Selma, a Czech immigrant on the verge of blindness, struggles to make ends meet for herself and her son, who has inherited the same genetic disorder and will suffer the same fate without an expensive operation. When life gets too difficult, Selma learns to cope through her love of musicals, dreaming up little numbers to the rhythmic beats of her surroundings.
The October 11th show featured the strings section of the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Viktor Orri Árnason, in addition to the harpist Katie Buckley.
"Volumen" collects every video from Bjork's career {up until Hunter}, and showcases the work of famed video director's Spike Jonze, Sophie Muller and Michael Gondry
Night 2 of the Björk Orkestral Series
Night 3 of the Björk Orkestral Series
The fourth of final night of the Björk Orkestral series.
The film concerns the theme of self-imposed limitation and continues Matthew Barney's interest in religious rite, this time focusing on Shinto.
A documentary about the inspiration of director Michel Gondry. An extraordinary world where onirism, memories and childhood have the utmost importance.
Margit and her older sister Katla flee for safety after their mother is burned to death for witchcraft. Finding shelter with Johan and his resentful young son, Jonas, the sisters help form an impromptu family unit that’s soon strained by Katla’s burgeoning sorcery.
How does artist Matthew Barney use 45,000 pounds of petroleum jelly, a factory whaling vessel and traditional Japanese rituals to create his latest art project? Barney plowed the waters off the coast of Nagasaki to film his massive endeavor, Drawing Restraint 9. The documentary Matthew Barney: No Restraint journeys to Japan with Barney and his collaborator Bjork, as the visual artist creates a "narrative sculpture" telling a fantastical love story of two characters that transform from land mammals into whales.
Björk’s performance of her third studio album, Homogenic, at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in Cambridge, England, on 2 December 1998.
Much of life on Earth is connected by a vast, hidden network that we are only just beginning to understand. Out of sight, between the world of plants and animals, another world exists—the kingdom of fungi.
A live performance by Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk recorded at the Royal Opera House in London, England on December 16, 2001. Björk performs tracks from her fourth studio album "Vespertine" along with songs from her previous solo albums.
Although at first sight this might look like a simple ‘making of DANCER IN THE DARK’, the later developments in the film reveal the whole drama of Lars von Trier’s inner life during the shooting process. All his doubts and insecurities in collaborating with the crew and actors - especially actresses - are exposed. The biggest drama started when Björk walked off the set. Nobody knew whether she would be back or not. Admitting that he feels threatened by women, who can ‘make him feel embarrassed’, the director gives this documentary the nature of a personal diary. When he discusses the importance, purpose and beauty of the use of a hundred cameras in a certain sequence or the meaning of the Dogma 95 rules, the audience is witnessing the process of the artist’s search. Is the pain that the director went through during the shooting really visible in the final result, as Lars von Trier claims in this film? (from: http://www.idfa.nl/)
Opti Buk is a DVD that brings together the promotional videos made by English electronic music group 808 State for ZTT between 1989 and 1997, many of which have never been commercially available. The DVD also includes a number of exclusive features - previously unseen footage of the Manchester G Mex gig in 1991, home movies and a ZTT discography.
A filmed performance from the Stick Around For Joy tour.
Volumen Plus is an official DVD released by Björk on December 2, 2002. The DVD, whose release coincided with the release of the comprehensive Greatest Hits - Volumen 1993-2003, offers those who purchased the original Volumen release an opportunity to own the missing seven videos included on the newer release on DVD at a lower price. It includes all the videos from "Alarm Call" to "Nature Is Ancient", the latter of which being the only video on the release for which there was no corresponding single release, as the video was created only for the promotion of the Family Tree box-set.
A look at the life and work of Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki and his impact on Japanese culture.
Leave it to Björk to make a concert release that can be treated as part of her regular body of work rather than a side note. While Björk fans have occasionally complained about the amount of repackaging of her albums, Voltaic reaffirms just how important the live aspect is to her music, and provides a couple of different perspectives on it as well. Volta sparked a particularly inspired and lavish tour that, arguably, ended up being bigger than the actual album was, but tapped into the most dramatic, primal, and elegant aspects of Björk's art overall. It's fitting, then, that the chronicles of the Volta tour are just as thoughtfully crafted as the shows were.
Björk and Sigur Rós teamed up in June of 2008 to hold a concert to raise awareness for Icelandic nature.
