As the Palaces Burn is a feature-length documentary that originally sought to follow Lamb of God and their fans throughout the world, to demonstrate how music ties us together when we can’t find any other common bond. However, during the filming process in 2012, the story abruptly took a dramatic turn when lead singer Randy Blythe was arrested on charges of manslaughter and blamed for the death of one of their young fans in the Czech Republic. What followed was a heart-wrenching courtroom drama that left fans, friends, and curious onlookers around the world on the edge of their seats.

Of all the great ballerinas, Tanaquil Le Clercq may have been the most transcendent. With a body unlike any before hers, she mesmerized viewers and choreographers alike. Her elongated, race-horse physique became the new prototype for the great George Balanchine. Her unique style, humor and authenticity redefined ballet for all dancers who followed. Amazingly, she was the muse to not one great artist but two; both George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins loved her as a dancer and a woman. Balanchine married her, and Robbins created his famous version of Afternoon of a Faun for Tanny. Tanaquil Le Clercq was the foremost dancer of her day until it suddenly all stopped.

Peter Brook is one of the world's most respected and revolutionary directors of contemporary theatre. To help his actors achieve extraordinary performances, he has a special exercise, called "the Tightrope," which evolved over decades of experimentation and practice into a process of transformation that makes theatre real and new for actor and audience alike. In this quietly eloquent and unique film, director Simon Brook, Peter's son, reveals how the Tightrope works its dramatic alchemy. [First Run Features]

Teenager James Burns (Spencer Lofranco) goes from a suburban street gang to a maximum-security prison cell surrounded by hardened criminals. In prison, he forms a friendship with a convicted murderer (Ving Rhames) who becomes his mentor and helps him turn his life around. In this unlikely setting, James ultimately emerges with hope and a brighter future.

The Mississippi River Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in American history. In the spring of 1927, the river broke out of its banks in 145 places and inundated 27,000 square miles to a depth of up to 30 feet. Part of it enduring legacy was the mass exodus of displaced sharecroppers. Musically, the Great Migration of rural southern blacks to Northern cities saw the Delta Blues electrified and reinterpreted as the Chicago Blues, Rhythm and Blues, and Rock and Roll. Using minimal text and no spoken dialog, filmmaker Bill Morrison and composer-guitarist Bill Frisell have created a powerful portrait of a seminal moment in American history through a collection of silent images matched to a searing original soundtrack.

A backstage and onstage look at Justin Bieber during his rise to super stardom.

When Walt Disney’s daughters begged him to make a movie of their favorite book, P.L. Travers’ Mary Poppins, he made them a promise—one that he didn’t realize would take 20 years to keep. In his quest to obtain the rights, Walt comes up against a curmudgeonly, uncompromising writer who has absolutely no intention of letting her beloved magical nanny get mauled by the Hollywood machine. But, as the books stop selling and money grows short, Travers reluctantly agrees to go to Los Angeles to hear Disney's plans for the adaptation. For those two short weeks in 1961, Walt Disney pulls out all the stops. Armed with imaginative storyboards and chirpy songs from the talented Sherman brothers, Walt launches an all-out onslaught on P.L. Travers, but the prickly author doesn't budge. He soon begins to watch helplessly as Travers becomes increasingly immovable and the rights begin to move further away from his grasp. It is only when he reaches into his own childhood that Walt discovers the truth about the ghosts that haunt her, and together they set Mary Poppins free to ultimately make one of the most endearing films in cinematic history. [Walt Disney Pictures]

Llewyn Davis is at a crossroads. Guitar in tow, huddled against the unforgiving New York winter of 1961, he struggles to make it as a musician against seemingly insurmountable obstacles - some of them of his own making.

Incorporating previously unseen material spanning The Stone Roses' history, the personal experiences of many who were touched by the band and their music, and unparalleled access to the record-breaking sellout concerts which took place in summer 2012, this is the definitive record of the definitive band of the past 25 years.

Elise (Veerle Baetens) and Didier (Johan Heldenbergh) fall in love at first sight. She has her own tattoo shop and he plays the banjo in a bluegrass band. They bond over their shared enthusiasm for American music and culture, and dive headfirst into a sweeping romance that plays out on and off stage

A group of Rwandan women embark on a journey to heal the wounds of the past and create their own unique path to a future of peace and possibility.

