Directed by Murray Lerner • 1967 • United States

Before WOODSTOCK and MONTEREY POP, there was FESTIVAL. From 1963 through 1966, Murray Lerner visited the annual Newport Folk Festival to document a thriving, idealistic musical movement as it reached its peak as a popular phenomenon. Joan Baez, Bo...

Directed by Ethan Hawke • 2018 • United States
Starring Ben Dickey, Alia Shawkat, Josh Hamilton

He was the greatest country singer you’ve (probably) never heard of: a genius, a loser, a philosopher, a drunk, a poet, a rebel, and a ramblin’ man who lived each day of his too-short life on his own ...

Directed by John Waters • 1988 • United States
Starring Ricki Lake, Sonny Bono, Divine

John Waters scored one of the biggest commercial and critical successes of his career with this affectionately outrageous musical satire that found the filmmaker bringing his outsider vision into the mainstrea...

Directed by Nick Spitzer • 1984 • United States

Shot in rural French-speaking Louisiana, this vibrant ethnographic portrait of zydeco’s beloved musical families explores their Creole identities through engaging footage of them at home, in local clubs, at work, and running Mardi Gras. Featuring p...

Directed by Maureen Gosling and Chris Simon • 2013 • United States

THIS AIN’T NO MOUSE MUSIC! is a vivid portrait of Chris Strachwitz, the obsessive sonic sleuth who founded the legendary music label Arhoolie Records to bring blues, Cajun, Tejano, zydeco, folk, and other forms of American roots ...

Directed by Neo Sora • 2023 • Japan
Starring Ryuichi Sakamoto

A celebration of an artist’s life in the purest sense, RYUICHI SAKAMOTO | OPUS is the swan song of one of the world’s greatest musicians. As a parting gift, in late 2022, Ryuichi Sakamoto mustered all of his energy to leave us with on...

Directed by Nicolas Roeg • 1980 • United Kingdom
Starring Art Garfunkel, Theresa Russell, Harvey Keitel

Amid the decaying elegance of cold-war Vienna, psychoanalyst Dr. Alex Linden (Art Garfunkel) becomes mired in an erotically charged affair with the elusive Milena Flaherty (Theresa Russell). W...

Directed by Phil King • 2024 • United Kingdom
Starring Miki Berenyi, Emma Anderson, Chris Acland

One of the defining bands of the shoegaze wave that washed over the indie-rock world in the 1990s, Lush mesmerized with their otherworldly vocals set against a swirling wall of sound. Assembled by fo...

Directed by Ryan Daly and Will Oldham • 2023 • United States

This visual accompaniment to the 2023 album of the same name by revered indie-folk wizard Will Oldham (aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy) invites us not only to hear but to watch the music in a new way. Assembled by filmmaker and archivist Rya...

Directed by Adepero Oduye • 2017 • United States
Starring Adepero Oduye

In this soul-stirring short featuring stunning cinematography from Bradford Young, PARIAH actor Adepero Oduye takes the stage as the great Nina Simone for an intimate, defiant performance.

Directed by Darol Olu Kae • 2023 • United States

The Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (The Ark) has been a legend in Los Angeles’s avant-garde jazz community for over sixty years. But since the death of its founder, pianist and composer Horace Tapscott, the band has spent the last three decades ebbi...

Directed by Jake Meginsky with Neil Young • 2018 • United States
Starring Milford Graves

This portrait of renowned percussionist and founding pioneer of avant-garde jazz Milford Graves finds him exploring his kaleidoscopic creativity and relentless curiosity. The film draws the viewer through th...

Directed by Shirley Clarke • 1985 • United States
Starring Ornette Coleman

This freewheeling documentary captures Ornette Coleman’s evolution over three decades. Documentary footage, dramatic scenes, and some of the first music-video-style segments ever made chronicle his boyhood in segregated T...

Directed by John Coney • 1974 • United States
Starring Sun Ra, Barbara Deloney, Raymond Johnson

Avant-jazz mystic Sun Ra brought his pioneering Afrofuturist vision to the screen with this film version of his concept album. It’s a wild, kaleidoscopic whirl of science fiction, sharp social comment...

Directed by Franc Roddam • 1979 • United Kingdom
Starring Phil Daniels, Leslie Ash, Sting

The Who’s classic rock opera “Quadrophenia” was the basis for this invigorating coming-of-age movie and depiction of the defiant, drug-fueled mod subculture of early-1960s London. Our antihero is Jimmy (Phi...

Directed by Wim Wenders • 1999 • Germany, United States

Traveling from the streets of Havana to the stage of Carnegie Hall, this revelatory documentary captures a forgotten generation of Cuba’s brightest musical talents as they enjoy an unexpected encounter with world fame. The veteran vocalists...

Directed by D. A. Pennebaker • 1970 • United States
Starring Stephen Sondheim, Elaine Stritch, Donna McKechnie

This legendary, long-unavailable documentary from Direct Cinema pioneer D. A. Pennebaker captures the behind-the-scenes drama that went into the making of a classic Broadway recording. ...

Criterion Collection Edition #711

Directed by Richard Lester • 1964 • United Kingdom

Meet the Beatles! Just one month after they exploded onto the U.S. scene with their Ed Sullivan Show appearance, John, Paul, George, and Ringo began working on a project that would bring their revolutionary tal...

Directed by D. A. Pennebaker • 1967 • United States

Bob Dylan is captured on-screen as he never would be again in this groundbreaking film from D. A. Pennebaker. The legendary documentarian finds Dylan in England during his 1965 tour, which would be his last as an acoustic artist. In this wildly...

Directed by Les Blank • 1971 • United States

A deeply moving tribute to the Texas songster, Mance Lipscomb, considered by many to be the greatest guitarist of all time.