Official DVD released by Björk about the making of the Medúlla album. The DVD features clips of the studio performances by Dokaka, Shlomo, Rahzel and Mike Patton that formed the beats for many of the songs on the album. The title of the DVD is the actual definition of the word "Medúlla".
The first show was recorded on MTV Unplugged in 94' during the promotion of her second album, Debut, and the second show was recorded on MTV Live in 98' for the promotion of her fourth album Homogenic. A cover of the track "My Funny Valentine" was performed on the MTV Unplugged performance but is not included on this DVD. Fans were disappointed to find that both shows appear on the DVD as originally broadcast, with tracks cut short to fit into the syndicated slot. However, a fuller audio version of the MTV Unplugged performance appears on the Debut Live Box disc. The DVD was re-released in 2003 to fix synchronisation problems, and to change the audio from mono to stereo on the MTV Unplugged part.
There once was a girl named Anna Young. One day, her family is waiting for their perfect daughter to arrive at the breakfast table and kiss them good morning as always. But this morning Anna wakes up with a horrible illness. She looks like a sad version of Marilyn Manson and is terribly moody. Not realizing what is “wrong” with their daughter, Anna’s parents decide to take her to Dr. Artmanns’ clinic for kids with behavioural problems. In his analysis of Anna, Dr. Artmann uses a huge labyrinth where Anna is exposed to various tasks. The only way out of the maze for Anna is to complete her tasks in the right manners. But the right way is not necessarily what the parents think to be the right one.
Björk performs an intimate and uplifting set in NYC's Riverside Church accompanied by harpist Zeena Parkins, Matmos and a female Inuit choir. This special aired exclusively on HBO Reverb.
Director James Benning turned his attention to the digital world in YouTube Trilogy, organizing found material around three thematic clusters.
From a mind unlike any other, Biophilia Live chronicles the multidimensional concert centered on the eighth studio album of avant-garde Icelandic artist Björk. Nick Fenton and Peter Strickland, unique voices in their own right, film Björk live in performance and punctuate her music with evocative animation and science and nature footage. The infinitely creative journey presents a culmination of work that represents one of the most original musical endeavors of a generation.
A documentary about the bustling Icelandic musical scene. This documentary covers some of Iceland's most talented and well-known musicians.
A visually spectacular landscape of lush colours, futuristic screens and wild images of nature that comes alive with Björk's wondrous music, as she performs live alongside musicians and choirs of flutes and voices.
Award-winning musician Björk and legendary broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough have admired each other's work for years but this is the first time they have discussed their mutual love of music and the natural world on screen. In this remarkable documentary, Björk explores our unique relationship with music and discovers how technology might transform the way we engage with it in the future.
When you experience The Work of Director Spike Jonze, you enter a world where anything can happen and frequently does. From the innovative director of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation., this superior compilation of music videos, documentaries, interviews, and early rarities offers abundant proof that Jonze is the real deal--a filmmaker ablaze with fresh ideas and fresh ways of filming them. Featuring The Beastie Boys, Bjork, Weezer, The Pharcyde, Fatboy Slim and many others.
British director Chris Cunningham has drawn acclaim for groundbreaking music videos for the likes of Autechre, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Bjork, and Portishead, his award-winning commercials, and his risky short films. The Work of Director Chris Cunningham is the second release in Palm's Directors Label Series.
Unable to sleep, Jonas Mekas drifts through New York nights, moving between apartments, studios, galleries, bars, and clubs. Along the way he encounters friends and fellow artists—including Ken and Flo Jacobs and Yoko Ono—capturing an intimate mosaic of nocturnal encounters, reflections, and moments of community.
Music videos for the album Medúlla. The medúlla videos. A documentary about the making of the "Triumph of a Heart" music video is also included as a bonus feature. Partially a mockumentary, the feature focuses on the auditions for the bar patrons who had to be able to make the noises and sound effects required for the live performance in the music video. The sound effects and noises used in the video were edited for a full remix released on the "Triumph of a Heart" CD single, titled the "Audition Mix". It is currently Björk's only DVD which features subtitles.
Following the career of Björk, this documentary looks at her early musical career with local icelandic bands, her acclaimed stint in The Sugarcubes, and her massive success as a free-spirited solo artist.
Björk’s performance of her second studio album, Post, at a special, fan-club only free concert at the Shepherds Bush Empire in London, England.