Today, Beethovenâ

Grace Unplugged is an Inspirational movie starring Amanda "AJ" Michalka as 18 year old Christian singer/songwriter, Grace Rose Trey. Beautiful, highly talented and restless, Grace is so far undiscovered outside church. She performs there each Sunday with her gifted father Johnny, the praise music director at Freedom Community Chapel, a small town Alabama church. A former rock star, Johnny Trey charted a Billboard number one single 20 years before. When the hits stopped coming he crash landed hard, a one hit wonder. Johnny found Christ and a new life for his family, far from the Hollywood Hills. One day without warning, Grace leaves for Los Angeles. She has landed a record deal with the help of Johnny's ruthless former manager and producer Frank "Mossy" Mostin. Mossy sees in Grace a potential pop superstar - the next Katie Perry. Cutting off contact with her parents, Grace seems prepared to walk away from her Christian faith and music to achieve her long-suppressed fantasy of Hollywood super stardom. Will the experience cause her to reject her faith, or rediscover it?

When Taryn (Deragh Campbell), a Northern Irish runaway, finds herself in trouble in Ocean City, MD, she seeks refuge with her aunt and uncle in Baltimore. But they are trying to handle the end of their marriage gracefully for the sake of their daughter Abby (Hannah Gross), just home from her first year of college. [Strand Releasing]

Doc Pomus was the most unlikely of rock & roll icons. Paralyzed with polio as a child, Brooklyn-born Jerome Felder reinvented himself first as a blues singer, renaming himself Doc Pomus, then as a songwriter, creating some of the greatest hits of the early rock and roll era: "Save the Last Dance for Me," "This Magic Moment," "A Teenager in Love," "Viva Las Vegas," and a thousand others. Doc used crutches and a wheelchair. He lived life fully, if not always happily or easily. A.K.A. Doc Pomus brings to life Doc's joyous, heartbreaking, romantic, and extraordinarily eventful journey.

CBGB follows the story of Hilly Kristal's New York club from its conceit as a venue for Country, Bluegrass and Blues (CBGB) to what it ultimately became: the birthplace of underground rock 'n roll and punk. When Kristal had difficulty booking country bands in his club on the Bowery he opened his doors to other kinds of rock music. Kristal had one demand of the acts he booked; they could only play original music. No top 40's, no covers. It was the credo he lived by, support the artist at whatever the cost. Hilly Kristal ironically became known as the godfather of punk giving a chance to such bands as Blondie, Television, Ramones, Talking Heads, Dead Boys and The Police.

Chip (Ryan Steel), an extraordinarily talented 18 year-old dancer from Kansas joins a small downtown modern dance company. In his first weeks of rehearsal, Chip is initiated into the rites of passage of a New York dancer's life, where discipline and endless hard work, camaraderie and competitiveness, the fear of not being good enough, and the joy of getting it just right, inform every minute of every day.

An IMAX 3D film featuring a never-before-seen live-performance by Metallica created exclusively for the film and a suspenseful narrative about Trip (Dane DeHaan), a young roadie for Metallica, who is sent on an urgent mission during the band's show.

Located on the banks of the Tennessee River, Muscle Shoals, AL is the unlikely breeding ground for some of the most creative music in American history.

Battle of the Year is the Olympics of break dancing, a tournament held every year that attracts all the best teams from around the world, but the Americans haven't won in fifteen years. Los Angeles Hip Hop mogul and former B-Boy Dante (Laz Alonso) wants to put the country that started it all back on top. He enlists his hard-luck friend Blake (Josh Holloway), who was a championship basketball coach, to coach his team. Armed with the theory that the right coach can make any team champions, they assemble a Dream Team of all the best b-boys across the country. With only three months until Battle of the Year, Blake has to use every tactic he knows to get twelve talented individuals to come together as a team if they're going to bring the trophy back to America. [Screen Gems]

The rave scene has arrived from Ibiza and warehouse parties are exploding across the UK bringing phenomenal wealth to the organizers. In Manchester, best friends Matt and Dylan are in their early 20s and want to be a part of this social scene. They are taken on a wild journey from the exclusive VIP rooms of London clubs to the outrageous parties in Ibiza super-villas. But as their success continues to grow, they attract a more dark and sinister world.

Good Ol' Freda' tells the story of Freda Kelly, a shy Liverpudlian teenager asked to work for a young local band hoping to make it big: the Beatles. As the Beatles' fame multiplies, Freda bears witness to music and cultural history but never exploits her insider access. Their loyal secretary from beginning to end, Freda finally tells her tales for the first time in 50 years.

An all-access pass to the British pop sensation One Direction.

An unusual band of the most famous guitar-makers in the world (Bob Taylor of Taylor guitars, Chris Martin of Martin Guitars and Dave Berryman of Gibson Guitars) travel together into the heart of one of the most primeval rainforests on the planet. Their mission: to negotiate with Native American loggers and change the way this forest is logged before it’s too late for acoustic guitars.

