1. Shot! The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock
A reckless joyride into the darkest corners of popular music that delves deep into the mind of Mick Rock, the genius photographer who immortalized the seventies and the rise to rock stardom of many legendary musicians.
It has an average vote of 6.8 on TMDB.
2. Eastwood After Hours
On October 17, 1996, veteran and contemporary jazz greats gathered for a select soiree on the stage of New York's Carnegie Hall, saluting a guy more noted for making popular films than for making sweet music. But as any fan of Clint Eastwood, especially after he started directing 30 years ago, will attest, the award-winning star is also an inveterate jazz lover who has uniquely integrated that musical form into the scores of his films. Join Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, Flip Phillips, Charles McPherson, James Rivers, Slide Hampton, Hank Jones, Thelonious Monk Jr., the Kyle Eastwood Quartet, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band and more for this scintillating celebration of film and music.
3. A Dog's Life: A Dogamentary
A Dog's Life: A Dogamentary, a wacky and poignant documentary about the positive effects of the bond between dogs and humans, told through the story of Gayle Kirschenbaum and her dog Chelsea. Chelsea rigged with a "doggie cam", this couple hit the streets of NY looking for love. 9/11 happens. Chelsea emerges as a healing force as a therapy dog.
4. Ghislaine Maxwell: Filthy Rich
Stories from survivors frame this documentary detailing the sex-trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, a socialite and accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein.
It has an average vote of 6.038 on TMDB.
5. Elevator Pitch
A depiction of New York’s subway as an absurd obstacle course – revealing a system that shuts many out of a city in motion.
It has an average vote of 1 on TMDB.
6. How to Squash a Squat
1989, New York City's Alphabet City and East Village. A year after the Tompkins Square Park Riot, squatters and their community allies try to stop the demolition of their building after an arson. Police forces occupy the neighborhood while the demolition continues. A portrait of an East Village that is no more. An homage to the voices and sounds of a neighborhood before its gentrification.
7. Who Killed Michael Stewart?
A documentary about a case of police brutality in the 80's NYC, the killing of graffiti artist Michael Stewart
8. Jimi Hendrix: Hear My Train a Comin'
An account of the short life of genius musician Jimi Hendrix , probably the most talented and influential guitarist of the twentieth century: his humble beginnings in Seattle, his time in New York, his rise to fame in swinging London… Live fast, love hard, die young.
It has an average vote of 7.4 on TMDB.
9. Youth '68
This documentary interviews young people on war, religion, music, sex, and other topics. Part of NBC's Experiment in Television.
10. Il lato Sbagliato del Ponte (Il lato Sbagliato del Ponte)
(Il lato Sbagliato del Ponte)
11. The Legend of Swee' Pea
Lloyd Daniels was one of the most gifted basketball players ever to emerge from New York City. He was born in Brooklyn in 1967 and grew up in the poorest neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Queens. His mother died when he was three, and his father deserted the family, leaving Lloyd an orphan to be raised by his two grandmothers. Virtually unsupervised, Lloyd learned early-on how to hustle to survive. Hustling came easy for him because he was a charming and likable kid. He still hustles to this day.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
12. New York Underground
In the mid 1800s, New York City was one of the most crowded places on earth. The congested streets and pokey transportation system were a source of constant complaint. On March 24, 1900, ground was broken for the Big Apple's subway; the Interborough Rapid Transit Line opened four years later, running more than 26 miles of underground track at the speed of 35 miles per hour. Soon thousands in the city were "doing the subway."
13. Orchard Street
This short film documents the daily life of the goings-on on Orchard Street, a commercial street in the Lower East Side New York City.
It has an average vote of 6.8 on TMDB.
14. The Only Girl in the Orchestra
Trailblazing double bassist Orin O’Brien never wanted the spotlight, but when Leonard Bernstein hired her in 1966 as the first female musician in the New York Philarmonic, it was inevitable that she would become the focus of much interest and fascination. Now 87 years old and recently retired, Orin looks back on her remarkable life and career, insisting that a fuss should not be made, much preferring to play a supporting role to the family, students, friends, and colleagues that surround her.
15. Hometown Hero: The Legend of New York's Chopped Cheese
Some want to keep it a secret, others want to deconstruct it, and some New Yorkers simply want to celebrate the city's fabled chopped cheese sandwich.
16. Philip Glass: Looking Glass
This documentary captures the overflowing energy and activity of one today's greatest composers, Philip Glass, and allows us to follow him from New York to London and from Paris to Boston. He speaks about his beginnings, his moving to Paris for two years of intensive study with Nadia Boulanger, his meeting with Indian musician Ravi Shankar and director Robert Wilson, who had a deep influence on his career. The film also shows him at work on the last details of his opera The Sound of a Voice, directed by Robert Woodruff and conducted by Alan Johnson. Éric Darmon's camera, with its poetic shots and original framings, takes us for a musical journey into seven months of the life of the composer who, rising from the underground scene of the seventies, brought on a revolution in modern theater.
17. 9/11: Life Under Attack
A unique and compelling account of the day that changed the modern world, captured by ordinary people who chose to pick up their cameras and film that fateful day.
It has an average vote of 7.333 on TMDB.
18. Spit Gold Under an Empire
Short documentary on underground rap culture in New York City.
19. Die Menschenfischer
(Die Menschenfischer)
20. Beat Goes On
Beat Goes On is an impressionistic portrait of the activist Keith Cylar , co-founder of Housing Works and a central figure in the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power NY. Cylar spoke clearly, frequently and with moral force about the struggles of people living with HIV/AIDS in New York City, many of whom were impoverished and struggling with multiple social and medical problems. His openness about his own drug use and the centrality of the fight against the criminalization of drugs for AIDS activism make Cylar's legacy especially resonant and relevant at this time.
