Free to Rock

Producer and singer M. I. A., who is originally from Sri Lanka, covers the subjects of immigration, a non-Western view of Western society, and minority rights in her music. The film uses her personal video diary and comments on the frequent accusations that the identity of Maya Arulpragasam is partially a construct, 

Rapper Lil Peep and his life cut short are the subject of this film, which paints a portrait of the protagonist using images from the post-internet age - from mobile phone videos to film clips to original cinematographic work (the film was executive produced by Terrence Malick). The film follows the rise of fragile, vulnerable Peep from his discovery as a hip-hop sensation, up to his narcotics overdose at age 21.

Jim Jarmusch chronicles the story of The Stooges, one of the greatest rock-n-roll bands of all time, presenting the context of the band’s emergence musically, culturally, politically, historically, and relating their adventures and misadventures while charting their inspirations and the reasons behind their initial commercial challenges, as well as their long-lasting legacy.

The (cinematic) archeology of electronica. Eugeniusz Rudnik revolutionized the idea of music using a pair of scissors and a magnetic tape. At Polish Radio’s legendary Experimental Studio, he revealed the hidden value of rough and rejected sounds long before the rise of DJs. 15 Corners of the World is an attempt at hearing the vision of his music.

A fascinating portrait of an artist who donated all his belongings to the Danish National Gallery. Goodiepal combines music, performance and his own life into a crazy and uncompromising, but also loving and logical, answer to today’s world. Hidden beneath the outer layer of absurdity lie well-considered viewpoints and a social and environmental sensibility.

As the camera follows the political, rebellious, bitterly entertaining and vulgar Sleaford Mods, it uncovers many sides of the social reality of Brexit-era Britain. Jason Williamson, whose performance The Guardian once compared to Peter Handke’s drama Offending the Audience, captures the feelings of, among others, people stuck in “shit jobs” in small towns. 

Different ways of describing the same thing: riot grrrlz, third-wave feminism, the female invasion of the punk scene. This portrait of Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill, Le Tigre) captures the revolutionary wave of underground girl bands and the changing relationship between feminism and society since the 1990s. A film that manages to balance punk wildness with serious investigation.

Film sound design, its art, history and celebration! The film, presented this year in Cannes, is an elite feature-length lesson on everything relating to sound in contemporary cinema: high-quality, refined, drawing on the tradition of cinematic tricks and sophisticated technology. In a film chock-full of clips from films and from the sound studios, film legends George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, David Lynch, Ang Lee, and Sofia Coppola share their experiences.

This personal film essay starts out following three sound artists (including Chris Watson, who is known for his recordings of nature), but takes a surprising turn when the director meets the deaf writer Louise Stern. The poetic film diary shows the growing role of audio media in the world of images. 

This is both a short documentary and an experimental drone composition from Bangladesh. A large group of harmonium players hold long tones, their vibrations combining to create a hypnotic sound field. The protest action draws attention to legal restrictions, which in present-day Bangladesh have led to the ban on and disappearance of the traditional instrument of independents, the harmonium.

A portrait of a composer who is considered the founder of modern pop music in Japan, and who is also a legend of international film music (The Last Emperor, Little Buddha, The Revenant). We are reminded of the fragility of the world by Sakamoto’s cancer and by the destruction in the wake of the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. The film is both highly personal and very social. 

Today’s re-evaluation of the 20th century is happening on many fronts – one example is this portrait of German music producer Conny Plank, who helped shape the music of Kraftwerk, David Bowie, Brian Eno, Neu!, Devo, Cluster, Ultravox and Eurythmics, and who died at just 47.