Zeven lessen per dag en een warme maaltijd. Dat is het strenge regime van New York City's High School for the Performing Arts. Keihard werken is aan de orde van de dag en roem is een verre droom voor de tientallen sterren in spe; muzikanten, acteurs en dansers, die zich aan de Fame Academy inschrijven. En dan zijn er ook nog de alledaagse beslommeringen van het leven en de liefde. Regisseur Alan Parker (Evita, The Commitments) leverde met Fame andermaal een bruisende muziekfilm af die de levens van vier studenten op de voet volgt en hun successen en ontgoochelingen op sublieme wijze door elkaar weeft. Het kleur- en klankrijke spektakel, dat zes Oscarnominaties en twee Oscars voor soundtrack en titelsong in de wacht sleepte, lanceerde o.a. de carrières van Irene Cara, Paul McCrane (ER) en Barry Miller (Saturday Night Fever). Fame is lichtvoetig en diepgaand tegelijk, met schitterende choreografieën en de muziek die intussen een moderne klassieker is geworden.
Khem en Wan, twee jonge mannen uit Chachoengsao, nemen de missie op zich om de waarheid te onderzoeken die verborgen is in Man Suang, de meest luxueuze en mysterieuze entertainmentclub in Siam. Achter het gordijn verzamelen mensen zich om plannen te maken en politieke onderhandelingen te voeren tijdens het einde van de regering van koning Rama III.
A comedy musical stage version of the Phantom of the Opera, filmed live on-stage during a performance in Florida.
In Edo-era Japan, a ukiyo-e artist languishes in his master’s shadow. Creatively stifled, he finds consolation in the company of a prostitute, and becomes entangled in a love triangle. A mystery emerges involving two portraits and the sudden disappearance of the artist Sharaku. Helmed by Cannes-selected director Tatsuji Yamazaki, the film employs kabuki-inspired sequences and stylised sets.
Feature documentary on the pioneering life and work of iconoclastic filmmaker/musician/composer/artist Tony Conrad.
Immigrant residents of a “shift-bed” apartment in the heart of New York City’s Chinatown share their stories of personal and political upheaval. As the bed transforms into a stage, the film reveals the collective history of the Chinese in the United States through conversations, autobiographical monologues, and theatrical movement pieces. Shot in the kitchens, bedrooms, wedding halls, cafés, and mahjong parlors of Chinatown, this provocative hybrid documentary addresses issues of privacy, intimacy, and urban life.
The show starts when Colloredo is named successor to the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. The new king is an austere authoritarian man which is insensitive to the music of Mozart and allergic to the enthusiasm and the impertinence of the character. For Mozart, Salzburg's life quickly becomes untenable. He was 20 when he decided to leave his hometown with his mother in search of a better future in a European capital. The journey of the composer will be made of failures and cruel disappointments. But at the end, Mozart will experience glory, love, rivalry before its ultimate fall and misery. He left his best work, the Requiem, unfinished.
A satirical dramedy loosely inspired by the infamous UK Miners' strikes; however this time, the fight isn’t in the pits, but on the stage. With his beloved family trade targeted by a right-wing government with a long-standing hatred for the arts, a Mime performer desperately rallies the troops for a silent revolution, vowing to save the art form from facing the final curtain.
I Can’t Get Away is a three-channel black-and-white silent video. The video depicts 4 sequences: a figure perpetuating walking away; a figure bounded to an immobile tree; a figure running away from another figure, and vice versa. The performances of stages within the grieving process, different modes and processes to grapple with loss and the sensibilities that comes with mourning impermanence.
Experimental research and dissemination documentary about current contemporary art that compiles the opinions, experiences and anecdotes of artists, gallery owners, curators, museum directors and experts.
Take a look behind the curtain to see the vast history and recent renovation of one of Rochester, New York's most famous landmarks. Architects, theater personnel, historians, community leaders, and citizens provide in depth insight from start to finish in one of the most extensive renovations the city has ever seen.
This film is a portrait of unique cultural space for Spirits, Gods and People. While permanent theatres are commonly built in most cosmopolitan modern cities, Hong Kong preserves a unique theatrical architecture, a Chinese tradition that has lasted more than a century - Bamboo Theatre.
We see a rock. It transcends languages and cultures. It traverses time and space. Perhaps it has its own nature and memories.
'On the Fringe' is a captivating documentary that takes viewers on a journey through Canada’s most vibrant and eclectic arts festival circuit. Chronicling the experiences of four groups of artists as they travel from coast to coast, the film provides a rare and compelling insight into the world of Fringe theatre, and the artists who rely on these festivals to make their dreams come true.
From grand spectacles to poignant close-ups, experience Helgi Tomasson's bravura interpretation of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet like you've never seen it before. With passionate choreography, spine-tingling swordsmansip, and a celebrated score by Sergei Prokofiev, San Francisco Ballet's passionate retelling of the Bard's greatest tragedy has packed houses around the world. Romeo & Juliet is one of the Company's most popular and widely toured ballets and has been seen by more than 200,000 people since it premiered in 1994. Choreographed by Helgi Tomasson, with sets and costumes by Jens-Jacob Worsaae, this visually stunning production and the brilliant dancers of San Francisco Ballet bring this powerful and touching tragedy - and Renaissance-era Verona - vivdly to life. ""Tomasson lifts Shakespeare's complex and familiar language off the gilded pages and translates it into lucid classical choreography that is visceral, fresh, and ultimately sublime"" (Huffington Post).
MY NEXT STEP follows a young Kunqu Opera artist YANG Yang(28 year-old) over the course of several years. It offers its audience a glimpse into the world of Kunqu, and a magnifying look into the ambivalence of a young man struggling to find a way out for a fading art.
When facing a path with no future or precedent success, will we ever choose to stay? Cheuk Cheung’s My Way explores the Cantonese Opera tradition of male Dan performers, men who play female roles, against the backdrop of a Hong Kong society increasingly putting less value on art. Although female performers have long been part of the mainstream of Cantonese Opera, the film follows the stories of two young men who are still fascinated by the art of the male Dan, striving to find their own way to carry on the practice. A moving and searching look at the struggle for identity, My Way is a colourful, musical and moving film which offers a unique and highly personal look at perseverance in the face of a changing society.
From 1970-1977 William Wegman created some of the most innovative and important works in the history of video. These early pioneering tapes were created using minimal technology and a few studio props, including Wegman’s canine companion, Man Ray. Consisting of 130 works, some no longer than a television commercial, blurred the boundaries between high and low art as well as art and commerce, and have become a major chapter in the histories of contemporary art and film. This exhaustive compilation has been assembled by the artist with restored material and it contains all nine original reels as well as two later reels. Classics such as Pocketbook Man, Milk/Floor, Stomach Song, Cape On, Stick and Tooth, Spelling Lesson, Dog Duet, Man Ray, Do You Want to? Are included.