Legend of Lead Belly

The Upsetter tells the fascinating story of Lee Scratch Perry a visionary musician and artist from poor rural Jamaica who journeyed to the big city of Kingston in the late 1950’s with dreams of making it in the burgeoning record industry. He burst upon the scene with a brand new sound, inventing a genre of music that would come to be called Reggae, discovering a young Bob Marley and gaining international recognition as a record producer and solo artist. Soon he was being called upon by artists as diverse as The Clash and Paul McCartney to provide his unique sound.

Never Give Up: The 20th Century Odyssey of Herbert Zipper is a 1995 short documentary film about Herbert Zipper. It was written, directed, and produced by Terry Sanders, with Freida Lee Mock co-producing. The extraordinary story of Vienna born musician and conductor Herbert Zipper who survived Dachau, Buchenwald, and a Japanese concentration camp to become one of the great music educators of the world, continuing at 92 to bring music to the inner city schools of America. In Dachau, Zipper organized secret concerts using makeshift instruments. He learned the lesson that music and the arts are essential to the very existence of life. For the last half of the 20th century, Zipper has pioneered in bringing professional orchestras into America's inner city schools. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short at the 68th Academy Awards in 1996.

An aging rock star trying to put together a new album in the face of an indifferent record label and a talentless producer. At the same time, he's struggling to save his failing marriage.

In this short film, prominent jazz musicians of the 1940s gather for a rare filming of a jam session. This highly stylized chronicle features tenor sax legend Lester Young.

This documentary examines the Seattle scene as it became the focus of a merging of punk rock, heavy metal, and innovation. Building from the grass roots, self-promoted and self-recorded until break-out success of bands like Nirvana brought the record industry to the Pacific Northwest, a phenomenon was born.

The life and struggles of a notorious rock musician seeping into a pit of loneliness whose everyday life involves friends and family seeking financial aid and favors, inspired by rock music legend Kurt Cobain and his final hours.

The life of Blues and folk singer Huddie Leadbetter, nicknamed Leadbelly is recounted. Covering the good times and bad from his 20s to 40s. Much of that time was spent on chain gangs in the south. Even in prison he became well known for the songs he had composed and sung during and before the time he spent there.

With the help of her mother, family, friends, and fellow musicians, Aiyana Elliott reaches for her father, legendary cowboy troubadour, Ramblin' Jack Elliott. She explores who he is and how he got there, working back and forth between archival and contemporary footage. Born in 1932 in Brooklyn, busking through the South and West in the early 50s, a year with Woody Guthrie, six years flatpicking in Europe, a triumphant return to Greenwich Village in the early 60s, mentoring Bob Dylan, then life on the road, from gig to gig, singing and telling stories. A Grammy and the National Medal of Arts await Jack near the end of a long trail. What will Aiyana find for herself?

Beginning just before his debut as Frankenstein’s creation, this documentary compellingly explores the life and legacy of a cinema legend, presenting a perceptive history of the genre he personified. Karloff's films were long derided as hokum and attacked by censors, but his phenomenal popularity and pervasive influence endures, inspiring some of our greatest actors and directors into the 21st Century – among them Guillermo Del Toro, Ron Perlman, Roger Corman, and John Landis, all of whom and many more contribute their personal insights and anecdotes.

A documentary film by Peter I. Chang which traces the life of the Japanese musician Hisao Shinagawa through his early years as a folk singer in Tokyo to his current occupation as a street performer in Los Angeles.

A provocative and wholly unique hybrid of dance, theatre and music, FELA! explores the world of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Winner of three 2010 Tony Awards including Best Choreography (Bill T. Jones). Featuring many of Fela Kuti’s most captivating songs and Bill T. Jones’ visionary staging, FELA! – an original new creation – comes via Broadway to London and the National Theatre. FELA! explores the extravagant, decadent and rebellious world of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Using his pioneering music (a blend of jazz, funk and African rhythm and harmonies), FELA! reveals Kuti’s controversial life as an artist and political activist.

Gina Jackson's life is shattered when her brother and lead vocalist of the band Army of Love, Vaughn, is killed in a tragic accident. Ten years later, young guitar prodigy Oak Scoggins enters her orbit, and she becomes convinced that this young man is the reincarnation of Vaughn. But is he?

