Movies: Folk music

For one historic evening, American music legends Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, and Ricky Skaggs joined forces as The Three Pickers, to film a concert for public television. The music they made before a North Carolina audience is as relaxed as a front po...

A journey through Italy across a century of popular religious devotion. Ancient and more recent saints, white and black Madonnas, devotional processions... are the expression of a need for the sacred that seems very distant from our way of being, but...

A short musical film on the Old Harp tradition from East Tennessee, shot around a gathering in a church of the Smoky Mountains...

When aliens attack a turbo-folk festival in Stepojevac, Boban Zdravkovic, having narrowly escaped the massacre, sets out on a mission of revenge for his friend Saban Saulic and the other fallen singers. With the help of the prophet Sasa Matic, Sejo K...

This live set, containing twenty of Jonathan Coulton’s most popular songs, was filmed in February 2008 in front of a sold out crowd at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, California....

Set in the North Carolina Appalachians, Sprout Wings and Fly honors the fiddle playing of 82-year-old Tommy Jarrell of Toast, NC. Tommy was quirky, gregarious and generous, and this film shows him at his best, in fine fiddling form....

Tri Yann's 2001 concert at the Zenith Arena in Paris celebrating the group's 30th Anniversary....

In 1962, a group of legendary American blues musicians embarked on a series of tours to the United Kingdom. Footage from these classic concerts, which feature the likes of Muddy Waters, Lightnin' Hopkins, Junior Wells and more, are collected here. Bl...

A documentary on the surviving syncretic pagan midwinter customs of the British Isles, focusing on nine ritual celebrations ranging from the Moray Firth in the north, the Somerset Levels in the south, Humberside in the east, and County Kerry in the w...

Paris To Kyiv’s Fragmenti recording was originally released in 2005, a sonic tapestry of ancient Ukrainian song fragments and contemporary sounds. Nearly 11 years later, after circulating throughout the roster of artists on Balanced Records, a remix ...

An unvarnished chronicle of Bob Dylan's metamorphosis from folk to rock musician via appearances at the Newport Folk Festival between 1963 and 1965....

Documentary - Tracing his career up to the point of his 1966 motorcycle accident and subsequent disappearance from the spotlight, this unauthorized documentary uncovers a side of Bob Dylan never revealed before. Includes extensive interviews and rare...

Latcho Drom is a vista of the music, culture, and journey of the Romani people—from their homeland of India, to Europe and Southwest Asia....

Through concerts and interviews, folk-progressive group Harmonium takes Quebec culture to California. This documentary full of colour and sound, filmed in California in 1978, recounts the ups and downs of the journey of the Quebec musical group Harm...

A concert inspired by the Coen Brothers' film, 'Inside Llewyn Davis,' which is set in the 1960s Greenwich Village folk music scene, featuring live performances of the film's music, as well as songs from the early 1960s. Performers include the Avett B...

Appalachian Journey is one of five films made from footage that Alan Lomax shot between 1978 and 1985 for the PBS American Patchwork series (1991). It offers songs, dances, stories, and religious rituals of the Southern Appalachians. Preachers, sing...

Pavel "Žalman" Lohonka has been a legend of the Czech folk scene for decades. Many of his songs, known for their characteristic melancholy, have become almost folk songs today. In March of this year, he will celebrate his 75th birthday. To mark the o...

Unustatud rahvad (1970 - 1989) by Estonian composer Veljo Tormas is based upon six Balto-Finnic peoples traditions. Collegium Musicale choir brought the songs to different sides of Baltic coasts to liven current citizens connections for fleeting past...

Fans continue to treasure the songs and performances of John Denver, one of the most popular recording artists of the 20th century. Before his death in 1997, Denver toured the world, landing in Birmingham, England, for the 1986 concert captured here....

Blues and folk singer Karen Dalton was a prominent figure in 1960s New York. Idolized by Bob Dylan and Nick Cave, Karen discarded the traditional trappings of success and led an unconventional life until her early death. Since most images of Karen ha...