The disco era, long dismissed as a time of hedonistic excess, has been gravely misunderstood. Revisionist historians now argue the era was in fact an important time of protest: liberating gays, blacks and women. The Secret Disco Revolution juxtaposes the thoughts of disco revisionists with revealing new interviews with some of the era's biggest stars, a goldmine of rarely seen stock footage, and enough disco hits to shake your booty straight back to 1978.

Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, Norah Jones, Emmylou Harris, Jimmy Fallon and others perform in honor of the Wainwrights' mother, Canadian folk singer-songwriter Kate McGarrigle.

Grumpy retiree Arthur honors his recently deceased wife's passion for performing by joining the unconventional local choir, a process that helps him connect with his estranged son, James.

London – The Modern Babylon is legendary director Julien Temple’s epic time-travelling voyage to the heart of his hometown. From musicians, writers and artists to dangerous thinkers, political radicals and above all ordinary people, this is the story of London's immigrants, its bohemians and how together they changed the city forever. Reaching back to London at the start of the 20th century, the story unfolds through film archive and the voices of Londoners past and present, powered by the popular music across the century. It ends now, as London prepares to welcome the world to the 2012 Olympics. [BFI]

Two aliens from the planet Hondo decide to form a bluegrass band instead of destroying Earth.

Three young women face seven years in a Russian prison for a satirical performance in a Moscow cathedral. But who is really on trial - three young artists or the society they live in?

Dean Randall has sponsored young Chinese orphan Mei Mei for ten years. At 16, she arrives in Sydney to attend the Australian Choir Festival and looks up her sponsor changing their lives forever.

The untold stories of female jazz and big band instrumentalists and their groundbreaking journeys from the late 1930's to the present day.

Jeffrey Kagel travels to India in search of legendary saint Neem Karoli Baba, struggles through drug addiction and depression, and emerges as Krishna Das, a world famous spiritual teacher.

The Source Family were the darlings of the Sunset Strip until their communal living, outsider ideals and spiritual leader, Father Yod's 13 wives became an issue with local authorities. They fled to Hawaii, leading to their dramatic demise.

Majo Tonorio is a young hip-hop artist from Los Angeles who spits rhymes from the heart. With a mother in prison and a father struggling to provide for his daughters, Majo knows that a record contract could be her family’s ticket out, but when a record producer offers her a shot at stardom, she is faced with the prospect of losing who she is as an artist, as well as the friends who helped her reach the cusp of success.

Relive the summer of 1976 in this heartwarming British musical from the producer of Billy Elliot. Minnie Driver plays Viv, a high school drama teacher determined to fire up her hormonal, apathetic students by putting on the best end-of-the-year show the school has ever seen... a glam rock-infused musical version of Shakespeare's The Tempest. But as the Welsh summer begins to heat up, can she compete with the typical teenage distractions of sex and drugs with some great rock and roll? [Variance Films]

Snoop Dogg goes to Jamaica, immerses himself in Rastafarian culture, changes his name to Snoop Lion and records his first reggae album.

A documentary that traces the history of the song "Hava Nagila."

A Rubberband is an Unlikely Instrument is a lyrical exploration of a Brooklyn couple as they navigate their path amidst rapidly changing political, social, financial and spiritual landscapes. Walter Baker is an eccentric, multi-instrumentalist struggling to maintain balance between creating art, making ends meet and raising his twelve year old son with his third wife, a poet. Artistically and philosophically situated on the fringes of mainstream culture, Baker grasps to bear the roles of family man, business owner and aspiring composer. [Factory 25]

Dave Grohl directs this documentary about the legendary, but now defunct, analog recording studio in Van Nuys, California.

Based in San Diego’s indie music & art scene, I Am Not a Hipster features original song performances and explores what it means to be creative in the face of tragedy.

When doctors diagnosed 19-year-old rocker Jason Becker with Lou Gehrig's Disease, they said he would never make music again and that he wouldn’t live to see his 25th birthday. 22 years later, without the ability to move or to speak, Jason is alive and making music with his eyes. Jason Becker : Not Dead Yet is a feature-length documentary film that tells the story of a guitar legend who refuses to give up on his dream of being a musician despite the most incredible odds. It is a story of dreams, love, and the strength of the human spirit. The film has been made with the full co-operation of Jason and the Becker family, who have given their consent for this to be the first feature-length documentary film about his life. They have provided their entire family archive of never-before-seen photos and footage. [Projextra.ca]

This documentary chronicles how a generation of artists, thinkers, and activists used their creativity as a response to the reactionary politics that many believe defined culture in the 1980s.

