In these special times we selected for you some of our favourite musical films. Join us on a musical voyage, enjoy the creativity and get inspired for a resilient year-end. You can watch them all online completely free of charge.
The Female Voice of Iran
(Andreas Rochholl, Yalda Yazdani & Sebastian Leitner)
An anonymous woman introduces her talisman, a small golden camel called “Negar”, as the storyteller of her deepest wish: “I want my voice to be heard”. She seeks to organise a gathering of many female voices from all over Iran, who have been isolated until now. They are supposed to meet in a garden in Esfahan, in the very middle of this vast country. To make this vision come true, she finds the help of two travellers, who she invites to only listen – and learn more about the real stories behind all these different women.
Lomax, the Songhunter
(Rogier Kappers, EN, Spaans ondertiteld)
This is a documentary film about Alan Lomax, a man who, after World War II, was determined to record folk music from United States and all over the world before it was blown away by mass consumer culture. The film traces Alan’s journey across the globe, stopping to hear testimonials from many of the people or relatives of the people he recorded.
Jimmy Rosenberg – The Father, The Son & The Talent (Jeroen Berkvens, NL)
Jimmy Rosenberg was still in primary school when he caused a furore as the sure-fire successor of guitar legend Django Reinhardt. His virtuosity was unparalleled and a golden future lay ahead. When he was just 15, the sensitive teenager signed a million-dollar contract with Sony Classics in New York. Addicted to drugs, he squandered millions and fell out of touch with his children and their mothers. Jimmy, now 25, is kicking the habit and spending a lot of time with his mother and two brothers on a remote farm in Brabant. Jeroen Berkvens succeeds in depicting Jimmy and his relatives with an effective transparency that makes this documentary both touching and shocking.
Human- (Yann Arthus-Bertrand)
HUMAN’s Musics – A film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand / Composed by Armand Amar
Not a typical music film, but with beautiful music. What is it that makes us human? Is it that we love, that we fight ? That we laugh ? Cry ? Our curiosity ? The quest for discovery ? Driven by these questions, filmmaker and artist Yann Arthus-Bertrand spent three years collecting real-life stories from 2,000 women and men in 60 countries.
The full version
The musical version
BBC – The Lost Music of Rajasthan
The iconic arts series ‘Imagine’ takes a road trip round the desert state of Rajasthan, meeting musicians whose existence is under threat from the new India. They meet Bhopa bards who recite four-night-long epics in front of huge hand-painted scrolls, saffron-clad, chillum-smoking sisters, cross-dressers and Gypsy dancers who literally bend over backwards to pick up rupees.