The documentary tracks the diva's difficult progress as she emerges from the tough, testosterone-fuelled world of the big bands of the 30s and 40s, to fill nightclubs and saloons across the US in the 50s and early 60s as a force in her own right. Looking at the lives and careers of six individual singers (Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Nina Simone and Annie Ross), the film not only talks to those who knew and worked with these queens of jazz, but also to contemporary singers who sit on the shoulders of these trailblazing talents without having to endure the pain and hardship it took for them to make their highly individual voices heard above the prejudice of mid-century America.
The true-life story of a Harlem's notorious Nicky Barnes, a junkie turned multimillionaire drug-lord...
Heidi, star of the "Meet The Feebles Variety Hour" discovers her lover Bletch the Walrus is cheating...
It's 1959 in a seedy bar in Philadelphia, and Billie Holiday is giving one of her last performances ...
Elvis and Priscilla are one of the most famous celebrity couples of all time. But the story that lie...
Dutch singer Caro Emerald burst into the limelight in 2010 when her debut album “Deleted Scenes From...
Pop star Leigh-Anne Pinnock confronts her experience as the only black member of Little Mix, and as ...
On October 17, 1996, veteran and contemporary jazz greats gathered for a select soiree on the stage ...
Combining rare original archive footage, home movies and authored by 40 intimate interviews with fri...
A two and a half hour Hell-Ride through the vast continuously urban sprawl known as Los Angeles. Ex...
'Pleasantly plump' teenager Tracy Turnblad achieves her dream of becoming a regular on the Corny Col...
A 60th anniversary retrospective documentary on the influence and context of the 1962 film, To Kill ...
Tenor saxophonist, composer and producer Kamasi Washington and his band perform a special show at Ha...
In the 1960s, the suburbs were meant to be modern havens for newcomers from rural France, Portugal, ...
This documentary celebrates the Black cultural renaissance that existed in the Greenwood district of...
Hidden Colors 4: The Religion Of White Supremacy is the latest follow up film to the critically accl...
It’s been widely reported that Detroit is making a comeback, but long-term residents of Detroit’s mo...
In the Swedish city of Lethe, people from different walks of life take part in a series of short, de...
This Final Performance Tribute began on Les Paul's 90th birthday when luminaries from the musical wo...
John Zorn: alto sax, vocals Bill Frisell: guitar Wayne Horvitz: keyboards, piano Fred Frith: bass...
Shipwrecked African-American slaves arrive in the midst of Bakumatsu-era Japan; they soon carve out ...