Music
Years

Popular Music Movies

Stop Making Sense
Stop Making Sense
A concert film documenting Talking Heads at the height of their popularity, on tour for their 1983 album "Speaking in Tongues." The band takes the stage one by one and is joined by a cadre of guest musicians for a career-spanning and cinematic performance that features creative choreography and visuals.
Stop Making Sense 2023
Once
Once
A vacuum repairman moonlights as a street musician and hopes for his big break. One day a Czech immigrant, who earns a living selling flowers, approaches him with the news that she is also an aspiring singer-songwriter. The pair decide to collaborate, and the songs that they compose reflect the story of their blossoming love.
Once 2007
A Hard Day's Night
A Hard Day's Night
Capturing John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in their electrifying element, 'A Hard Day's Night' is a wildly irreverent journey through this pastiche of a day in the life of The Beatles during 1964. The band have to use all their guile and wit to avoid the pursuing fans and press to reach their scheduled television performance, in spite of Paul's troublemaking grandfather and Ringo's arrest.
A Hard Day's Night 1964
The Harder They Come
The Harder They Come
Ivanhoe Martin arrives in Kingston, Jamaica, looking for work and, after some initial struggles, lands a recording contract as a reggae singer. He records his first song, "The Harder They Come," but after a bitter dispute with a manipulative producer named Hilton, soon finds himself resorting to petty crime in order to pay the bills. He deals marijuana, kills some abusive cops and earns local folk hero status. Meanwhile, his record is topping the charts.
The Harder They Come 1973
Django
Django
The story of Django Reinhardt, famous guitarist and composer, and his flight from German-occupied Paris in 1943.
Django 2017
Jubilee
Jubilee
Queen Elizabeth I visits late 1970s England to find a depressing landscape where life has changed since her time.
Jubilee 1979
Neptune Frost
Neptune Frost
In the hilltops of Burundi, a group of escaped coltan miners form an anti-colonialist computer hacker collective. From their camp in an otherworldly e-waste dump, they attempt a takeover of the authoritarian regime exploiting the region's natural resources – and its people. When an intersex runaway and an escaped coltan miner find each other through cosmic forces, their connection sparks glitches within the greater divine circuitry.
Neptune Frost 2022
Eden
Eden
Paul, a teenager in the underground scene of early-nineties Paris, forms a DJ collective with his friends and together they plunge into the nightlife of sex, drugs, and endless music.
Eden 2015
Buena Vista Social Club
Buena Vista Social Club
In this fascinating Oscar-nominated documentary, American guitarist Ry Cooder brings together a group of legendary Cuban folk musicians (some in their 90s) to record a Grammy-winning CD in their native city of Havana. The result is a spectacular compilation of concert footage from the group's gigs in Amsterdam and New York City's famed Carnegie Hall, with director Wim Wenders capturing not only the music -- but also the musicians' life stories.
Buena Vista Social Club 1999
French Cancan
French Cancan
Nineteenth-century Paris comes vibrantly alive in Jean Renoir’s exhilarating tale of the opening of the world-renowned Moulin Rouge. Jean Gabin plays the wily impresario Danglard, who makes the cancan all the rage while juggling the love of two beautiful women—an Egyptian belly-dancer and a naive working girl turned cancan star.
French Cancan 1956
Sympathy for the Devil
Sympathy for the Devil
An exhilarating, provocative motion picture. The Rolling Stones rehearse their latest song, "Sympathy For the Devil," in a London studio. Beginning as a ballad, the track gradually acquires a pulsating groove, which gets Jagger into a rousing vocal display of soulful emotion that Godard captures on film.
Sympathy for the Devil 1969
Good Vibrations
Good Vibrations
The story of music legend Terri Hooley, a key figure in Belfast's punk rock scene. Hooley founded the Good Vibrations store from which a record label sprung, representing bands such as The Undertones, Rudi and The Outcasts.
Good Vibrations 2012
Black Orpheus
Black Orpheus
Young lovers Orfeu and Eurydice run through the favelas of Rio during Carnaval, on the lam from a hitman dressed like Death and Orfeu's vengeful fiancée Mira and passing between moments of fantasy and stark reality. This impressionistic retelling of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice introduced bossa nova to the world with its soundtrack by young Brazilian composers Luiz Bonfá and Antonio Carlos Jobim.
Black Orpheus 1959
Distant Voices, Still Lives
Distant Voices, Still Lives
Siblings Maisie and Tony, along with their mother, gather for their sister Eileen's wedding. It is a joyous occasion, but through flashbacks, it becomes clear that the family was not always happy. Their father was physically abusive to his wife and left the children emotionally traumatized. As a result, the children have grown into unhappy adults, looking for love they didn't receive when they were young.
