It's hard to define her. And that's precisely the way Lady Gaga wants it. Yes, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta had a plan to remake herself into an outrageous icon. It began with Italian Catholic New York City roots then expanded to glam pop, electronic rock, burlesque and even jazz alongside nonagenarian crooner, Tony Bennett. Piano lessons began at age four and taught Stefani to create music by ear. There were lead roles in high school standard Broadway show productions then open mic nights at downtown clubs and 1 1/2 years of formal training at N.Y.U.'s Tisch School of the Arts. Even a rape at age nineteen slowed but did not stop the mission that would yield over 200 million combined album and song sales. No wonder that Gaga's fans call her "Monster Mother." An outrageous fashion sense has wrought costumes made of plastic bubbles and raw meat. While elaborate videos and spectacular stage sets are the norm,

In the 1930s, jazz guitarist Emmet Ray idolizes Django Reinhardt, faces gangsters and falls in love ...

Watching My Name Go By is a 1976 BBC documentary on the birth of graffiti in New York City, and the ...

An Austrian director followed five successful African music and dance artists with his camera and fo...
Released on DVD as part of The Criterion Collection's "Martha Graham: Dance on Film" collection.

New York, 1929, a war rages between two rival gangsters, Fat Sam and Dandy Dan. Dan is in possession...

A documentary about Pat the Cat and other roller disco skaters who want to make it big doing what th...
This experimental short traces the lifespan of the graffiti and murals present at the occupation of ...
The shape-shifting and enigmatic hip hop artist Kool Keith has managed to surprise, shock, and enrag...

A young Jewish man is torn between tradition and individuality when his old-fashioned family objects...

"This film explores how freedom of speech — including dissent — is afforded to all Americans, and sh...

A documentary film that highlights two street derived dance styles, Clowning and Krumping, that came...
This short documentary describes the process and inspiration behind the creation and performance of ...

A chronicle of the lives of several teenagers who attend a New York high school for students gifted ...

When the mastermind behind New York's infamous Studio 54 disco plucks young Shane from the sea of fa...

Showman Jerry Travers is working for producer Horace Hardwick in London. Jerry demonstrates his new ...

A week in the life of the exploited, child newspaper sellers in turn-of-the-century New York. When t...

Cliff Richard and the Shadows arrive in a small Spanish town for a concert when a U.S. plane acciden...

Lyla and Louis, a singer and a musician, fall in love, but are soon compelled to separate. Lyla is f...