Documentaries : Biography

Billy Connolly was, in the 1970s, a sort of Scottish Lenny Bruce, who, with devastating humour, sliced through the hypocrisies he perceived. This 1976 documentary follows the singer-comic during his 1975 Irish tour. Made in a cinema verite fashion, the performer appears to be completely unaware of t...

This short film studies the works of one of Canada’s greatest contemporary etchers - Newfoundland-born David Blackwood. The artist himself guides viewers through a step-by-step explanation of the etching process. Scenes of his hometown, examples of his own work and vivid tales of an old marine...

The Maysles brothers pay visits to Edith Bouvier Beale, nearing 80, and her daughter Edie. Reclusive, the pair live with cats and raccoons in Grey Gardens, a crumbling mansion in East Hampton. Edith is dry and quick-witted - a singer, married but later separated, a member of high society. Edie is vo...

Tom Schiller’s 1975 short documentary (35mins) follows Miller from the microcosmos of his very own shit-hole to a mock-up 1890s New York of his childhood -- or "that old shit-hole, New York’" (in fact the set for Hello Dolly, with Barbra Streisand & Walter Matthau, 1969). Schil...

Biographical film about Janis Joplin, from her Texas origins to Woodstock, and super-stardom, featuring performances by Big Brother and The Holding Company....

n 1973, photographer William Eggleston picked up a Sony PortaPak and took to documenting the soul of Memphis and New Orleans....

Filmmaker Martin Scorsese interviews his mother and father about their life in New York and the family history back in Sicily. These are two people who have lived together for a long time and know each other very well. They have retained individual identities and differing opinions, yet have found a...

Part documentary, part expose, this film follows one-time child evangelist Marjoe Gortner on the "church tent" Revivalist circuit, commenting on the showmanship of Evangelism and "the religion business", prior to the start of "televangelism"....

This documentary tells the story of the rise and fall of Lenny Bruce (1925-1966), hip comedian and b te noire to the establishment. The film makes the case that Bruce was impoverished and broken by a series of unjust arrests and prosecutions in the 1960s. Clips of Bruce performances, "bits" as he ca...

A documentary encapsulating the career and Western films of director 'John Ford' , including clips from his work and interviews with his colleagues....