British actor and writer Stephen Fry embarks upon a journey to explore his fascination for Wagner and confront his troubled legacy. Can he disentangle the music he loves from its poisonous links with Hitler? His journey plays out against the backdrop of preparations for the Bayreuth Festival - the annual Wagner extravaganza held in a theatre purpose-built by the composer.

TURNING, based on a tour of Europe by Antony and Charles Atlas, is a music documentary that explores the heart of that performance. Through its synthesis of Antony´s songs and unfurling video portraiture of the 13 remarkable women who performed on stage, TURNING creates an intimate and cinematic experience exploring themes of identity, transcendence and the revelation of essence. [TurningFilm.com]

The documentary takes a look at Michael Jackson's legacy, focusing on the reception of his album "Bad."

Beca is that girl who'd rather listen to what's coming out of her headphones than what's coming out of you. Arriving at her new college, she finds herself not right for any clique but somehow is muscled into one that she never would have picked on her own: alongside mean girls, sweet girls and weird girls whose only thing in common is how good they sound when they sing together. When Beca takes this acoustic singing group out of their world of traditional arrangements and perfect harmonies into all-new mash-ups, they fight to climb their way to the top of the cutthroat world of college a cappella. This could wind up either the coolest thing they'll ever do or the most insane, and it will probably be a little of both. (Universal Pictures)

Recently dumped by his girlfriend, underachiever Alex embarks on an impromptu road trip with his new bandmate, the eccentric Jim. By channeling their inner children and giving a new meaning to the term “lo-fi,” Alex and Jim find their unique style by bringing the sound of children’s instruments to their unsuspecting fans. Playing a series of bizarre shows and experiencing multiple near-disasters, Alex and Jim’s persistence takes them on a true coming-of-age journey – one that may be their last shot at achieving their childhood dreams.(Oscilloscope Pictures)

Ornette: Made In America captures Ornette’s evolution over three decades. Returning home to Fort Worth, Texas in 1983 as a famed performer and composer, documentary footage, dramatic scenes, and some of the first music video-style segments ever made, chronicle his boyhood in segregated Texas and his subsequent emergence as an American cultural pioneer and world-class icon. (Milestone Films)

Sparkle tells the story of the title character; Sparkle, the youngest of three sisters and a music prodigy who struggles to becomes a star while overcoming issues that are tearing her family apart. Sparkle is from an affluent Detroit area, naive to the unexpected experiences her new life will bring as she and her two sisters blossom into a dynamic singing group during the Motown-era. During her journey, Sparkle endures the trials and tribulations of fame but fights to rise through the ranks of the music business. "Sparkle" is set in the late 1960s when Detroit was the music mecca of America. (Tristar Pictures)

This Time is a celebration of six diverse artists living on the flip side of the music industry. They’ve sung back-up for Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Dusty Springfield and Jimi Hendrix, been homeless while their songs were on the charts, and struggled to fill tiny cabarets while fighting for their big break – all the while holding tight to their dignity and to their dreams. A new documentary work by filmmaker Victor Mignatti, This Time explores a world far from the overnight television sensations of “American Idol,” capturing the underbelly of an industry that relies on the ever-present and eternally-dedicated pool of new artists waiting for their chance at stardom. Accompanied by the soaring music of the undiscovered stars featured in the film, including The Sweet Inspirations and Cissy Houston, the film tracks the triumphant and heartwrenching efforts of six musicians working day and night to turn up the volume on their careers. From the streets of South Central Los Angeles to Park Avenue in New York, This Time is a musical story about utter dedication to an art form and the transformative power of music. (Inspirations 101)

Emily arrives in Miami with aspirations of becoming a professional dancer and soon falls in love with Sean, a young man who leads a dance crew in elaborate flash mobs, called “The Mob.” When a wealthy business man threatens to develop The Mob's historic neighborhood and displace thousands of people, Emily must band together with Sean and The Mob to turn their performance art into protest art, and risk losing their dreams to fight for a greater cause. (Summit Entertainment)

On April 2nd, 2011, LCD Soundsystem played its final show at Madison Square Garden. LCD frontman James Murphy had made the conscious decision to disband one of the most celebrated and influential bands of its generation at the peak of its popularity, ensuring that the band would go out on top with the biggest and most ambitious concert of its career. The instantly sold out, near four-hour extravaganza did just that, moving the thousands in attendance to tears of joy and grief, with New York Magazine calling the event “a marvel of pure craft” and Time magazine lamenting “we may never dance again.” Shut Up and Play the Hits is simultaneously a document of a once-in-a-lifetime performance and an intimate portrait of Murphy as he navigates both the personal and professional ramifications of his decision.(Oscilloscope Pictures)

The 3D movie music event of the summer, Katy Perry: Part of Me 3D is a backstage pass, front row seat and intimate look at the fun, glamorous, heartbreaking, inspiring crazy, magical, passionate, and honest mad diary of Katy. (Paramount Film)

This past May, Neil Young brought his solo tour to Toronto's Massey Hall, an iconic venue in the city of his birth.

