Hidden camera footage augments this perilous, high-stakes journey as we embed with families attempting to escape oppression, ultimately revealing a world most of us have never seen.
quotOnce upon a time, before people came along, all the creatures were free and able to be with one another", narrates the voiceover. "All the animals danced together and were immeasurably happy. There was only one who wasn't invited to the celebration - the frog. In his rage about the injustice, he committed suicide." Something Romani and frogs have in common is that they will never be unseen, or stay unnoticed. In her film, young director Leonor Teles weaves the life circumstance of Romani in Portugal today with the recollections of a yesterday. Anything but a passive observer, Teles consciously decides to participate and take up position. As a third pillar, she establishes an active applied performance art that becomes integrated in the cinematic narrative. Thereby transforming "once upon a time" into "there is". "Afterwards, nothing will be as it was and the melody of life will have changed", explains a voice off-camera.
Todrick Hall launches his most ambitious project yet: the full-scale original musical Straight Outta Oz. From a small town in Texas to big-time show business, comes an inspiring documentary of grit, perseverance and the redemptive power of art.
In re-viewing our super eight films, shot between 1972 and 1981, it occurred to me that they comprised not only a family archive but a testimony to the pastimes, lifestyle and aspirations of a social class in the decade after 1968. I wanted to incorporate these silent images into a story which combined the intimate with the social and with history, to convey the taste and colour of those years.
The remarkable story of how a group of inspired mavericks made an unlikely marriage of hip-hop and history the biggest musical show in America...and are getting ready to conquer the world.
