Documentary, Music
This documentary is a journey into our own fascination, a collection of portraits of folk musicians living in New England, and a study of the ground on which their music is founded. We listen to them as they tell their stories and play their music. First and foremost, Behind a Hill is a tribute to these musicians and a rare peep into the house parties and basement jams of New England, in the northwestern corner of the USA, with the vain hope attached that maybe you, the viewer, will grow as fond of the music as we have. When we first encountered these musicians, we were overwhelmed by the quality of their musical output. We were entranced by the melodies, harmonies, rhythms, and tempos and every other element that constitutes a song (or, as is often the case, a piece of abstract drone music, heavy feedback, or someone banging a steel pipe against a bag of dirt while chanting in a yet undiscovered language, or...).
MOVIE COMMENTS
SIMILAR MOVIES
Openland
May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers
Urgent ou à quoi bon exécuter des projets puisque le projet est en lui-même une jouissance suffisante
Animal Charm: Golden Digest
Negativland: No Other Possibility
You Gave Me A Song: The Life and Music of Alice Gerrard
Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets
The Avett Brothers at Red Rocks
Sylvia Kristel – Paris
Son of Torum
Jaroslav Hutka – koncert k 75. narozeninám
Selva. A Portrait of Parvaneh Navaï
Black Hole Radio
CNN Concatenated
Dont Look Back
Playing for Change 3 - Songs Around the World
Ludwig van
Anything I Catch
Levon Helm: Ramble At The Ryman
Young Masters: Shibi
SIMILAR MOVIES
Openland
IMDB 0 | Oct , 2009
Openland is an art film guided by issues surrounding micro states and its derivative definitions. Through intertwining interviews, meta-narratives, and digital landscapes, Openland unfurls a dialogue between consciousness, individuality and collectivity.May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers
IMDB 7.7 | Sep , 2017
An intimate portrait of the acclaimed North Carolina band The Avett Brothers, charting their decade-and-a- half rise, while chronicling their present-day collaboration with famed producer Rick Rubin on the multi-Grammy-nominated album “True Sadness.”Urgent ou à quoi bon exécuter des projets puisque le projet est en lui-même une jouissance suffisante
IMDB 5.5 | Aug , 1977
Gérard Courant applies the Lettrist editing techniques of Isidore Isou to footage of late 70's pop culture. Courant posits that his cinema offers an aggressive détournement to the French mainstream, reifying a Duchampian view of film: "I believe in impossible movies and works without meaning... I believe in the anti-movie. I believe in the non-movie. I believe in Urgent... My first full length movie that is so anti-everything that I sometimes wonder if it really does exist!"Animal Charm: Golden Digest
IMDB 5 | Jan , 1996
Animal Charm makes videos from other people's videos. By compositing TV and reducing it to a kind of tic-ridden babble, they force television to not make sense. While this disruption is playful, it also reveals an overall 'essence' of mass culture that would not be apprehended otherwise. Videos such as Stuffing, Ashley, and Lightfoot Fever upset the hypnotic spectacle of TV viewing, revealing how advertising creates anxiety, how culture constructs "nature" and how conventional morality is dictated through seemingly neutral images. By forcing television to convulse like a raving lunatic, we might finally hear what it is actually saying.Negativland: No Other Possibility
IMDB 8 | Jan , 1989
In an effort to cure her smoking habit a middle-aged woman discovers that she can communicate with her long lost son while watching a Halloween safety program on TV. After suffering a nervous breakdown, her husband, a used car salesman, is revitalized when he travels back in time to drive the first car he ever sold. Seventeen years later a powerful canned food manufacturer crashes the same car into a toaster truck while endorsing a brand of yams on live TV. At the funeral his clergyman experiences a crisis of faith when he and a lifelike Mexican continue their search for a married couple who have befriended an insect who enjoys drinking lime soda. They later meet a young man whose bizarre murder scheme involves four innocent members of an experimental rock band who have all given up smoking.You Gave Me A Song: The Life and Music of Alice Gerrard
IMDB 10 | Apr , 2019
You Gave Me A Song offers an intimate portrait of old-time music pioneer Alice Gerrard and her remarkable, unpredictable journey creating and preserving traditional music. The film follows eighty-four year old Gerrard over several years, weaving together verité footage of living room rehearsals, recording sessions, songwriting, archival work, and performances with photos and rare field recordings. Much of the film is told in Alice’s voice and via interviews with musical collaborators and family members who share the story of Alice and others chasing that high lonesome sound.Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets
IMDB 6.7 | Feb , 2020
A portrait of the lives of a disparate group of patrons and employees at an American watering hole today.The Avett Brothers at Red Rocks
IMDB 0 | Aug , 2020
On July 7, 2019, they celebrated their sixth consecutive year of sold-out concerts at Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, the world’s only naturally-occurring, acoustically perfect amphitheater, located just outside of Denver. Over 9,000 fans danced, sang and cheered — it was the perfect way to spend a warm summer evening. This special features performances of “Live and Die,” “Down with the Shine,” “Head Full of Doubt,” “High Steppin,'” “Ain’t No Man,” “Laundry Room” and more.Sylvia Kristel – Paris
