East West (2016)

More interested in partying and flirting with young musicians than work, veteran rock journalist Ellie Klug has one last chance to prove her value to her magazine’s editor: a no-stone-unturned search to discover what really happened to long lost rock god, Matt Smith, who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend. Teaming up with an eccentric amateur documentary filmmaker, Ellie hits the road in search of answers.

With this DVD and Blu-ray of Rodelinda, one of Handel’s most emotionally complex operas, conductor Emmanuelle Haïm adds to her impressive Erato catalogue of the composer’s works. The imaginative production, by Jean Bellorini, was seen at the Opéra de Lille in Autumn 2018, and the cast features soprano Jeanine De Bique in the title role, countertenor Tim Mead as her husband Bertarido and another countertenor, Erato’s rising star Jakub Józef Orliński as Unulfo. Reviewing the production, Le Monde noted Emmanuelle Haïm’s “intimate connection with this music, which she knows how to unleash in all its violence, passion and heart-wrenching expressivity.”

80,000 Thoughts is a poetic autobiographical and fictional film about testing oneself and one's possibilities—sexually, gender-wise, and bodily—conveyed through dance, music, poetry, and images. It is also a personal story about the narrator's traumas and memories, her love affair and one-time crush, God, drugs, missing her mother, and violence and abuse. Director Michele Mwikali Lauritsen deftly employs crackling prose to position her film in the impossible—and refreshing—position between the gallery-smart contemporary art of the time and a more accessible and popular format.

A lonely boy finds his passion in football and pursues the sport to endure the difficulties of growing up.

An anniversary dinner takes a wrong turn after tensions boil over.

Joy Brown (Billie Dean) is a 40-something woman with little confidence, less self-esteem and a burning desire to realise her dream of being a singer/songwriter. But she cant sing. When Joy takes in a stray dog, Raffi, her life immediately changes. Her best friend, the tarot card reading Tessa (Janet Watson Kruse), moves in, Joy changes her name to Luna Starr, and she meets Peter Wolfman (Andrew Einspruch). When Peter encourages her to perform with him at the local pizzerias folk music nights, Joy sings sort of hiding behind masks of wigs and silliness. Despite the singing, Peter and Joys relationship blossoms. But there are lots of hiccups along the way -- ex-wives, ex-husbands, frightening performances, and bucket loads of doubt. Set to the backdrop of the folk music scene in an arty country town, the film celebrates universal themes of friendship, low self-esteem, love relationships, and the joy of dogs.