Award-winning comedian Rich Hall takes a country music journey from Tennessee to Texas to look at the movements and artists that don't get as much notoriety but have helped shape the genre over the years. With the help of prominent performers and producers including Michael Martin Murphey, Robbie Fulks and Ray Benson, Rich explores the early origins of country music in Nashville and Austin. He visits the rustic studios where this much-loved sound was born and discovers how the genre has reinvented itself with influences from bluegrass, western swing and americana.

Musician Jon Batiste attempts to compose a symphony as his wife, writer Suleika Jaouad, undergoes cancer treatment.

Mike Figgis’ enthralling documentary about the turbulent life and career of Ronnie Wood, legendary rock guitarist and long-time member of The Rolling Stones.

An intimate look into the personal lives of pop music's greatest and most influential artists.

Rayna Jaymes and Juliette Barnes face personal and professional challenges as they navigate their paths as artists and individuals. Surrounding them, and often complicating their lives, are their family, friends and, in some cases, lovers, as well as the up-and-coming performers and songwriters trying to get ahead in the business.

Howard Goodall examines the work of The Beatles, Cole Porter, Bernard Herrmann and Leonard Bernstein.

Travel back through the 20th century to explore the roots of American music and discover the pioneers of the musical forms that combined on American soil to become the most pervasive music throughout the world.

A new take on the variety show where host Joseph Gordon-Levitt directs countless artists from his global online community — hitRECord — to create short films, live performances, music, animation, conversation, and of course, more! Each episode focuses on a different theme as Joe invites and encourages anybody with an internet connection to join him and contribute. Are you RECording?

An excellent narration of oil industry since early days to 20th century and up to today. How oil changed the world and shaped our modern world today.

Looking at these major artists, we discover the story of their lives and the impact they made on popular culture. Interviews with well known music critics, news archive and performance.

In the early 1990s in New York, during the height of the crack cocaine epidemic, a visionary musician named Bobby Diggs aka The RZA begins to form a super group of a dozen young, black men, who will eventually rise to become one of the unlikeliest success stories in American music history.

Explore the history of a uniquely American art form: country music. From its deep and tangled roots in ballads, blues and hymns performed in small settings, to its worldwide popularity, learn how country music evolved over the course of the 20th century, as it eventually emerged to become America’s music.

A behind-the-scenes look at the lives of the people who help America wake up in the morning, exploring the unique challenges faced by the men and women who carry out this daily televised ritual.

This unique, interview-based series features WWE legend Steve Austin with a variety of his celebrity friends in exciting surroundings. On each episode, the host and his famous guests swap stories about their lives and careers during one-of-a-kind, custom-tailored adventures in different cities across America.

Offers a reappraisal of "yacht rock", a critically neglected era of music popularized by a boom in FM radio stations and its smooth sound. The gleaming yacht sound was, in part, always defined by a group of LA-based session players and composers who worked across a range of yacht bands, informing their specific tone and level of musicianship. Some of these artists talk about the yacht phenomenon and being part of the scene back in the day. The series explores how the music adapted from the the bearded sensitivity of the '70s to the bombast of the MTV '80s, and how a satirical online drama contributed to a revival of interest and enthusiasm for these sounds in the digital era.

Hosted by Melody Holt (Love & Marriage: Huntsville), the series’ star-studded lineup includes multi-platinum R&B artist Usher and his mother Jonnetta Patton, gospel music legend Kirk Franklin and his wife Tammy Franklin, multi-Grammy Award winner Ne-Yo and his wife Crystal Smith, artist multi-platinum selling artist Wyclef Jean and his wife Claudinette Jean and DJ and radio host DJ Envy and his wife Gia Casey

The story of the legendary record producers who dominated pop music in the 80s and 90s, selling countless millions of records and launching the careers of Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley, Jason Donovan and others.

Before Barenaked Ladies, Broken Social Scene and Rush rose from Toronto's music scene, there was Rompin' Ronnie Hawkins, Robbie Robertson and Gordon Lightfoot making a name for themselves on Yonge Street. This three-part documentary reveals the history of how Toronto's main drag became the leading destination for singers, musicians and music fans not only in the city but across Canada as well. It began in the mid-1950s and flourished until the early '70s, and in between such artists as David Clayton-Thomas, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Levon Helm, Led Zeppelin and Jeff Beck performed on Yonge Street. In addition to archival audio and video footage, featured interviewees include Hawkins, Robertson, Lightfoot, music producer Daniel Lanois and festival promoter John Brower.