Sufi, Saint & Swinger

After the impressive Gulistan, Land of Roses (VdR 2016), the Kurdish filmmaker Zaynê Akyol returns with these conversations with imprisoned members of the Islamic State, alternating their words with aerial views of the countryside. An unexpected look at a far-reaching current political issue and a film whose subject matter and rhythm create an impressive cinematic object.

Before Rolling Stone, there was Soul Newspaper. Behind Soul, there was Regina Jones. Against all odds, Regina blazed her own path, and at 80 has found herself again.

The movie captures the responses of 31 authors, musicians, filmmakers and dancers to Olivier Messiaen's monumental organ work "Apparition of the Eternal Church." Listening to the 10-minute piece through headphones, the documentary subjects-most of whom are outsiders to the church and do not know what they're hearing-put Messiaen's project to the test: Is it possible to portray, through time-bound, invisible sound, the spiritual, the architectural, the eternal? The result is a collective interpretation improvising its way through an aesthetic landscape defined by violent contradictions. Resolution abuts eternity, eroticism asceticism, spiritual ecstasy physical torture. Together, the music and its interpreters conjure something like what William Blake famously called the marriage of heaven and hell.

A musical tour through the work of Aníbal "Pichuco" Troilo, one of the defining figures of tango and Argentinian music.

Filmed live at London's Rainbow Theatre in December 1972, the innovative group Yes performs its progressive rock symphonies - epic compositions that influenced new trends in contemporary music. "Yessongs" provides a visual record of the concert tour that became a groundbreaking tour de force in rock music. This unique concert video of Yes was filmed during their record-breaking tour and features the talents of the five original band members. The massively popular band defined the prog rock movement with their mystical epics which infused both a Medieval and Classical sound into rock music. Titles performed include "Close to the Edge," "All Good People," and "Roundabout."

In the late 1960s, the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson stops touring, produces "Pet Sounds" and begins to lose his grip on reality. By the 1980s, under the sway of a controlling therapist, he finds a savior in Melinda Ledbetter.

An intimate portrait of the acclaimed North Carolina band The Avett Brothers, charting their decade-and-a- half rise, while chronicling their present-day collaboration with famed producer Rick Rubin on the multi-Grammy-nominated album “True Sadness.”

Two amateur filmmakers attempt to make a documentary about the legendary underground "phone-work artist" Longmont Potion Castle, who, since 1988, has released sixteen albums of hilariously surreal phone pranks. Despite a semi-successful crowdfunding campaign and the involvement of celebrity fans, the filmmakers succumb to their own infighting and bad luck, abandoning the project. A year later, the unpaid camera operator liberates the raw footage and finishes the film.

The concert was recorded on February 26, 1995, at the “Houston Astrodome” and was televised live on Univision. The singer shared the concert with Tejano singer “Emilio Navaira” and performed to 66,994 people, which broke the previous attendance record held by Selena in the previous year. Selena's performance at the Astrodome became her final televised concert before she was shot and killed on March 31, 1995. The set list mostly included material from her "Amor Prohibido" (1994) album and a medley mashup of disco music songs.

Over 90 years old Ellen Vuosalo has lived many lives. First as a Finnish immigrant in Canada, then as a zoology student in California and finally as a mother of snow cranes in Iran. Iiris Härmä's Mother of Snow Cranes tells the story of an incredible woman's extraordinary life, from love to tragedy to revolution. It is a story about nature, humanity, and the role of women in both the West and Iranian culture. Or as Ellen herself says " What a life! What a world!"

Arab-American filmmaker Yumna Al-Arashi embraces the rhythmic rituals that have run alongside Islamic tradition throughout the centuries in this surreal and poetic short film. Piecing together old and new, Al-Rashi's dream-like imagery breathes fresh air to a subject hardly seen in positive light.