What Difference Does It Make?

A documentary that explores the challenges that a life in music can bring.

The Summer of Rave, 1989

In the final days of the yuppie decade, the summer of ’89 saw a new type of youth rebellion rip through the cultural landscape, with thousands of young people dancing at illegal Acid House parties in fields and aircraft hangars around the M25. Set against the backdrop of ten years of Thatcherism, it was a benign form of revolution, dubbed the Second Summer of Love – all the ravers wanted was the freedom to party… The rave scene, along with the drug Ecstasy, broke down social barriers and even football hooligans were ‘loved up’, solving a problem the government had never managed to crack. But lurid tabloid headlines and cat-and-mouse games with the police eventually turned the dream sour, as the gangster element moved in at the end of the summer.

Psychedelic Trance: Music Is My Drug

The history of trance music between Goa and Tel Aviv. During their annual leave, young active duty Israeli soldiers discover the path to a new techno music genre: Goa trance is born.

From the Black Earth

From the Black Earth is a collaboration between Bristol based company Cables and Cameras, and a local farmer Humphrey Lloyd. Employing both lucid speakers and poetic camera work, the film poses stark questions such as; why does food poverty exist in a nation of plenty, and why are people of colour so under represented not only in our countryside and farms, but in the environmental movement more broadly? By giving a platform to people of colour who are connecting with nature and working the land, this short documentary starts to unpick these questions...

Rave On for the Avon

Fall in love with our Avon and the people fighting to protect it, the Bristol way! Rave On For The Avon is a feature-length documentary film that follows campaigners and river lovers through six seasons: their highs and lows, love and loss.

Bad Guys Wear Black

Bad Guys Wear Black is a short documentary that challenges metalhead stereotypes by exploring the lives of five prominent Bristolian metal musicians. We follow the surprising personal lives of these performers as they play a metal gig together and take us around their favourite places in the city.

Vendredi noir

Synergy: Visions of Vibe

This comprehensive documentary chronicles the underground rave culture in Southern California, one of its first American strongholds. With roots in a tribal past, this movement attempts to format the future of a truly global community by combining elements of electronic/percussive music, the psychedelic imagination, and mass dancing. From warehouses to mountain retreats to the deserts of the Mojave, an unseen world comes into clear focus; with kinetic camera work and candid interviews, this slice of visual anthropology probes the underbelly of a worldwide subculture with the help of some of electronic music's most acclaimed DJs, a technomusicologist, and a county sheriff. Open your mind to this moving entertainment experience and intimate portrait of a modern counter-culture that follows its own electronically induced beat.

Welcome Home

This documentary gives a voice to organizers, DJs and party guests. Through their memories and confessions as well as unpublished videos and photos 20 years of history come back to life.

Universal Techno

This French-produced 1996 documentary is an hour-long piece covering the history of techno music from Detroit to Berlin Sheffield.

What The Future Sounded Like

From Dr Who to The Dark Side of the Moon to modern day dance music, the pioneering members of the Electronic Music Studios radically changed the sound-scape of the 20th Century. What the Future Sounded Like tells this fascinating story of British electronic music. What The Future Sounded Like mixes experimental visual and sonic techniques with animation and never-seen-since archival footage. A sonic and visual collage, this documentary colors in a lost chapter in music history, uncovering a group of composers and music engineers who harnessed technology and new ideas to re-imagine the boundaries of music and sound.

Magic Music from the Telharmonium

It was 1906. "Get Music on Tap Like Gas or Water" promised the headlines, and soon the public was enchanted with inventor Thaddeus Cahill's (1867-1934) electrical music by wire. The Telharmonium was a 200-ton behemoth that created numerous musical timbres and could flood many rooms with sound. Beginning with the first instrument, constructed in the 1890's, and continuing with the installation of the second instrument at Telharmonic Hall in New York, the rise and fall of commercial service, the attempted comeback of the third Telharmonium, and ending with efforts to find a home for the only surviving instrument in 1951, this documentary provides a definitive account of the first comprehensive music synthesizer.

Cabot's Bristol

The fantastic story of John Cabot's voyage of discovery in The Matthew, plus the extraordinary story of Bristol's maritime history from Cabot to Brunel and the S.S. Great Britain and much more, brought to life by Bristol's own TV star, comic actor Tony Robinson.