Searching for Sugar Man tells the incredible true story of Rodriguez, the greatest '70s rock icon who never was. Discovered in a Detroit bar in the late '60s by two celebrated producers struck by his soulful melodies and prophetic lyrics, they recorded an album which they believed would secure his reputation as the greatest recording artist of his generation. In fact, the album bombed and the singer disappeared into obscurity amid rumors of a gruesome on-stage suicide. But a bootleg recording found its way into apartheid South Africa and, over the next two decades, he became a phenomenon. The film follows the story of two South African fans who set out to find out what really happened to their hero. Their investigation leads them to a story more extraordinary than any of the existing myths about the artist known as Rodriguez. (Sony Pictures Classics)

He called himself Luke the Drifter. He pioneered, and pretty much invented what we know today as country music. At the peak of his career, he was acknowledged to be the greatest singer-songwriter in American history. But after a meteoric rise to record and radio super-stardom in the late 1940's, the man had made a train wreck of his life. Drugs, alcohol, and a hair-trigger temper had ended two marriages, ruined a host of friendships and made the tortured genius a virtual untouchable in the music business. So at the end of 1952, Hank Williams gathered what was left of his physical strength to make things right, and begin the long road back. He booked New Years shows in West Virginia and Ohio, and hired a local kid who didn't even own a radio, much less know who this legend was, to drive him there from Montgomery Alabama. No one else wanted the job. He never got there. Somewhere on that last highway, the country music legend passed away on New Year's Day, 1953, in the back of his powder blue Cadillac, carrying only his guitar and a notebook full of unfinished songs. He was 29. Inspired by the mysterious final days Hank Williams' mercurial life, The Last Ride is the story of that final drive through the bleak Appalachian countryside of 1950's America. A lonely two-man odyssey; a boy coming of age, and a man leaving this world way before his time, a victim of his own abuses. (Mozark Productions)

Ice-T takes us on an intimate journey into the heart and soul of hip-hop with the legends of rap music. This performance documentary goes beyond the stardom and the bling, to explore what goes on inside the minds, and erupts from the lips, of the grandmasters of rap. Recognized as the godfather of Gangsta rap, Ice-T is granted unparalleled access to the personal lives of the masters of this artform that he credits for saving his life. Interspersed with the performer’s insightful, touching, and often funny revelations are classic raps, freestyle rhymes, and never before heard a cappellas straight from the mouths of the creators. What emerges is a better understanding of, and a tribute to, an original American art form that brought poetry to a new generation. (Indomina Releasing)

Chely Wright: Wish Me Away is the story of Chely Wright, the first Nashville music star to come out as gay. Over three years, the filmmakers were given extraordinary access to Chely's struggle and her unfolding plan to come out publicly. Using interviews with Chely, her family, her pastor, and key players in the music world, alongside Chely's intimate private video diaries, the film goes deep into her back story as an established star and then forward as she steps into the national spotlight to reveal her secret. Chronicling the aftermath in Nashville and within the LGBT community, Chely Wright: Wish Me Away reveals both the devastation of her own internalized homophobia and the transformational power of living an authentic life. (First Run Features)

Music From the Big House is an extraordinary story about finding hope, joy and music behind bars. Rita Chiarelli, Canada’s Queen of the Blues, takes a pilgrimage to the birthplace of the Blues: Louisiana State Maximum Security Penitentiary, a.k.a Angola Prison – formerly the bloodiest prison in America. Rita’s trip turns into an historic jailhouse performance, playing with – rather than for – musician inmates serving life sentences. Their shared bond of music, and Chiarelli’s ebullient personality, draw striking revelations from the inmates. Rather than sensational stories of convicts, we witness remarkable voices of hope as their love of music radiates humanity and redemption on their quest for forgiveness. (Matson Films)

Adam and Morello have a big problem. It’s not that Adam is the heartthrob lead singer in a famous electropop band or that his girlfriend is a spoiled supermodel. His problem is Morello’s problem. Morello’s problem isn’t that she’s lead singer in a struggling post-punk riot girl band or that she’s dating a banker. No, her problem is that she has to perform the biggest gig of her life at a music festival while handcuffed to the kind of person she totally despises – Adam. So begins an out-there odd-ball romantic comedy filled with lust, mud, betrayal, booze, portaloos and a hundred thousand people partying to the greatest music in the world. None of whom seems to have the key - not to the meaning of life - but to the handcuffs. (Roadside Attractions)

