armed only with a fanzine and a love of music.
A biographical film featuring the music and times of Bill Evans with interviews from Tony Bennett, Jack Dejohnette, Billy Taylor, Paul Motian, Jon Hendricks, Orin Keepnews, Bobby Brookmeyer, Pat Evans and more, including family and friends who knew Bill Evans well.
The history of American popular music runs parallel with the history of a Russian Jewish immigrant family, with each male descendant possessing different musical abilities.
Recorded Live at Tokyo International Forum Hall A on December 9th, 2007
Based on a True Story, we journey back to 1980 to see John King, a 10yr old African American boy, see his mother experience the Joy of Salvation, after witnessing her endure domestic violence, to then desire and experience Salvation deeply for himself. He then begins a hard journey and increases in his love for God, which results in him answering the call to Evangelism. See him in his everyday life, at home, school, church, and play, as he learns the importance of being obedient and respecting his parents, teachers, and elders by facing the consequences of his actions. The underline story is a true return to core parenting by introducing our youth to the Lord at a young age. Other short cross sub-stories involve using wisdom dealing with a dreaded disease, the lack of respect for our public school educators, and the irreplaceable benefits of continuing to offer music/band programs in schools.
A teenage rapper must use his musical talent to help a friend and win the girl of his dreams while overcoming self-doubt and the expectations of his strict religious parents.
A struggling young dancer joins forces with two breakdancers and together they become a street sensation.
In 1997, rap superstars Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace (aka Biggie Smalls, The Notorious B.I.G.) were gunned down in separate incidents, the apparent victims of hip hop's infamous east-west rivalry. Nick Broomfield's film introduces Russell Poole, an ex-cop with damning evidence that suggests the LAPD deliberately fumbled the case to conceal connections between the police, LA gangs and Death Row Records, the label run by feared rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight.
After suffering humiliation by the crew Invincible, street dancer Ash looks to gather the best dancers from around the world for a rematch.
A celebration of the musical work of a group of session musicians known as "The Wrecking Crew." a band that provided back-up instrumentals to such legendary recording artists as Frank Sinatra, The Beach Boys, and Bing Crosby.
All Eyez on Me chronicles the life and legacy of Tupac Shakur, including his rise to superstardom as a hip-hop artist, actor, poet and activist, as well as his imprisonment and prolific, controversial time at Death Row Records. Against insurmountable odds, Tupac rose to become a cultural icon whose career and persona both continue to grow long after his passing.
A pair of star-crossed dancers in New York find themselves at the center of a bitter rivalry between their brothers' underground dance clubs.
Darrin Hill, a slick-talking but down-on- his-luck NYC advertising exec, returns to his hometown in Georgia to claim the inheritance his aunt left him. But before Darrin can collect the money, he must fulfill his aunt's final wish -- to create a local choir.
At Mr. Rad's Warehouse, the best hip-hop crews in Los Angeles compete for money and respect. But when a suburban crew crashes the party, stealing their dancers — and their moves — two warring friends have to pull together to represent the street.
The Lone Rangers have heavy-metal dreams and a single demo tape they can't get anyone to play. The solution: Hijack an FM rock radio station and hold the deejays hostage until they agree to broadcast the band's tape.
Ghost is an ideological musician and leader of a jazz band who would rather play his blues in the park to the birds than compromise himself. His peripatetic performances lead him to cross paths with a singer, while his masculinity is thrown into question following a violent brawl.
The late, great impresario Florenz Ziegfeld looks down from heaven and ordains a new revue in his grand old style.
In the town of Normal Valley, an eccentric magician named Maestro entertains the local children every day in his spooky mansion. One stormy night, the town's mayor leads a group of angry citizens to the mansion in an attempt to run Maestro out of town.
The well-known explorer and hunter Captain Spaulding has just returned from Africa, and is being welcomed home with a lavish party at the estate of influential society matron Mrs. Rittenhouse when a valuable painting goes missing. The intrepid Captain Spaulding attempts to solve the crime with the help of his silly secretary Horatio Jamison, while sparring with the anarchic Signor Emanuel Ravelli and his nutty sidekick The Professor.
A portrait of Keith Richards that takes us on a journey to discover the genesis of his sound as a songwriter, guitarist and performer.
Trip, a young roadie for Metallica, is sent on an urgent mission during the band's show. But what seems like a simple assignment turns into a surreal adventure.
Fatherless barrio Puerto Rican Rico is a menial car mechanic by day, but lives for the nights, when he dances and dates hot dancing girls, cockily convinced the title of Salsa king in fancy nightclub La Luna's upcoming contest is to be his. He encourages his best friend, courteous gentleman Ken, to date his sister Margarita so he gets a free hand with her flirtatious classmate Lola. The reigning salsa queen Luna's interest in Rico as dance-partner threatens his on-off relationship with Vicki. More jealous trouble follows when Ken and Margarita fall in true love.
Daft Punk Unchained is the first film about the pop culture phenomenon that is Daft Punk, the duo with 12 million albums sold worldwide and seven Grammy Awards. Throughout their career Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo have always resisted compromise and the established codes of show business. They have remained determined to maintain control of every link in the chain of their creative process. In the era of globalisation and social networks, they rarely speak in public and neither do they show their faces on TV. This documentary explores this unprecedented cultural revolution revealing a duo of artists on a permanent quest for creativity, independence and freedom.
The rise and fall of salsa singer, Héctor Lavoe (1946-1993), as told from the perspective of his wife Puchi, who looks back from 2002.
A fledgling producer finds himself at odds with his workers, financiers and his greedy ex-wife when he tries to produce live musicals for movie-going audiences.