IMDB 0 | Feb , 2003
Sylvia Kristel – Paris is a portrait of Sylvia Kristel , best known for her role in the 1970’s erotic cult classic Emmanuelle, as well as a film about the impossibility of memory in relation to biography. Between November 2000 and June 2002 Manon de Boer recorded the stories and memories of Kristel. At each recording session she asked her to speak about a city where Kristel has lived: Paris, Los Angeles, Brussels or Amsterdam; over the two years she spoke on several occasions about the same city. At first glance the collection of stories appears to make up a sort of biography, but over time it shows the impossibility of biography: the impossibility of ‘plotting’ somebody’s life as a coherent narrative.Son of Torum
IMDB 0 | Feb , 1989
In the same vein as Meri's other documentations, this one takes advantage of the glasnost policy to discuss the social and ecologic impact of the Russian oil industry on the natives and the lands they inhabit.Jaroslav Hutka – koncert k 75. narozeninám
IMDB 0 | Apr , 2023
A concert by one of the iconic figures of Czech folk music, who wrote the history of Czech songwriting in the second half of the 20th century, at the Poklad Cultural Center in Ostrava-Poruba is a gift for his fans on the occasion of the musician's birthday. Jaroslav Hutka conceived the performance as a unique cross-section of his diverse musical work to date and a look back at his rich musical career. The welcoming atmosphere of the evening was further enhanced by guest performers on stage – guitarists Štěpán Rak and Pavel Marcel, with whom Hutka has collaborated repeatedly in the past and who accompanied him on some songs.Selva. A Portrait of Parvaneh Navaï
IMDB 10 | Jan , 1982
Trance dances and out of body projection. In front of the camera, Parvaneh Navaï becomes a mediator who enters in contact with and immerses into the energies of Nature, while her own energy radiates and echos in the forest ("selva"). The camera amplifies and expands her presence, transforming the forest into an imaginary space. The camera becomes a painter's brush.Black Hole Radio
IMDB 0 | Sep , 1992
Black Hole Radio is an installation that consists of taped confessions of callers of the New York City Phone Confession Line and video images. The Phone Confession Line is based on anonymous callers ringing to confess on things they had done or thought like adultery, theft, murder or regrets. Thereafter anybody could call and listen to the confessions. Although making a confession was free, listening to a confession costs money. After Cohen got his hands on the confessions, he used them as an audio heartbeat to accompany video-images of every day life in New York City he had taken over the years. This installation is a portrait of the city with its dark secrets, hushed voices and nocturnal images. In this way Cohen tries to bring across an experience to the viewer that relies on absence, waiting and the effort to hear something in the dark.CNN Concatenated
IMDB 4 | Jan , 2002
An 18-minute long single-channel video which uses CNN footage cut so that each word is spoken by a different newsperson. The pieces literally asks the viewers questions about media authenticity and give CNN a distinct voiceDont Look Back
IMDB 7.4 | May , 1967
In this wildly entertaining vision of one of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, Bob Dylan is surrounded by teen fans, gets into heated philosophical jousts with journalists, and kicks back with fellow musicians Joan Baez, Donovan, and Alan Price.Playing for Change 3 - Songs Around the World
IMDB 0 | Apr , 2014
Ludwig van
IMDB 5.7 | Jun , 1970
An odyssey through Beethoven’s lasting presence and influence in our modern world – viewed through the eyes of the composer himself.Anything I Catch
IMDB 0 | Jun , 1990
Louisiana filmmaker, Pat Mire, teams up with veteran filmmaker and cinematographer, Charles Bush, to capture the natural drama of handfishing in this award-winning documentary. Highly visual, the film examines the thrilling regional phenomenon of Cajuns who wade in murky bayou waters to catch huge catfish and turtles by reaching into hollow logs and stumps with their bare hands. Friends and family accompany the handfisherman to the bayou banks for Cajun music, festive cooking, and storytelling, and to witness this increasingly rare tradition. Told from the inside with multiple voices, Mire and Bush explore the chain of events set off by man's attempt to "improve" his environment by dredging bayous in this remarkable study of the relationship between cultural and natural resources.Levon Helm: Ramble At The Ryman
IMDB 0 | Jul , 2009
2008 Concert by Levon Helm at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.Young Masters: Shibi
IMDB 0 | Jan , 2021
Young Masters is an original series commissioned by NOWNESS China focusing on traditional Chinese cultures, and how they continue to be defined by a new generation of the country's youth. High above the clouds in a village in Mao County in Sichuan Prefecture, a post-90’s generation of young cultural guardians work to uphold the values and traditions of ancient Qiang culture. These cultural guardians, known as a ‘Shibi’, remain especially vital for a culture whose knowledge and language exist merely through practice and in sound, and without script. The role of a Shibi involves that of a priest, alongside folk rap, singing, and dance performances, amongst others. As a result, Qiang people have endowed them with a sacred status, believing that they possess a psychic power.