Paul Simon’s Grammy-winning album Graceland – an irresistible and groundbreaking fusion of American and South African pop music — was an immediate hit when it was released in 1986. It also proved to be a lightning rod for controversy, after South African leaders protested that Simon had broken the cultural boycott of the nation’s oppressively racist apartheid regime. In the documentary Under African Skies, premiering at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Simon returns to South Africa, which formally ended apartheid in 1994 — 25 years after Graceland‘s release. Director Joe Berlinger (Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory) follows Simon as he reunites with his South African collaborators, and revisits the controversy the album caused, while luminaries like Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones, Lorne Michaels, David Bryne and Sir Paul McCartney share their thoughts on what the album meant to them. (Radical Media)

Restless City tells the story of an Africa immigrant surviving on the fringes of New York City where music is his passion, life is a hustle, and falling in love is his greatest risk. (African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement)

Set in the world of Russian immigrants living in New York City, Downtown Express uses music to explore the clash of old world values against the lure and excitement of a new country. Under the watch of his loving but overbearing father, virtuoso violinist and Juilliard student Sasha prepares for a critical recital meant to launch his career. Yet, he is increasingly drawn to the rhythms of the streets of New York, and when he meets singer-songwriter Ramona, he joins her band, falls in love, and begins to lead a double life, careening frantically between two worlds. As his classical debut nears, Sasha must decide whether or not to break with his father, forging his own destiny. (Lehman Studios)

Bob Marley's universal appeal, impact on music history and role as a social and political prophet is both unique and unparalleled. Marley is the definitive life story of the musician, revolutionary, and legend, from his early days to his rise to international superstardom. Made with the support of the Marley family, the film features rare footage, incredible performances and revelatory interviews with the people that knew him best. (Magnolia Pictures)

Filmed with uncommon access, How to Grow a Band explores the birth and evolution of the Punch Brothers: the tensions between individual talents and group identity, between art and commerce, and between innocence and wisdom. (Shaftway Productions)

When Nirvana burst onto the scene in 1991, the music industry was completely transformed in a way nobody expected...especially the young musicians who went from sharing tiny Seattle apartments to international superstardom, sometimes overnight. Just three years later, the drug-related deaths of several prominent musicians, capped by the suicide of Kurt Cobain, closed the books on an all too brief era. As the acclaimed drummer of Courtney Love’s seminal rock band Hole, Patty Schemel was right in the middle of all of it. The openly gay woman who always felt “different” never dreamed she would be part of a multi-platinum selling band, touring with legends, or on the cover of Rolling Stone. Nor could she imagine that, thanks to drug addiction, she could lose it all. Hit So Hard tells the story of Patty’s rise to fame (and nearly fatal fall from it), with no punches pulled… and it’s one hell of a story. Told with insider interviews and stunningly intimate, never-before-seen footage shot by Patty and her friends (Patty was given a Hi-8 camera just before Hole’s infamous Live Through This world tour), Hit So Hard is not only an all-access backstage pass to the music that shaped a generation, but a harrowing tale of overnight success, the cost of addiction, and ultimately, recovery and redemption. (Variance Films)

In 2000, one of the most innovative and influential figures in music and fine art for the last 30 years, Genesis P-Orridge, began a series of sex reassignment surgeries in order to more closely resemble his love, Lady Jaye (née Jacqueline Breyer), who remained his wife and artistic partner for nearly 15 years. It was the ultimate act of devotion, and Genesis’s most risky, ambitious, and subversive performance to date: he became a she in a triumphant act of artistic self-expression. Genesis called this project “Creating the Pandrogyne”, an attempt to deconstruct two individual identities through the creation of an indivisible third. This is a love story, and a portrait of two lives that illustrate the transformative powers of both love and art. (Adopt Films)

Police officer Amadeus Warnebring was born into a musical family with a long history of famous musicians. Ironically, he hates music. His life is thrown into chaos when a band of crazy musicians decides to perform a musical apocalypse using the city as their orchestra... Reluctantly, Warnebring embarks on his first musical investigation...(Magnolia Pictures)

Cuba, 1948. Chico is a young piano player with big dreams. Rita is a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice. Music and romantic desire unites them, but their journey - in the tradition of the Latin ballad, the bolero - brings heartache and torment. From Havana to New York, Paris, Hollywood and Las Vegas, two passionate individuals battle impossible odds to unite in music and love.(Magic Light Pictures)

