A youth inspirational film, about how a group of high school students try to revive Chinese orchestra ensemble. They face many challenges along the way to compete nationally, including a rivalry with the more popular Western orchestra club.
Most likely made for the large Neapolitan immigrant population in the States, Roberto Leone Roberti’s love poem to Naples more than captures the heartache of the countless émigrés who were forced by economic circumstances to leave their homeland.
In Peruvian Amazonia, for the first time in many years, a Shipibo–Konibo community prepare to perform the Aneshiati ceremony: a time of dance, song, festive clothing, and drink—including the sacred tea ayahuasca.
Toyoda Toshiaki went to Sado Island and filmed musician Koshiro Hino and Kodo, the local Taiko Performing Arts Ensemble, while they performed music composed especially for Shiver.
When the rain ends, life sprouts from the earth. A fruit grows and becomes the apple that gives life to the cider. Then comes the time of harvest, toasting and celebrating love. A story about the cycle of life and death, of the struggle for survival. Where the passage of time is marked by the course of nature, music and dance.
A feud develops between a taverna with bouzoukia and a club next door that plays modern music.
The Shipibo-Konibo people of Peruvian Amazon decorate their pottery, jewelry, textiles, and body art with complex geometric patterns called kené. These patterns also have corresponding songs, called icaros, which are integral to the Shipibo way of life. This documentary explores these unique art forms, and one Shipibo family's efforts to safeguard the tradition.
On the shores of the Gulf of Finland, the ancient Finno-Ugric peoples originated a singing tradition of mysterious power called the Regilaul. These songs are the roots of Estonia’s renowned singing culture. Based on the continuous repetition of eight-syllable verses, they produce a haunting sound able to connect the fleeting present with the eternal circle of life. Against the stunning setting of modern Estonia, this film explores how Regi songs still fire the imagination today, weaving together people and nature through song.
A trip through the diversity of black and native Peruvian music. Character-driven film, one where the characters are integral to the nation itself. This movie delves into music and musicians, yet it's not strictly a musical; rather, it's a tapestry of seemingly disparate personal narratives woven together in a country also striving to define itself and sketch its identity
An intimate documentary portrait of world-class improvisational and traditional pianist Mike Garson as he tours, performs, and teaches.
Zimbabwean musician, Biggie Tempo, talks to a number of UK folk musicians about their work and their views on traditional music.
Unustatud rahvad (1970 - 1989) by Estonian composer Veljo Tormas is based upon six Balto-Finnic peoples traditions. Collegium Musicale choir brought the songs to different sides of Baltic coasts to liven current citizens connections for fleeting past and strengthen their identity.
In the panorama of Kurdish music, Koma Berxwedan (Group Resistance) is one of the most interesting, innovative, experimental groups. To a deep love for music research the group has always associated a strong political commitment. Some of its members have joined the PKK guerrillas in the mountains of Kurdistan. Three of them died in combat. Some have been forced to live in exile and others continued to challenge the Turkish authorities by carrying out their work in Kurdistan.
Shipibo healer Ricardo Amaringo describes how he prepares, teaches, and shares the plant medicine ayahuasca. Olivia and Julian Arévalo sing examples of icaros (healing songs) in the Shipibo language.
What is tradition? This is the question posed by yodeller and food researcher Meinrad Koch from Canton Appenzell. In search of an answer, he embarks on a journey.
This Documentary takes a look at the art life of Maestro "MohammadReza Lotfi", the great master of "Târ", "Setâr"; great composer of Persian traditional music and the father of art of improvisation in "Dastgâh" music. by interviewing some of the greatest Iranian traditional music maestros and his close friends such as: MohammadReza Shajarian, Hossein Alizâdeh, Bizhan Kâmkâr, Houshang Ebtehâj (a.k.a Sâyeh), Majid Derakhshâni and a lot of other great musicians, the film narrates the life of Lotfi in 4 seasons of his life, from the spring until winter.
May It Fill Your Soul is a film about Bulgarian traditional music, about the pain of emigration and the promise of immigration, and about a family with a century-long musical history. Bulgaria's astonishingly rich village music traditions include strong women's singing, musical instruments with roots its millennia-old pastoral lifestyle and its 500-year history in the Ottoman Empire, and its lively dancing in additive meters of 5, 7, 9, and 11 beats to the measure. These practices are presented through the lens of a musical family trained during Bulgaria's communist regime (1944-1989) to represent the best that Bulgaria had to offer the world, but who made the wrenching decision in the post-communist period to immigrate to the United States for the sake of their daughters' futures. From that vantage point they have been able to teach their art to, and "fill the souls" of, singers, dancers, musicians, and audiences all over the world.
Since the graduation of the senior members of the club, Takezou ends up being the sole member of the "Koto" (traditional Japanese string instrument) club. Now that the new school year has begun, Takezou will have to seek out new members into the club, or the club will become terminated. Out of nowhere, a new member barges into the near-abandoned club room, demanding to join the club. How will Takezou be able to keep his club alive and deal with this rascal of a new member?
Lee Gyu Won is the daughter of one of the top three maestros of pansori and is also a gayageum protégé herself. Following her grandfather’s wishes for her to study the gayageum, she enrolls as a major of gugak, or traditional Korean music. Lee Shin is unfriendly, yet a clever student in the Applied Music Department who also is the famed vocalist and talented guitarist of the handsome band named The Stupid. With charming looks equal to those of a handsome character in a romance comic and a cold, taciturn personality, he thinks gugak is boring and belittles it. As the vocalist Lee Shin and Gayageum Protégé Lee Gyu Won passionately confront each other to champion their respective music, they soon fall in love.
The 1950s were an era filled with desire and aspiration, despite the aftermath of the Korean War. Jeongnyeon, a girl with a gifted voice, embarks on a journey to become the best actor of gukgeuk, or Korean female classical opera, where she encounters competition, solidarity, and growth.
Sawamura Matsugorou is a shamisen player of legendary talent. Upon his death, his grandson, Sawamura Yuki, lost his ability to play. Having lost his beloved sound, Yuki finds himself in Tokyo in search of a new sound to love. Tachimura Yuna, who works at a club, hooks him up with a gig to play there as a warm up act. Yuki imbues the sound of his shamisen with his many thoughts and feelings he has of others, still searching for his own sound and his own feelings.
Pong Lang dancing is Plengpin's favorite thing, but her mother who's a former top Pong Lang dancer always tries to stop her from doing it. Daopradub is planning to make the Pong Lang group of E-Sarn Orn Sorn come back with a new generation of dancers. She's impressed by Plengpin's performance and offers her a chance to audition for the group. Poom, Duenpradub's son, convinces her parents to let her join after she helps him get away from ruffians. Plengpin's intention is not only to pursue her dream but also find out what happened in the past. Why are her parents against her being a Pong Lang dancer?