Distant Voices, Still Lives 1989
You, the Living
You, the Living
In the Swedish city of Lethe, people from different walks of life take part in a series of short, deadpan vignettes that rush past. Some are just seconds long, none longer than a couple of minutes. A young woman (Jessica Lundberg) remembers a fantasy honeymoon with a rock guitarist. A man awakes from a dream about bomber planes. A businessman boasts about success while being robbed by a pickpocket and so on. The absurdist collection is accompanied by Dixieland jazz and similar music.
You, the Living 2009
Orion: The Man Who Would Be King
Orion: The Man Who Would Be King
August 16, 1977. All of America was stunned by the news of Elvis Presley's untimely passing. Some went so far as to believe that it couldn't be true. Somehow he had faked his death. For the executives at Sun Records that fantasy became an opportunity in the form of Orion, a mysterious masked performer with the voice of The King. First appearing in 1979, Orion recorded 11 albums and performed live to packed houses and rapturous fans around the nation. But who was the man behind the mask? In this stranger-than-fiction true story, Jeanie Finlay exposes the incredible life of an unknown singer plucked from obscurity and thrust into the spotlight with the complicity of a manipulative music industry and a public fan base unwilling to let The King go. Resonant in its themes of identity, fate, and the double-edged nature of fame, Orion is a stylish mystery story that finally gives a name and a face to a gifted artist who had been unjustly deprived of both.
Orion: The Man Who Would Be King 2015
Mogul Mowgli
Mogul Mowgli
Zed, a young British rapper, is about to start his first world tour, when a crippling illness strikes him down, and he is forced to move back in with his family. He tries to find himself between an international music career and Pakistani family traditions.
Mogul Mowgli 2020
Honeydripper
Honeydripper
In 1950s Alabama, the owner of the Honeydripper juke joint finds his business dropping off and against his better judgment, hires a young electric guitarist in a last ditch effort to draw crowds during harvest time.
Honeydripper 2007
Pirates
Pirates
On New Year's Eve 1999, three friends, who are attempting to break into the music scene through pirate radio, drive through London in a desperate search for tickets for the best millennium party ever.
Pirates 2021
Getting It Back: The Story Of Cymande
Getting It Back: The Story Of Cymande
In the racially turbulent UK of the early 70s, a group of black musicians came together in South London with a common love of rhythms and a message of peace. Cymande – with the dove as their symbol – combined jazz, funk, soul and Caribbean grooves to form a unique sound. Despite success in the USA they faced indifference in their native Britain, becoming disillusioned and disbanding. But the music lived on, as new generations of artists imbibed and reworked their pioneering sounds in fresh ways. From Soul II Soul to De La Soul, MC Solaar to The Fugees, the Dove had spread Cymande's message far and wide, prompting their return after forty years. This is their story.
Getting It Back: The Story Of Cymande 2024
Radio On
Radio On
A London radio DJ receives news of his brother's suicide and travels west to Bristol to find out more.
Radio On 1979
Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story
Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story
The hilarious and bizarre story of Frank Sidebottom, the cult British comedian in a papier mâché head, and the secretive life of Chris Sievey, the artist trapped inside.
Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story 2019
Casablanca Beats
Casablanca Beats
When a rapper-turned-teacher brings hip-hop to a community center in an impoverished area of Casablanca, his tough methods spark an explosion of talent.
Casablanca Beats 2022
Young Soul Rebels
Young Soul Rebels
Two disc jockeys have a friend's murder to solve in the fringe-group melting pot of 1977 London.
Young Soul Rebels 1991
The Great Hip Hop Hoax
The Great Hip Hop Hoax
Scottish rappers Billy Boyd and Gavin Bain reinvent themselves as West Coast Homeboys after they were signed by Sony.
The Great Hip Hop Hoax 2013
It Couldn't Happen Here
It Couldn't Happen Here
Pet Shop Boys Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant embark upon a journey across England - but which England? Is it the half-remembered England of their childhoods, or the brutal reality of Mrs Thatcher's late-eighties England? Along the way they come across many familiar (and sinister) faces. The movie also features some of the Pet Shop Boys' most popular records.
It Couldn't Happen Here 1988
Dance Craze
Dance Craze
Rocksteady to both a visual and musical documentary of the big shots of the English 2-Tone movement of the late 1970s that has the exhaustive, high-energy performances exploding onto stage. Jump, shout, twist and crawl and dance to the tunes of Ska and its anthems of its rough riders and three-minute heroes captivated in the moment of a generation of England's concrete jungles and razor blade alleys. No longer on your radio but now on stage, together, with the likes of Madness, The Specials and The Beat et al, this concert footage of an era is a must-see, rare and fascinating look into a once vibrant youth culture of working-class England and its musical dance craze.