Nick Knight and Lee McQueen collaborated on their Angel installation, featuring 80 gallons of live-dyed maggots arranged in the shape of an angelic face, at La Beauté en Avignon. Preparations for the installation and the build were recorded on film. Showcasing the process behind Angel, this documentary film features interviews with both Nick Knight and Alexander McQueen, exploring the ideas behind their first contemporary art collaboration in a behind-the-scenes look at the making of this project.
Bravo proudly presents the first-ever documentary of Icelandic mega-star Bork (above), whose unique musical style redefined the role of "female pop soloist" - and won the hearts of critics along the way. Bravo Profiles: Bjork is highlighted by rare performance footage, breathtaking scenic views of Iceland, and exclusive interviews with the singer and fellow musician Bono.
Rokk í Reykjavík (Rock in Reykjavik) gives a thorough overview of the powerful and expanding rock scene in Iceland. Most of the film consists of performances by a wide variety of rock-groups in various clubs in Reykjavik in 1981-82. There are also interviews with members of the groups representing different views on such features of the rock scene as sex, drugs and politics. 19 groups appear in the film.
In 1993 while living in suburban Atlanta and working as an exterminator, a young and alienated Ricardo López began his all-consuming fixation with the Icelandic experimental pop musician Björk. What would transpire over the next three years would lead to hundreds of diary entries, dozens of hours of home video footage, an assassination plot, and the eventual violent death of Ricardo López by his own hand.
This documentary offers a behind-the-scenes look at Björk and her touring entourage for the 2001 Vespertine tour. It includes interviews with harpist Zeena Parkins, the Inuit choir from Greenland, electronic duo Matmos, and an ongoing conversation with Björk herself about her recordings and her tours. The documentary is interspersed with live footage of songs from the tour shot by Ragnheidur Gestsdóttir, which themselves correspond to the performances chosen for the Vespertine Live album.
Björk’s performance of her debut studio album, Debut, at the The Royalty Theatre in London in May 1994, interspersed by short interviews with Björk on the streets of London.
A film where anything can happen - the hero and the heroine changes their faces, age, look, names, and so on. The only same thing: The love between man and woman... in an archetypical love story cut from 500 classics from all around the world.
The visual companion of the Greatest Hits audio release, includes all Björk 21 music videos available at that moment in chronological order.
Maria is somewhat of a rebel and problem child. Her mother died and her father remarried some awful lady, and Maria isn't happy at all. She takes a drug overdose and winds up in a home for other girls with problems, but the two women who run the place turn out to be not quite the ladies they seemed. Maria knows she can't stay there very long, and starts planning her escape.
One of the most extraordinary singers/entertainers of all time performs a very vivid performance of her album, "Vulnicura".
This DVD contains seven rare performances of Björk from 1995 to 1997 that have all been recorded on the Later with Jools Holland program. All performances featured on the DVD are radically re-worked from the original album versions.
Set within the stark Icelandic landscape, OUT OF THIN AIR examines the 1976 police investigation into the disappearance of two men in the early 1970s.
This is a Homogenic show that Björk did live on January 6, 1999 at the National Theater in Reykjavic, Iceland. It was broadcast on Icelandic television.
A look at the work of director Michel Gondry, through his music videos, short films, and commercials.
Looking For a Thrill: An Anthology of Inspiration is a collection of personal stories about defining moments of musical inspiration (a record, a show, a musician, etc.) for 112 musicians who themselves have inspired so many. The interviews on the DVD include recollections by Mike Watt, Thurston Moore, Hamid Drake, Bjork, Yo La Tengo, Tortoise, the Butchies, Jon Spencer, Vic Chesnutt, Kurt Wagner, Fred Anderson and Giant Sand - as well as members of the Urinals, Califone, Jesus Lizard, the Boredoms, Mekons, Slint, the Sea and Cake, and Calexico (to name just a few).
I told a story, Kirikou and the Sorceress, that reached a large number of people. It was the first time in my life. But this film was not my first one. I had also made short films, with a very limited distribution. Nobody saw them. I am lucky enough now to introduce them to you, to make these little mechanisms run again; they are the result of perseverance and passion. Besides the almost forgotten past, I have added a dance of today, which I conceived for Björk. Also something of the future, a post-scriptum to my film "Azur & Asmar". In addition to the films, I try to explain the happy magic of these bits of nothing which became my life. Michel Ocelot
Live concert footage of The Sugarcubes from 1988 and 1989, mixed with short interview segments.
