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The Last Dance Episode X

   2020    Culture
In the 1998 NBA finals, the defending NBA champion Chicago Bulls played against Utah Jazz in a repeat of the previous year's Final. With Utah leading 86-85 and few seconds remaining of the definitive match, John Stockton passed the ball to Karl Malone but Jordan stole the ball away and dribbled down the court to hit a 20-footer to end the finals.
Battered and exhausted, the Bulls conclude their 'Last Dance' with a sixth championship. Michael, Phil Jackson and others reflect on the end of the dynasty.
Series: The Last Dance

The Last Dance Episode IX

   2020    Culture
In 1998, the series against the Indiana Pacers of Reggie Miller was the hardest play-off The Chicago Bulls had. In words of Michael Jordan: 'They were big, strong, physical. If I had to pick a team that gave us the toughest time in the east, Indiana was probably the toughest.'
In 1997, The Bulls face a stiff challenge to their reign against the Utah Jazz. The day of the fifth game of the final series, tied at two, Michael Jordan suffered food poisoning but tried to play the game. Role player Steve Kerr makes his mark on the dynasty.
Series: The Last Dance

Zappa

   2020    Art
An in-depth look into the life and work of the iconic artist and musician Frank Zappa. As a singer, songwriter, rock guitarist, classical composter, recording producer and even occasional film director, Frank Zappa was as difficult to describe as his eclectic music was throughout his 30-year career.
Zappa was without peer, a singular entity who branched out in countless directions, and in the process, became one of the most important and influential musical artists of the latter-20th century. With his most famous band, The Mothers of Invention, he blended rock, jazz, classical, doo-wop, R&B and avant-garde stylings with strange, sexually-tinged lyrics and absurd stage theatrics to create a wholly unique live experience, while in the studio producing outside-the-mainstream albums.

Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary

   2016    History
The definitive documentary about an outside-the-box thinker with extraordinary talent whose boundary-shattering music continues to impact and influence people around the world. This smart, passionate, thought-provoking and uplifting documentary is for anyone who appreciates the power of music to entertain, inspire and transform. the film is produced with the full participation of the Coltrane family and the support of the record labels that collectively own the Coltrane catalog.
The film-maker John Scheinfeld brings his strong story-telling skills to the creation of a rich, textured and compelling narrative that takes the audience to unexpected places. Set against the social, political and cultural landscape of the times, 'Chasing Trane' brings John Coltrane to life as a fully dimensional being, inviting the audience to engage with Coltrane the man.

The Age of Revolution

   2016    History
Between 1850 and 1950, three cataclysmic revolutions shook China to the core, but out of them, today's China emerged. The film begins in Canton with the meeting of a US missionary and a Chinese student. Inspired by the Christian story and calling himself God's second son, Hong unleashed the bloodiest war of the 19th century, the Taiping Rebellion.
As imperial China weakened, foreign influence grew. Treaty ports expanded, bringing growth and wealth, trams, railways and western sensibilities. But this provoked another surge of violence, the Boxer Rebellion, an attack against the foreigners, which was crushed by those same foreigners, who extorted a huge indemnity - $60 billion in today's money.
Then in 1912, the empire fell, and many groups contested China's future. In World War I, China sent 100,000 men to the western front, only to be humiliated at Versailles when German colonies in China were handed to Japan. Between the two world wars, the disparity between rich and poor, city and countryside increased. We visit Hong Kong's Peninsular Hotel in the jazz age and then follow Mao on the Long March to Yan'an, the heartland of revolution.
World War II came to China two years earlier than it did in the west. Wood talks to a survivor of the Japanese massacre of Nanjing in 1937 and then charts the triumph of the communists, before ending the story with Mao's death and the boom time of the last 30 years. The series ends with the warmth of the Chinese family and, at Beijing's Altar of Heaven, a final haunting glimpse of eternal China.
Series: The Story of China

Listening to Kenny G

   2021    History
This featured film takes a humorous but incisive look at the best-selling instrumentalist of all time – and quite possibly one of the most famous living musicians. Listening to Kenny G investigates the artist born Kenny Gorelick – who took the pop charts by storm with his 1986 breakthrough single, 'Songbird' – exploring his talent for playing jazz so smoothly that a whole new genre, 'Smooth Jazz,' formed around him, and questioning fundamental assumptions about art and excellence.
In his own words, Kenny G speaks candidly about his musical background, his stringent work ethic, and his controversial standing in the jazz canon – along with insights from fans and critics alike.