Performing Arts

Filmmaker Yale Strom explores the life and work of Lou Curtiss - creator of the San Diego Folk Festival, Adams Ave. Unplugged Festival, audiophile, folklorist, author, raconteur, radio host and proprietor of Folk Arts Rare Records, a mecca for some of the most celebrated American roots musicians in America.

In her first role for Hong, Lee Hyeyoung, a prominent theater and screen actress in South Korea, makes a captivating return to the big screen. With In Front of Your Face, Hong suggests that perhaps the most important things in this life are also the most immediate.

 A refreshingly sunny performance from Isabelle Huppert (The Piano Teacher, Elle) is at the center of this comic charmer from South Korean Master Hong Sangsoo. Intricately plotted with wit and charm to spare, CLAIRE'S CAMERA explores the power of images to transform us. 

Un Film Dramatique is a lively portrait of the first class to attend the newly constructed Dora Maar middle school, filmed over the course of four years. The group of 21 middle schoolers discuss the drama of their daily lives and experiment with cameras and equipment. They are the film’s subjects, and also its makers.

Follow Neil Gaiman, author of Sandman, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book, on his final signing tour. Featuring interviews with Amanda Palmer, George RR Martin, Bill Hader, and Michael Sheen, Neil Gaiman: Dream Dangerously chronicles the author’s journey from myth-loving child to one of the most popular writers in the world.

Forcefully removed from their ancestral home by the Ugandan government to protect the endangered gorilla population, the indigenous Batwa people start a music club in hopes to preserve their culture through song and story.

2017 ACADEMY AWARD® Nominee for Documentary Short Subject In Joe’s Violin, a donated musical instrument forges an improbable friendship between a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor and 12-year-old Bronx school girl, showing how the power of music to bring light in the darkest of times and how a small act can have a profound impact.

A collaboration between two Chinese artists, Xu Ruotao and Huang Xiang, and acclaimed American filmmaker J.P. Sniadecki, Yumen is a documentary-fiction hybrid that tells the story of a ghost town, a once-thriving oil-rich community in China's western Gansu province, through a series of wandering characters and inventive vignettes. Produced with the support of SEL

A fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the staging of a major operatic production, Verdi's masterpiece, "La Traviata," starring world-famous French coloratura soprano Natalie Dessay and directed by the celebrated Jean-Francois Sivardier.

For hundreds of years, the acoustic guitar has been made from the same species of Spruce. Today, due to an extreme logging practice known as clear-cutting, this tree is in danger of disappearing - and with it, the acoustic guitar. In this captivating documentary, owners of the top guitar makers unite with Greenpeace and travel to the largest forest in the US to meet with Native American landowners in the hope of finding a sustainable solution.

A fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the staging of a major operatic production, Verdi's masterpiece, "La Traviata," starring world-famous French coloratura soprano Natalie Dessay and directed by the celebrated Jean-Francois Sivardier.

A wonderful exploration of the life and work of groundbreaking director, actor and artist Andre Gregory. A witty and often hilariously funny raconteur, Gregory looks back on a career that spanned decades, from his influential theatre work to the making of the Louis Malle-directed classic My Dinner with Andre, in which he starred and co-wrote.

An up-close and emotionally resonant look at a diverse group of veterans, from Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, who come together to participate in a healing retreat. The Welcome offers an intimate view of life after war: the fear, anger and isolation of post-traumatic stress that affects veterans and family members alike.

Winner of the prestigious Best Documentary prize at the International Film Festival Amsterdam, Planet of Snail is a mesmerizing, critically-acclaimed documentary about an accomplished young poet who can no longer hear or see and his relationship to the world around him.

Executive produced by Kevin Spacey, Shakespeare High is an uplifting documentary that follows a diverse group of California high school students as they prepare for and compete in an annual Shakespeare Festival - a unique program that counts many of Hollywood's biggest stars among its alumni. A celebration of theater and performance, Shakespeare High illustrates the life-changing effect drama programs such as this can have on young people.

In this inspiring documentary, filmmaker Nelson George explores a singular neighborhood in Brooklyn that gave rise to an African-American arts movement in the late 20th century as vibrant as the Harlem Renaissance. Through interviews with Spike Lee, Chris Rock, Lisa Jones Chapman, Branford Marsalis, Lorna Simpson, and many others, Brooklyn Boheme celebrates the rise of a new kind of African-American artist.

For centuries, Marrakech's historic Djemaa el-Fna square has been home to the world's greatest storytellers; their craft even recognized by UNESCO as an "Intangible Heritage of Humanity." This wonderful documentary examines this age-old tradition and considers its place in the modern world.

Centered around the development and staging of a complex work of modern puppet theater, this illuminating documentary offers a look at the fascinating history of American puppetry - its cultural roots and influence - as well as its current renaissance.

A luminous exploration of the creative process from one of the world's most important filmmakers, Pedro Costa's Ne Change Rien is a spare, hypnotic portrait of French chanteuse Jeanne Balibar. Photographed in shimmering black-and-white and featuring a soundtrack of haunting jazz-inflected pop songs.