Dance Craze 1981
Sound It Out
Sound It Out
Over the last five years an independent record shop has closed in the UK every three days. SOUND IT OUT is a documentary portrait of the very last surviving vinyl record shop in Teesside, North East England. A cultural haven in one of the most deprived areas in the UK, SOUND IT OUT documents a place that is thriving against the odds and the local community that keeps it alive. Directed by Jeanie Finlay who grew up three miles from the shop. A distinctive, funny and intimate film about men, the North and the irreplaceable role music plays in our lives. High Fidelity with a Northern Accent.
Sound It Out 2011
Leave It on the Floor
Leave It on the Floor
Our African-American hero , Brad is bullied by his dysfunctional mom; he flees his home and by chance tumbles down the rabbit-hole into the LA ball scene where he finds a ragtag new famiiy. With music by Beyonce music director, Kim Burse, screenplay and lyrics by Glenn Gaylord choreography by Beyonce dance master, Frank Gatson Jr. and eye-popping visuals and direction by Sheldon Larry, the film is an ode to the wild funky and heart-aching life of this amazing underground. Written by Sheldon Larry.
Leave It on the Floor 2011
The Story of Lovers Rock
The Story of Lovers Rock
In the 70s and 80s Britain was rife with racial tension and police harassment particularly against black British youths. These youths were the rebel generation who were also searching for an identity. They created a music - a sub genre of reggae known as Lovers Rock. This music became a global brand through artists like UB40 and Maxi Priest. The music brought a level of intimacy between young people that was unique. It was also 'girl power' music that empowered a generation of young women. Through comedy, live performance, dance, interviews and archive the film takes you back to an untold era of British cultural, music and political history.
The Story of Lovers Rock 2011
Bluebeard's Castle
Bluebeard's Castle
Based on the Béla Bartók opera, Duke Bluebeard reluctantly and gradually uncovers the secrets of his psyche to his fourth wife, Judit, opening the seven doors of his castle to ultimately reveal his still living previous wives, among whom Judit must take her place.
Bluebeard's Castle 1963
Rebel Dread
Rebel Dread
Documentary about Don Letts who played a leading role in pop history. Letts injected Afro-Caribbean music into the early punk scene and shot over 300 music videos including for Public Image Ltd. and Bob Marley, but also for teen sensations Musical Youth's reggae smash 'Pass The Dutchie'. Besides his enduring relationship with The Clash, the constant factor in Letts' eventful career as a DJ, manager, film director, musician and radio maker is that, from the 1970s on, he continued to draw attention to cultural issues, as he does today with his radio programme for BBC 6, Culture Clash Radio.
Rebel Dread 2022
City of Lost Souls
City of Lost Souls
With stars like Angie Stardust (also music credits), Judith Flex, and Joaquin La Habana, director Rosa von Praunheim has fashioned a film about the teeming flip side of life in Berlin centered on eccentric characters of almost every imaginable sexual orientation, or disorientation -- most are American performers drawn to the city of "lost souls" as a place where they can give full rein to their creative natures.
City of Lost Souls 1983
Studio 17: The Lost Reggae Tapes
Studio 17: The Lost Reggae Tapes
A newly discovered treasure trove of tapes from Studio 17, or Randy's located in downtown Kingston Jamaica, is the starting point for this remarkable story about a Chinese Jamaican family who helped create the music we now know as reggae.
Studio 17: The Lost Reggae Tapes 2019
I Am Weekender
I Am Weekender
Wiz's Weekender (1992) was a film ahead of its time, both in form and content. It engaged with contemporary issues that mainstream media were eager to sensationalise. Consequently, it was branded with an 18 certificate and banned by both the BBC and ITV, never reaching a wider audience. For the past three decades, Weekender has bubbled just below the surface, gaining genuine cult status and influencing a vast network of creators. In the run-up to its thirtieth anniversary filmmakers Tabitha Denholm and Adam Dunlop interviewed people involved in the project. I Am Weekender is built around those conversations.
I Am Weekender 2023
23 Seconds to Eternity
23 Seconds to Eternity
Journey through the music videos and short films from Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond in their various guises as The JAMs, The KLF and The Timelords, one of the most successful and subversively creative electronic bands of the early 90s.
23 Seconds to Eternity 2023
I've Been Trying to Tell You
I've Been Trying to Tell You
Do you look back on the optimism of the 1997-2001 era as a lost golden age, or do you see it as a period of naïvety, delusion and folly? There’s a lot of nostalgia for the nineties at the moment, especially from people too young to remember it who see the decade as a simpler, pre-internet time. Modern nostalgia often draws on corporate American-90s mall culture, but what about British culture? With I’ve Been Trying To Tell You – made to accompany the Saint Etienne album of the same name – director Alasdair McLellan evokes the era through the fog of memory. The resulting film, shot in locations from Grangemouth to Portmeirion to Southampton, is both beautiful and enveloping.
I've Been Trying to Tell You 2021
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