Joyful Noise is a funny and inspirational story of music, hope, love and renewal. The small town of Pacashau, Georgia, has fallen on hard times, but the people are counting on the Divinity Church Choir to lift their spirits by winning the National Joyful Noise Competition. The choir has always known how to sing in harmony, but the discord between its two leading ladies now threatens to tear them apart. Their newly appointed director, Vi Rose Hill, stubbornly wants to stick with their tried-and-true traditional style, while the fiery G.G. Sparrow thinks tried-and-true translates to tired-and-old. Shaking things up even more is the arrival of G.G.'s rebellious grandson, Randy. Randy has an ear for music, but he also has an eye for Vi Rose's beautiful and talented daughter, Olivia, and the sparks between the two teenagers are causing even more friction between G.G. and Vi Rose. If these two strong-willed women can put aside their differences for the good of the people in their town, they--and their choir--may make the most joyful noise of all. (Warner Bros. Pictures)

The documentary follows John Mellencamp as he tours America and records his 2011 album No Better Than This.

Grandma, A Thousand Times is a documentary that puts a feisty Beiruti grandmother at the center of brave film exercises concocted by her grandson to commemorate her many worlds before they are erased by the passage of time and her eventual death. Teta Kaabour is an 83-year old family matriarch and sharp-witted queen bee of an old Beiruti quarter. She’s been gripped as of late by the silence of her once-buzzing household where she raised children and grandchildren. Resigned to Argileh smoking and day-long coffee drinking on a now-empty balcony, Teta now invokes the deepest memories of her violinist husband who died twenty years ago. She claims a preparedness to re-unite with him. (Veritas Films)

Happy Feet 2 returns audiences to the magnificent landscape of Antarctica, reuniting us with the world's most famous tap-dancing penguin, Mumble, the love of his life, Gloria and their old friends Ramon and Lovelace. Mumble and Gloria now have a son of their own, Erik, who is struggling to find his own particular talents in the Emperor Penguin world. But new dangers are threatening the penguin nation, and it's going to take everyone working--and dancing--together to save them. (Warner Bros.)

Dzi Croquettes: A Brazilian groundbreaking theater group that through talent, dance, political satire, and humor confronted the Brazilian violent dictatorship—the AI-5, the most infamous Institutional Act that overruled the Nation's Constitution; allowing unlimited power to the President and finally closing the Congress. Founded by American Lennie Dale-- “a rebel too good to be part of a Broadway chorus line”, according to choreographer Ron Lewis-- and Brazilian artist-thinker Wagner Ribeiro, this hypnotically sensual 13-member Dzi Croquettes group took Brazil and Europe by storm, attracted Liza Minnelli who became their godmother of sorts, and brought celebrity hype with front-row fans including Mick Jagger, Omar Sharif, Jeanne Moreau, Catherine Deneuve, Marisa Berenson, and Maurice Béjart, among others. Not a word could be found about Dzi Croquettes group until directors Raphael Alvarez and Tatiana Issa—raised since 3 years of age within the group because of her father’s work as set designer—unraveled around the world lost footage, as well as put together within Brazil’s political and musical context of the time, famous Brazilian artists who manifest their passionate testimonies about the group’s transformational influence over them. (TRIA Productions)

Inni is Sigur Rós’s second live film following 2007′s Heima. Whereas that film positioned the enigmatic group in the context of their Icelandic homeland, providing geographical, social, and historical perspectives on their otherworldly music, with uplifting results, Inni focuses purely on the band’s performance, which is artfully and intimately captured by French-Canadian director Vincent Morisset. Interweaving archive material from the band’s first ten years with the sometimes gossamer light, sometimes punishingly intense, concert footage, Inni is a persuasive account of one of the most celebrated and influential rock bands of recent years. (Cinema Purgatorio)

Not since Paganini had there been such a magician on the violin. In this revealing documentary about the legendary musician we see vintage filmed performance clips of Jascha Heifetz and learn that he was the first truly modern violin virtuoso, the man about whom Itzhak Perlman said, “When I spoke with him, I thought, ‘I can’t believe I’m talking with God’.” This insightful film portrays an artist for whom only perfection would do, a musical wunderkind who went on to set the standards for nearly a century. We get to know Jascha Heifetz through home movies and personal family photos taken from 1903-1987, a prestigious concert artist so well known in popular culture, his name became shorthand for greatness, for everyone from Jack Benny to The Muppets to Woody Allen. This unique program includes interviews with the great violinists of his generation, and from many of his former students, telling how Heifetz was a legendary but mysterious figure whose story embodies the dual nature of artistic genius: the paradox of how a mortal man lives with immortal gifts - gifts he must honor, but which extract a life long price. (Kultur International Films)

