The Wiz

Dorothy Gale, a shy kindergarten teacher, is swept away to the magic land of Oz where she embarks on a quest to return home.

A Night In Havana: Dizzy Gillespie In Cuba

A documentary on Dizzy Gillespie's landmark visit to Cuba and his performance at the Fifth International Jazz Festival in Havana, Cuba. Filmed in 1985 with Arturo Sandoval and Sayyd Abdul Al Khabyyr.

The Green Book: Guide to Freedom

In 1936, Victor H. Green (1892-1960) published The Negro Motorist Green Book, a book that was both a travel guide and a survival manual, to help African-Americans navigate safe those regions of the United States where segregation and Jim Crow laws were disgracefully applied.

Swingonometry

Three female performers – pianist Renara, tap-dancer Irene Cutter and singer Shirley Lenner – are supported by Harry Parry and his band in this short film. Cinema audiences were cheered up through WWII by entertaining revue films such as this.

Standards I/II

Sweet and Lowdown

In the 1930s, jazz guitarist Emmet Ray idolizes Django Reinhardt, faces gangsters and falls in love with a mute woman.

Karmen Geï

Bizet's Carmen gets a modern adaptation. Seducting, provocating, sensual. All the ingredients for a perfect drama. With her charm, Karmen gets out of many situations.

Ray

Born on a sharecropping plantation in Northern Florida, Ray Charles went blind at seven. Inspired by a fiercely independent mom who insisted he make his own way, He found his calling and his gift behind a piano keyboard. Touring across the Southern musical circuit, the soulful singer gained a reputation and then exploded with worldwide fame when he pioneered coupling gospel and country together.

La fabuleuse histoire du jazz à Vienne

The emblematic festival Jazz à Vienne welcomes each year more than 200 000 festival-goers and 1000 artists. This documentary retraces the history and relives the highlights of the festival, since its creation in 1981 by Jean-Paul Boutellier, Jean Gueffier, Pierre Domeyne, Jean-Pierre Vignola and George Wein. The greatest jazz musicians have performed there, such as Miles Davis, Michel Petrucciani, Ella Fitzgerald, Sonny Rollins, Lionel Hampton, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Herbie Hancock, Chet Baker, Dizzy Gillespie. So much so that in four decades, Jazz à Vienne has become one of the most important jazz festivals in the world, open to all styles.

Stress

"The trauma of 9/11, the ideology of violent retribution, military service as a patriotic family tradition, the “unfairness” of today’s warfare – in their voice-overs, five young Afghanistan war veterans first establish familiar foundations. Joe, Torrie, Mike, James and Justin from Pittsburgh are slow to show us their faces. Physically unharmed but full of inner pain they have become the misunderstood upon their return. Their violent experiences speak a language that the people at home don’t understand.

Two Blondes and a Redhead

Socialite Cathy Abbott is working in the chorus of a Broadway show instead of being enrolled at an exclusive girl's school as her parents think. When the show closes, she brings two of her chorus friends home with her. In addition to trying to make her friends acceptable to the snooty society of which her family is part, she is also being blackmailed by a rival.

James Baldwin Abroad

Showcasing three short films by American writer James Baldwin, wherein he muses about race, sexuality and civil rights, among other topics, in Istanbul, Paris and Great Britain.

Daybreak Express

Set to a classic Duke Ellington recording "Daybreak Express", this is a five-minute short of the soon-to-be-demolished Third Avenue elevated subway station in New York City.

Inside Out In the Open

Inside Out In The Open is an hour-long documentary about a form of jazz, popularly known as free jazz. The film is an exploration of that music through the voices and performances of over twenty such musicians, from those who were its first generation to younger musicians joining the tradition.

Staying Alive

It's five years later and Tony Manero's Saturday Night Fever is still burning. Now he's strutting toward his biggest challenger yet - making it as a dancer on the Broadway stage.

What Difference Does It Make?

A documentary that explores the challenges that a life in music can bring.

Lenin kam nur bis Lüdenscheid - Meine kleine deutsche Revolution

Komeda, Komeda...

A feature- length documentary on the life and work of jazz musician and composer Krzysztof Komeda.

Bittersweet

An oral history documentary of people of color at Miami University during its Public Ivy period—from 1970 to the early 2000s.

Black and Blue

When Georgia Tech came to Michigan in 1934, the Wolverines were forced to bench their best play, Willis Ward, because he was an African-American. The incident infuriated Ward’s best friend on the team, a future president by the name of Jerry Ford, who threatened to quit the team in response. The friendship that began in the Big House lasted all the way to the White House. This is the story of two schools, two friends, and a game that changed everything.