Directed by Ron Mann • 1981 • Canada
The first feature documentary by counterculture chronicler Ron Mann is an eloquent tribute to a group of highly celebrated artists who helped forge the once-controversial free jazz movement of the 1960s. Bringing together interviews with and performances by legendary musicians like pianists Cecil Taylor and Paul Bley, tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp, and trumpet player Bill Dixon, this vital record of jazz history pays tribute to the innovators whose fearless artistic vision brought forth a revolution in sound.
Directed by Shirley Clarke • 1985 • United States
Starring Ornette Coleman
This freewheeling documentary captures Ornette Coleman’s evolution over three decades. Documentary footage, dramatic scenes, and some of the first music-video-style segments ever made chronicle his boyhood in segregated T...
Directed by Ebba Jahn • 1985 • West Germany
Starring John Zorn, David S. Ware, Rashied Ali
This essential document of New York’s avant-garde jazz scene in the 1980s is packed with thrilling performances by boundary-pushing musicians like Charles Gayle, William Parker, John Zorn, and Wayne Horvit...
Directed by Jake Meginsky with Neil Young • 2018 • United States
Starring Milford Graves
This portrait of renowned percussionist and founding pioneer of avant-garde jazz Milford Graves finds him exploring his kaleidoscopic creativity and relentless curiosity. The film draws the viewer through th...