Prince Amleth is on the verge of becoming a man when his father is brutally murdered by his uncle, who kidnaps the boy's mother. Two decades later, Amleth is now a Viking who's on a mission to save his mother, kill his uncle and avenge his father.
Björk: Live 'n' Loud is a performance produced by MTV Europe. She performs six songs with a full band. Recorded in 1998, this set contains "Isobel," "Bachelorette," and another version of "Human Behaviour."
Björk's performance on MTV Unplugged, reinterpreting songs from her first solo album, Debut, with an array of acoustic arrangements.
Take a musical odyssey through five weird and wonderful decades with brothers Ron & Russell Mael, celebrating the inspiring legacy of Sparks: your favorite band’s favorite band.
Musician, actress, scientist, visionary, video artist, composer and teacher: Björk is one of the most versatile contemporary artists. Breaking down the limitations of art genres, for three decades Björk has used the power of images and of himself as an artist to evoke unforgettable emotions. Her video clips are milestones in video art. But Björk doesn't just want to be creative herself, she encourages her fans to pass on her knowledge. This year, this visionary artist is celebrating her 50th birthday. In honor of this, the Museum of Modern Art in New York is honoring her with a retrospective.
With the Olympics returning to Greece, the opening ceremony of Athens 2004 sought to show the entire development of the Olympics over the centuries, until arriving at the modern Olympics.
Björk will be performing 4 special matinee performances in association with Iceland Airwaves, which will be live-streamed online and raise money for domestic women’s charities worldwide. The performances will act as a celebration of the Icelandic musicians that Björk has worked with over the years, with each concert finding the artist collaborate with over 100 Icelandic musicians, across three groups that have played a part within the creation of her discography. Each concert will have different songs, Björk’s instrumental arrangements played by members of the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, flute septet Viibra, Hamrahlíð Choir, and special guests without electronics or beats. The concerts will also be raising money and awareness for Kvennaathvarfið – a charity that supports women and immigrants of different origin within Iceland.
Filmmaker Drew Thomas brings California's popular Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival to the screen with a different kind of musical documentary that not only showcases performances by some of the hottest acts to take the stage, but offers interviews with such musical icons as Beck, Joshua Homme, Mos Def, and Perry Farrell as well. From English icon Morrissey's performance at the inaugural Coachella Festival back in 1999 to Canadian indie rockers the Arcade Fire's electric 2005 set, the musical acts featured here run the gamut from hip-hop to alternative and virtually everything in between. Other artists featured include the Pixies, the Flaming Lips, Kool Keith, Radiohead, Saul Williams, and Squarepusher.
During Paris Fashion Week, models, designers and industry hot shots gather to work, mingle, argue and try to seduce one another.
A film about the Tibetan Freedom Concert in San Francisco in 1996.
Visionary composer and performer Meredith Monk overcame hostile critics to become one of the great artists of her time. In her seventh decade of creativity, she ponders how her unique work can continue without her.
“Later 1995-2011” features performances of Björk on The Jools Holland Show.
Björk performs live in Japan apart of the Vespertine tour with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra
A 30 years odyssey: the world's most intriguing artists and thinkers from the fields of visual art, music, filmmaking, acting, literature, philosophy, politics, business and science, are asked the same question: "Why are you creative?"
A private look at the fall 1994 fashion collections in Paris.
The final part of the Creativity Trilogy explores existential threats our world is facing. An inspiring film about imagination's power and a hopeful glimpse into the future.
Björk is crouched in a womb-like Icelandic cave, throwing her body against the stones that surround her. Slowly, she starts dancing triumphantly through corridors of black volcanic rock. This MoMA-commissioned film was directed by visual guru Andrew Thomas Huang and filmed over three days in Björk’s native Iceland. In the film, her intimate, one-on-one performance embodies the grueling post-heartbreak healing process, augmented by Huang’s stunning VFX.
Army of Me, Human Behaviour, Venus as a Boy, Hyperballad, Enjoy, Violently Happy.
Celebrity admirers of Attenborough's work (including Joanna Lumley, Björk and several presenters and producers from the BBC Natural History Unit) introduced a shortlist of twenty highlights from Attenborough's nature documentaries and advocated their particular favourites.