Documentary films can be defined in many ways but one good summary is quoted below:
"Documentaries bring viewers into new worlds and experiences through the presentation of factual information about real people, places, and events, generally -- but not always -- portrayed through the use of actual images and artifacts. But factuality alone does not define documentary films; it's what the filmmaker does with those factual elements, weaving them into an overall narrative that strives to be as compelling as it is truthful and is often greater than the sum of its parts."
--Sheila Curran Bernard, Author of Documentary Storytelling
Within the subcategory of music there are many different approaches taken by documentary film makers. There's the concert film where the director simply or sometimes artfully records a live performance by a performer or performers. There's the biographical film where we learn about the musician's life and how his or her music reflects the society they grew up in and how that music then influences society.
Another format for the musical documentary is the 'behind the scenes' portrait of how the musician or composer writes his or her music or how a recording is produced in the studio or a concert is planned and arranged. There are documentaries about how instruments are made, how musicians learn their craft and how they sometimes compete for awards and contracts.
The First Film
Karajan's Magic and Myth
Over twenty-five years after his death in July 1989, the controversial Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan remains an enigma. He was the most successful conductor in the history of classical music. Many of those recordings - of Italian opera, of Wagner and Richard Strauss, of Sibelius, Beethoven and Brahms - are treasured by music lovers around the world. Yet, even at the peak of his fame, his performances were variously criticised for being too opulent, too manicured, lacking warmth or spiritual depth.
This musical profile explores the many paradoxes in the life and music of this controversial figure, who forged his international reputation in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra shortly after the end of the Second World War and went on to reign supreme in the classical music world during his three decades with the Berlin Philharmonic. The film also examines Karajan's belief in the visual power of music, and his determination to leave behind a substantial legacy of music on film.
Karajan was famous not only for his music, but also his glittering off-duty moments on the ski slopes, piloting his own jet, sailing his yacht and driving top-of-the-range fast cars. Yet, at the same time, he was a solitary man with few friends, who drew his strength from long walks in the Austrian mountains.
In this feature-length profile, the first ever made about Karajan for BBC Television, those who worked closely with Karajan, including singers Placido Domingo and Jessye Norman, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, conductors Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Sir Neville Marriner and flautist Sir James Galway, speak of his almost magical power as a conductor and the reality that lay behind the Karajan myth.
June 14 Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel A
On September 19, 1973, the musician and heir to a million-dollar
fortune died under the influence of drugs and alcohol near his
favourite place - the Joshua Tree National Monument in the
Californian desert. As the founder of the Flying Burrito Brothers, a
member of the hit-making, legendary Byrds, an important influence on
the Rolling Stones and the man who catapulted Emmylou Harris to fame,
Gram Parsons made music history in only a few years. The film was
made on location by director and musician Gandulf Hennig and American
music journalist, musician and biographer Sid Griffin. Friends,
contemporaries and devotees of Gram Parsons talk about the importance
of his work and the bizarre circumstances of his early death. Rare
footage of his performances shows why Gram Parsons has become a
legend. Interviewees include Gram's wife Gretchen, his sister and his
daughter, Keith Richards, Emmylou Harris, Chris Hillman and "Road
Manager" Phil Kaufman.
June 21 The Joy of Mozart Y
Tom Service plunges into the life and times of Mozart to try
and rediscover the greatness and humanity of the living man in his
moment. Mozart's prodigious output and untimely death have helped
place him on a pedestal that can often blind us to the unique
brilliance of his work in the context of his life and times. Tackling
the sentimental tourist industry of Salzburg and the cloying
reverence in which Mozart is too often held, Service visits the key
cities and rooms in which Mozart lived and worked, plays some of
Mozart's original instruments and scores, and gradually uncovers the
brilliance and originality of his work as the 18th century turns into
the early 19th.
June 21 The Joy of Mozart Y
Tom Service plunges into the life and times of Mozart to try and rediscover the greatness and humanity of the living man in his moment. Mozart's prodigious output and untimely death have helped place him on a pedestal that can often blind us to the unique brilliance of his work in the context of his life and times. Tackling the sentimental tourist industry of Salzburg and the cloying reverence in which Mozart is too often held, Service visits the key cities and rooms in which Mozart lived and worked, plays some of Mozart's original instruments and scores, and gradually uncovers the brilliance and originality of his work as the 18th century turns into the early 19th.
The Joy of the Bee Gees
Guilty pleasure or genius, misfits or mavericks, noble or naff
- how do we really feel about the Bee Gees? Are the brothers Gibb a
cacophony of falsettos or songwriting maestros, the soundtrack to
every office party or masters of melancholy and existential rage? Are
they comedy or Tragedy? How deep is our love and how deep are the Bee
Gees?
With a back catalogue that includes hits like How Do You Mend a Broken Heart, Massachusetts, Islands in the Stream, Stayin' Alive, Chain Reaction, How Deep Is Your Love, Gotta Get a Message to You, Words, To Love Somebody and Night Fever, the Bee Gees are second only to the Beatles in the 20th-century songwriting pantheon, but while their pop success spans several decades, there are different Bee Gees in different eras. Is there a central glue that unites the brothers and their music and, if so, what is it?
The Joy of the Bee Gees features a rare interview with the last remaining Bee Gee brother, Barry Gibb, many of those musicians and industry figures who have worked with them closely over the years, and a surprising cast of Bee Gees aficionados including John Lydon, Ana Matronic, Guy Chambers, Mykaell Riley and Alexis Petridis, who together share their stories and their insights into the band whose music and image moved us in the 60s and defined pop culture in the mid-to-late 1970s.
The film explores how the band were iconoclasts and outsiders, brothers in the family business, who worked best when together but who grew up and played out their fraternal struggles in public. The brothers went from child stars on the Australian variety circuit to competitors with the Beatles in the UK charts in the late 60s, scoring number one hits while still only teenagers.
In the mid-70s, the former 'beat group' reimagined themselves as a close-knit soul boy trio. The Saturday Night Fever album shot them to global superstardom and every radio station played a song written, produced or sung by the Bee Gees. The saturation of their music and their iconic 'medallion man' image would ultimately elbow them out of fashion, even make them figures of fun...
But you can't keep a good band down and in the 80s they became
writing guns-for-hire to stars such as Kenny & Dolly, Barbra
Streisand and Diana Ross. 1987 saw the band come back yet again and
hit the top of the charts. The deaths of Maurice and then Robin
brought the Bee Gees' reign to an end, but Barry and their music live
on.
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