Talkin' Headz

The Metalheadz Documentary is an intimate and immediate account of a Drum & Bass label poised for world domination. DJs and producers talk openly of the artistic freedom they enjoy, how the label has evolved to represent such a diverse musical scene and why moving forward and pushing the boundaries is so vital. These names have created a global phenomenon and here talk for the first time of how it was achieved, where it's at and what the future holds.

Brandy & Coke

A history of the UK Garage music scene

Lui Ho Yin

An intimate portrait into Tony, Lui Ho Yin, a 32 year-old skater, chef, photographer and model.

Looking for the Perfect Beat

'Looking for the Perfect Beat' is a cinema verite immersion inside the unique Los Angeles 'beat-scene' music community centered around the world famous Low End Theory club night. Filmed over the Summer of 2013, a climatic point in this particular music scene's trajectory, we are given the opportunity to elegantly lift the veil on the personal creative processes of the internationally-acclaimed pillars of the scene. Indie music luminaries such as Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Gaslamp Killer, Daedelus, Nosaj Thing, Ras G, Teebs, D-Styles, TOKiMONSTA and Matthewdavid are all featured in vivid detail. The soundtrack for the film creates itself live on camera as the film elapses. This avant-garde visual angle on each subject in their respective creative spaces provides for an introspective glimpse into what would otherwise be unseen.

BANG! Low End Theory

A short documentary on the highly influential Los Angeles club night, The Low End Theory

I've Been Trying to Tell You

Do you look back on the optimism of the 1997-2001 era as a lost golden age, or do you see it as a period of naïvety, delusion and folly? There’s a lot of nostalgia for the nineties at the moment, especially from people too young to remember it who see the decade as a simpler, pre-internet time. Modern nostalgia often draws on corporate American-90s mall culture, but what about British culture? With I’ve Been Trying To Tell You – made to accompany the Saint Etienne album of the same name – director Alasdair McLellan evokes the era through the fog of memory. The resulting film, shot in locations from Grangemouth to Portmeirion to Southampton, is both beautiful and enveloping.

Sounds of the West - Bristol Jungle Documentary

A documentary about Bristol's booming jungle scene in 1996. 'Sounds of the West' documents the work of influential labels and club nights such as Ruffneck Ting and Full Cycle, and includes interviews with Roni Size, Dazee, Krust, Jakes and more.

Marley

Bob Marley's universal appeal, impact on music history and role as a social and political prophet is both unique and unparalleled. Directed by Academy Award-winning director Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland), MARLEY is the definitive life story of the musician, revolutionary, and legend, from his early days to his rise to international superstardom. Made with the support of the Marley family, the film features rare footage, incredible performances and revelatory interviews with the people that knew him best.

Reincarnated

Evolution as an artist is often times what separates legends from the more mundane. After being heavily influenced by his experience in Jamaica – and his subsequent name change from Snoop Dogg to Snoop Lion – the LBC showman prepares his latest reggae-infused album Reincarnated. As part of the process, VICE followed Snoop to the island nation as he recorded various songs with backing from Diplo, Ariel Reichtshaid and Dre Skull of Major Lazer. Having grown tired of what rap provided him, the documentary reveals the rebirth and inspiration for his latest project.

Coldplay: A Head Full of Dreams

An in-depth and intimate portrait of Coldplay's spectacular rise from the backrooms of Camden pubs to selling out stadiums across the planet. At the heart of the story is the band's unshakeable brotherhood which has endured through many highs and lows.

Avicii: True Stories

Documentary about the arena-packing Swedish DJ, chronicling his explosive rise to fame and surprising decision to retire from live performances in 2016.

Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell

Christopher Wallace, AKA The Notorious B.I.G., remains one of Hip-Hop’s icons, renowned for his distinctive flow and autobiographical lyrics. This documentary celebrates his life via rare behind-the-scenes footage and the testimonies of his closest friends and family.

