While most of Ken Russell's documentaries for the BBC's Monitor arts strand focused on a single creative figure, he would also occasionally make more wide-ranging surveys of the state of a particular art. The Light Fantastic (BBC, tx. 18/12/1960) was written and presented by Ron Hitchins, a Cockney barrow boy who has long been interested in a great many dance forms, and who has recently taken up Spanish dancing. Hitchins participates in some of the dance sequences, but his main contribution is an enthusiastic commentary that helps personalise what could have been simply a disparate collection of dance footage. He's not shy about expressing likes and dislikes, being none too keen on ballroom dancing (too choreographed), rock'n'roll (too monotonous) and Morris dancing (just doesn't like it), though anything genuinely spontaneous gets a thumbs up, even if it's a room full of people dressed in black swaying to the sound of a gong.
Although at first sight this might look like a simple ‘making of DANCER IN THE DARK’, the later developments in the film reveal the whole drama of Lars von Trier’s inner life during the shooting process.
The first woman to appear in front of an Edison motion picture camera and possibly the first woman to appear in a motion picture within the United States.
A love story, portraying the dilemmas and inevitable consequences of ambition. It is a film about a woman's fight for independence, a woman trying to succeed with her own art in the extremely competitive world of dance.
Narrated by Terence Stamp, this TV program documents the life and career of famed ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, through interviews with friends and colleagues and archive footage.
Movie and stage icon Debbie Reynolds hosts the making of "Singin' in the Rain". The short documentary includes Donald O'Connor, who played the comical "Cosmo Brown", Stanley Donen, one half of the directors next to Gene Kelly, and Kathleen Freeman, who played Phoebe Dinsmore, Lina Lamont's (Jean Hagen) voice coach.
The senior year of a girls’ high school step team in inner-city Baltimore is documented, as they try to become the first in their families to attend college.
Out of State is the unlikely story of native Hawaiians men discovering their native culture as prisoners in the desert of Arizona, 3,000 miles, and across the ocean, from their island home.
From the rains of Japan, through threats of arrest for 'public indecency' in Canada, and a birthday tribute to her father in Detroit, this documentary follows Madonna on her 1990 'Blond Ambition' concert tour.
Nirmala (Padmini) is a poor but talented young dancer who falls in love with a rich man's son Sekar (Gemini Ganesan), but he is forced to marry a rich man's daughter Prathiba (Tambaram Lalitha).
Bhaskar (Akkineni Nageswara Rao) and Vasanti (B. Saroja Devi) are college mates who clash when she complains to the college principal about a love letter he sent her.
In fascist Italy, Urbano Marangoni aspires to become Corazziere, like his late father, but it is a dream destined not to come true because of his short stature.
In 1913 a family of traveling musicians goes to the house of a rich marquise. Lolita, daughter of one of the musicians, encounters the son of the wealthy lady.
Little Jerguš's father was killed by gendarmes. To help his mother, the boy is hired as a laborer, then goes to the factory, to the city, but, unable to withstand the cruel exploitation, hoping to become free and independent, returns to the mountains, where his father once fought for the good of the people.
