Best Folk Singer Movies & TV Shows

Filmed in the autumn of 1975 prior to and during Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour – featuring appearances and performances by Ronee Blakley, T-Bone Burnett, Jack Elliott, Allen Ginsberg, Arlo Guthrie, Ronnie Hawkins, Roger McGuinn, Joni Mitchell, Mick Ronson, Arlen Roth, Sam Shepard, and Harry Dean Stanton – the film incorporates three distinct film genres: concert footage, documentary interviews, and dramatic fictional vignettes reflective of Dylan's song lyrics and life.

This is a true story about the relationship between a mother and her daughter, and their struggle to make it to the top in the music world. It is about hopes and dreams... about relationships and about growing up.

An unvarnished chronicle of Bob Dylan's metamorphosis from folk to rock musician via appearances at the Newport Folk Festival between 1963 and 1965.

This BBC documentary chronicles the life of folk/soft-rock singer John Denver through his rise with The Chad Mitchell Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary, his subsequent stardom, his popularity decline, and his tragic death at age 53.

Based on Lloyd Kaufman’s cult 1984 comedy film, The Toxic Avenger The Musical tells the story of the citizens of Tromaville who are crying out for a hero. Enter nerdy Melvin Ferd the Third, an aspiring earth scientist, determined to clean up the state’s major toxic waste problem. When a corrupt Mayor and her government goons get wind of his plans, they vow to stop this heroic feat. Melvin is attacked and tossed into a vat of toxic waste... transforming him instantly into The Toxic Avenger, New Jersey’s first superhero! Toxie is a 7-foot mutant freak with superhuman strength and a supersized heart to match. His aims are to save heavily polluted New Jersey, end global warming, win the heart of the prettiest (blindest) librarian in town - and get home in time for dinner!

A documentary on the life and work of Gene Clark, co-founder of The Byrds, whose subsequent career was a rollercoaster of pioneering music and personal disaster.

A San Francisco cab driver find himself in possession of a monkey that is carrying a formula for turning atomic waste into a plutonium bomb. He finds himself framed for a murder and chased…

In Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, gifted but volatile folk musician Llewyn Davis struggles with money, relationships, and his uncertain future.

The comic/folk duo Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci hit prime time with their act in this scripted series for IFC. It follows hard-working underdogs trying to make their mark in comedy while muddling through messy dating scenarios, and doing so by performing one satirical (and often quite saucy) song after another. Nothing stops the ukulele- and guitar-wielding twosome from singing about life's unspoken truths, despite it leaving them detached from their peers. The series is titled after Lindhome and Micucci's band name, inspired by "two famous rock 'n' roll second bananas," Art Garfunkel and John Oates.

A plane carrying seven blind people to a convention for the blind in Seattle crashes in the mountains due to severe weather. Only the blind survive the crash and they must make their way back through the wilderness to civilization.

Director Christopher Guest reunites the team from "Best In Show" and "Waiting for Guffman" to tell the story of '60s-era folk musicians, who, inspired by the death of their former manager, get back on the stage for one concert in New York City's Town Hall.

From the song he refuses to perform to his admiration for Drake, a songwriting legend reflects on his lyrics and longevity with candour and humour. At 80 years young (and currently recording another album), Gordon Lightfoot continues to entertain and enlighten. Personal archive materials and studio sessions paint an intimate picture of an artist in his element, candidly revisiting his idealistic years in Yorkville's coffeehouses, up through stadium tours and the hedonistic '70s.

Mock documentary about an upstart candidate for the U.S. Senate written and directed by actor Tim Robbins. Bob Roberts is a folksinger with a difference: He offers tunes that protest welfare chiselers, liberal whining, and the like. As the filmmakers follow his campaign, Robbins gives needle-sharp insight into the way candidates manipulate the media.

Annie is stuck in a long-term relationship with Duncan – an obsessive fan of obscure rocker Tucker Crowe. When the acoustic demo of Tucker's hit record from 25 years ago surfaces, its discovery leads to a life-changing encounter with the elusive rocker himself.

A young woman struggles to move on with her life after the death of her husband, an acclaimed folk singer, when a brash New York writer forces her to confront her loss and the ambiguous circumstances of his death.

In the mid-1960s, wealthy debutant Edie Sedgwick meets artist Andy Warhol. She joins Warhol's famous Factory and becomes his muse. Although she seems to have it all, Edie cannot have the love she craves from Andy, and she has an affair with a charismatic musician, who pushes her to seek independence from the artist and the milieu.

The life story of traditional Irish folk singer Joe Heaney, who is estimated to have recorded in excess of 500 traditional Irish sean nós ('old style') songs. Heaney moved from Ireland to the UK, and then on to New York City, where he settled shortly after performing at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.

When James met Penelope at a club, it took all of three weeks before they were married. But after the marriage, other women became attracted to James and he kept getting promoted, which took him away from Penelope. So Penelope puts on a disguise and robs her husband's bank. Her psychiatrist, Greg, believes that this condition is caused by James being over worked and under romantic with Penelope. She also tells Greg that she robs the business associates of James. But Greg is in love with Penelope - in fact everyone likes her. The problem is when she confesses to her crimes, no one believes her.

Sadie looks up to her older sister Georgia, a successful folk singer who's happily married with children, but can't break out of the bar-band circuit and hit the big time she desperately covets. It's in part due to her attraction to drugs and booze, and also to her own unwise choice in men. Finally, though, Sadie's Achilles heel is a rough, unlovely voice very different than her sister's crowd-pleasing singing.

Greed, corruption, ignorance, and disease. Midsummer, 1349: the Black Death reaches northern Germany. Minstrels go to Hamelin for the Mayor's daughter's wedding to the Baron's son. He wants her dowry to pay his army while his father taxes the people to build a cathedral he thinks will save his soul. A local apothecary who's a Jew seeks a treatment for the plague; the priests charge him with witchcraft. One of the minstrels, who has soothed the Mayor's daughter with his music, promises to rid the town of rats for the fee. The Mayor agrees, then renigs. In the morning, the plague, the Jew's trial, and the Piper's revenge come at once.

A sadistic rock singer will do anything for fame, including seducing older women, stealing money, bedding his agent's wife, and harming a naive teen.

HBO Digital Comedy.

Ben Singer is a failed children's folk singer, a career proofreader, a less-than-extraordinary weekend dad, and perhaps the most negative man alive. Floundering in all aspects of his life, Ben's only comfort comes from regular chess games and friendly debates on game theory with his Senegalese roommate Ibou. When Ibou is suddenly struck ill, Ben's pessimistic worldview seems unequivocally confirmed. It takes an extended visit from Ibou's sister Khadi for Ben to realize that cynicism may be all a matter of perspective.

In the glitzy, glittering futuristic world of 1994, music is king -- and the man who controls it is all-powerful malicious mogul Mr. Boogalow. Now he has his eye on two fresh-faced young singers, Alphie and Bibi, who score a hit at his WorldVision Song Festival and fall under the irresistible spell of fame, money, and temptation.

Interviews and rare archive footage weave together performances from a landmark multi-artist concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London, celebrating the songs and artistry of the great folk-blues troubadour Bert Jansch.

A roaming hillbilly, on a quest to defy the Devil, encounters several supernatural characters and does battle with his silver-stringed guitar.

A talent scout and her colleague form their own company when their agency ignores their latest discovery.

An Irish-born businessman based in London is kidnapped by colleagues as a joke and flown back to the small village of his birth. There he finds that American gangsters are forcing the local publicans to buy illegally-produced raw spirit with which to adulterate branded products.