The Up in Smoke Tour

The Up in Smoke Tour is a West Coast hip hop tour in 2000 featuring artists Ice Cube, Eminem, Proof, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Nate Dogg, Kurupt, D12, MC Ren, Westside Connection, Mel-Man, Tha Eastsidaz, Doggy's Angels, Devin The Dude, Warren G, TQ, Truth Hurts and Xzibit.

David Byrne's American Utopia

A filmed version of David Byrne's Broadway show, a unifying musical celebration that inspires audiences to connect to each other and to the global community.

Biggie & Tupac

In 1997, rap superstars Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace (aka Biggie Smalls, The Notorious B.I.G.) were gunned down in separate incidents, the apparent victims of hip hop's infamous east-west rivalry. Nick Broomfield's film introduces Russell Poole, an ex-cop with damning evidence that suggests the LAPD deliberately fumbled the case to conceal connections between the police, LA gangs and Death Row Records, the label run by feared rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight.

The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart

The story of the triumphs and hurdles of brothers Barry, Maurice, and Robin Gibb, otherwise known as the Bee Gees. The iconic trio, who found early fame in the 1960s, went on to write over 1,000 songs and have 20 No. 1 hits throughout their career, transcending more than five decades of changing tastes and styles.

Shawn Mendes: In Wonder

A portrait of singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes' life, chronicling the past few years of his rise and journey.

Western Stars

The incomparable Bruce Springsteen performs his critically acclaimed latest album and muses on life, rock, and the American dream, in this intimate and personal concert film co-directed by Thom Zimny and Springsteen himself.

Bad 25

Spike Lee pays tribute to Michael Jackson's Bad on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the epochal album, offering behind-the-scenes footage of Jackson recording the album and interviews with confidants, musicians, choreographers, and such music-world superstars as Kanye West, Sheryl Crow, Cee Lo Green and Mariah Carey.

The Class of ‘92

A detailing of the rise to prominence and global sporting superstardom of six supremely talented young Manchester United football players (David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Phil and Gary Neville). The film covers the period 1992-1999, culminating in Manchester United's European Cup triumph.

Tupac: Resurrection

Home movies, photographs, and recited poetry illustrate the life of Tupac Shakur, one of the most beloved, revolutionary, and volatile hip-hop MCs of all time.

The Beatles: Get Back - The Rooftop Concert

On the 30th of January, 1969, the Beatles performed an unannounced concert from the rooftop of their Apple Corps headquarters at Savile Row, within central London's office and fashion district. Experience the final and unforgettable iconic performance of The Beatles in a special 60-minute presentation, digitally remastered into the image and sound quality of IMAX DMR technology.

Milli Vanilli

The story of Robert Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan, who became fast friends during their youth in Germany. With Rob coming from a broken home and Fabrice having left an abusive household, they shared a similar upbringing, as well as a future goal: to become famous superstars. In a few short years, their dreams came true. Rob and Fab, better known as Milli Vanilli, became the world's most popular pop duo in 1990 and won the GRAMMY for Best New Artist. However, their ascension to success came with a devastating price that ultimately led to their infamous undoing.

End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones

A years-in-the-making documentary on the legendary punk band the Ramones. Through a mixture of archival footage, archival and new interviews with all members of the band's various lineups, and new interviews with a number of their contemporaries, the film traces the peaks and valleys the band experienced over the course of its 20-plus year career before disbanding in 1995.

OLIVIA RODRIGO: driving home 2 u (a SOUR film)

Grammy® winner singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo takes a familiar road trip from Salt Lake City, where she began writing her debut album “SOUR,” to Los Angeles. Along the way, Rodrigo recounts the memories of writing and creating her record-breaking debut album and shares her feelings as a young woman navigating a specific time in her life. Through new live arrangements of her songs, intimate interviews and never-before-seen footage from the making of the album, audiences will follow Olivia along on a cinematic journey exploring the story of “SOUR.”

Joy Division

A chronological account of the influential late 1970s English rock band.

Junun

A documentary capturing the creation of the album Junun inside Rajasthan’s 15th-century Mehrangarh Fort. Paul Thomas Anderson follows Jonny Greenwood, Shye Ben Tzur, Nigel Godrich, and the Rajasthan Express as they record a cross-cultural fusion of Indian, Israeli, and Western music.