Pianomania takes the viewer along on a humorous journey into the secret world of sounds, and accompanies Stefan Knüpfer at his unusual job with world famous pianists like Lang Lang, Alfred Brendel, Rudolf Buchbinder and Pierre-Laurent Aimand, among others. To find the right instrument with the necessary qualities, compatible with the vision of the virtuoso, to tune it to perfection and finally to get it on the stage, needs nerves of steel, boundless passion, and the extraordinary competence in translating words into sounds. (First Run Features)

This revealing and touching film asks what happens when a generation's ultimate anti-authoritarians – punk rockers – become society's ultimate authorities – dads. With a large chorus of punk rock's leading men - Blink-182's Mark Hoppus, Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea, Rise Against’s Tim McIlrath - The Other F Word follows Jim Lindberg, a 20-year veteran of the skate punk band Pennywise, on his hysterical and moving journey from belting his band's anthem ”F--k Authority,” to embracing his ultimately authoritarian role in mid-life: fatherhood. (Oscilloscope Pictures)

Rocker Ethan Brand and his band are on the comeback trail when a former flame drops a bomb in his lap: their 13-year-old daughter, Janie Jones. Ethan refuses to believe Janie is his kid, but when her mom suddenly leaves for rehab, the child has no place to go but into the tour bus and on the road with the band. With no feel for fatherhood, Ethan continues his hard-living ways, giving Janie a crash course of the not-so-glamorous life on the road. Nivola and Breslin naturally embrace their musical characters—both actually sing and perform in the film—while developing Ethan and Janie's relationship in a refined way to delicately express the emotional needs of the characters. Writer/director David M. Rosenthal, who was inspired by his own experiences, blends the musical setting with road trip movie elements that add subtle layers to the dynamic of his two main characters. (Tribeca Film)

From the shifting faultlines of Hollywood fantasies and the economic and racial tensions of Reagan's America, Fishbone rose to become one of the most original bands of the last 25 years. With a blistering combination of punk and funk they demolished the walls of genre and challenged the racial stereotypes and political order of the music industry and the nation. Telling it like it is, the iconic Laurence Fishburne narrates Everyday Sunshine, a story about music, history, fear, courage and funking on the one. At the heart of the film's story is lead singer Angelo Moore and bassist Norwood Fisher who show how they keep the band rolling out of pride, desperation and love for their art. To overcome money woes, family strife, and the strain of being aging Punk rockers on the road, Norwood and Angelo are challenged to re-invent themselves in the face of dysfunction and ghosts from a painful past. (Pale Griot Films)

Benda Bilili! follows an unlikely group of musicians in Kinshasa, capital of the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. The band, Staff Benda Bilili—in English, “look beyond”—is a group of street musicians composed of four paraplegics and three able-bodied men. The core of the group is four singer/guitarists polio, who use customized tricycles to get around: Ricky, the eldest and a co-founding member of the band; Coco, the band’s composer and co-founding member with Ricky; Junana, the member most disabled by polio, yet the official choreographer; and Coude, a bass player and soprano singer. Joining them is a young and entirely acoustic rhythm section, led by Roger, a teenage prodigy on the satongé, a one-string guitar he designed and built himself out of a tin can. (National Geographic Cinema Ventures)

Houston's legendary Kashmere Stage Band reunites in this funky, soulful, award-winning film. In an amazing testament to the power of music and teachers, the group comes back together after more than 30 years to pay tribute to their band-leader and mentor in what is sure to be one of the most beloved, and rump-shaking, docs of the year. (Roadside Attractions)

Pearl Jam Twenty chronicles the years leading up to the band’s formation, the chaos that ensued soon-after their rise to megastardom, their step back from center stage, and the creation of a trusted circle that would surround them—giving way to a work culture that would sustain them. Told in big themes and bold colors with blistering sound, the film is carved from over 1200 hours of rarely-seen and never-before seen footage spanning the band’s career. Pearl Jam twenty is the definitive portrait of Pearl Jam: part concert film, part intimate insider –hang, part testimonial to the power of music and uncompromising artists. (Vinyl Films)

70-year-old Clarence Reid could be your cranky grandfather--until he puts on his gold-spangled superhero costume and starts singing some of the raunchiest tunes you've ever heard in your life (and we're big rap fans, so this is saying something). Reid begins his career as a lynchpin of the esteemed Miami soul scene, where he wrote Top-10 songs for Betty Wright, Gwen McCrae, and KC & The Sunshine Band. But his insanely profane recording as "Blowfly" have shocked audiences for over forty-five years, and include what may well be the world's first rap song, recorded in 1965. You may not know Blowfy just yet - but this loving, yet unflinching, film will fix that quick snap. (Variance Films)