Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Jan. 20, 2026 Price: DVD $14.96 Studio: MVD Visual
South Africa’s Official Submission for the Best International Feature Academy Award, Beyond Graceland: Ladysmith Black Mambazo tells the story of South African musician, the late Joseph Shabalala and his band Ladysmith Black Mambazo, who became worldwide sensations after powering Paul Simon’s landmark and massively successful Graceland album.
Filled with Ladysmith’s powerful music, the feature-length documentary covers the full breadth of the band’s career, from early years in rural South Africa to the height of global success and Shabalala’s passing in 2020. Along with footage and insights into the Graceland recording sessions, the film introduces us to many of the luminaries who worked with Shabalala, including Dolly Parton, Whoopi Goldberg (The Player) and, of course, Paul Simon. The film also documents the complex history of Isicathamiya music – the musical idiom whose boundaries he helped to expand – in terms of the political and musical forces that helped to form it. This social context opens a window into his relationship with Nelson Mandela, who loved the music.
Beyond Graceland is an engaging tribute to one of the world’s most distinctive musical forms and the beautifully resonant voice that made it famous.
Buy or Rent Beyond Graceland: Ladysmith Black Mambazo
DVD, Digital Release Date: May 20, 2025 Director: Chad Freidrichs Price: DVD $14.96 Studio: First Run Features
Chad Freidrichs’ 2024 feature-length documentary The Cinema Within takes an impressively deep dive into a potentially fuzzy subject: the theory and psychology of film editing. There’s a mystery behind how and why an edited film appears to flow so organically (even the poorly edited ones!) and seems to effortlessly make sense, both narratively and perceptually.
Drawing on the insights of such talking head contributors as film theorists David Bordwell and Sermin Ildirar, neuroscientist Tamami Takano, psychologist Jeff Zacks, filmmaker/editor Walter Murch (editor of Francis Coppola’s The Conversation and Apocalypse Now, among many) and others, The Cinema Within turns back the clock to the earliest film—the late 19th Century’s “actualities” of a train pulling into a station and workers leaving a factory, through the silent narrative era (including Thomas Editon’s 1910 Frankenstein) up to all manner of contemporary cinema (from Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz’s 1974 horror entry Messiah of Evil and Bong Joon Ho’s 2019 Oscar-winner Parasite).
What Freidrich and company set out to prove (or confirm!) is that from film’s earliest years up to today, the most common and hence recognizable edits seem to naturally fit the most basic elements of human perception. In other words, the mind does the work here; one picture is replaced my another and then another and they become a stream of pictures—indeed, a movie picture. The mind works similarly when it comes to editing—it fills in the blank that connects the picture. Indeed, it’s not unrealistic to theorize that a cut from one picture to another–a jarring cut–could have a completely disorienting result. But if that were indeed the case, then the idea of motion pictures would have died pretty early, a point offered by Walter Murch.
Fortunately, though filmmakers realized a little into the 20th Century that they can indeed cut from shot to shot–and viewers would understand it. And it quickly became clear that many of these edits would simply become invisible to people.
Produced over the course of four years, The Cinema Within offers positive proof that editing indeed works. And so does Freidrichs’ film.
DVD, Digital Release Date: May 20, 2025 Price: DVD $14.96 Studio: First Run Features
Produced over the course of four years, The Cinema Within is a feature-length documentary that delves into the psychology of film editing – the mystery behind how and why an edited films flows so naturally and feels like it effortlessly makes sense.
Drawing on the insights of veteran editor Walter Murch (editor of Francis Coppola’s The Conversation and Apocalypse Now, among many), scholar David Bordwell, and a varied group of perceptual scientists, filmmaker Chad Freidrichs’ The Cinema Within explores the idea that in film’s earliest years, the most common edits were instinctively shaped to fit the contours of human perception and it dives deep into the deliberately hidden language of film editing – a language so seemingly natural it usually goes unnoticed.
Drawing on dozens of examples from both well-known and obscure films across cinema history, the doc explores not only the essential grammar of the world’s most popular art form, but the very mechanics of how we perceive reality.
Alongside its DVD release, The Cinema Within is currently available to stream on Amazon, Apple TV and Kanopy.
DVD Release Date: April 11, 2025 Price: DVD $14.23 Studio: Pop Twist/MVD
Curt Hahn’s authorized 2022 biographical documentary on Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter, Lead Belly: The Man Who Invented Rock & Roll takes a deep dive into the remarkable musical life and times of the gifted Amerian folk and blues singer/guitarist who became one of the more influential figures in 20th-century music.
Born in Morgansport, Louisiana in the late 19th Century (experts guess 1888 though it’s a disputed date), Lead Belly’s music ultimately influenced everyone from Woody Guthrie to Janis Joplin to Kurt Cobain to The Beatles, among others. (George Harrison was once quoted as saying, “No Lead Belly, no Beatles.”)
The composer of such standards as “The Midnight Special” and “Goodnight, Irene,” Lead Belly is seen here in a bunch of stills and some rare video footage of live performance. Equally compelling are the collection of interviews and testimonials with such Lead Belly enthusiasats as BB King, Joan Baez and Harry Belafonte, along with some fascinating tales about how the man’s colorful life, which found him going to jail twice on murder charges (in Texas and Louisiana) and, in both cases, managing to sing his way out of two extended prison sentences.
Though he attained a certain level of fame, there wasn’t much fortune accompanying it, so had to make do with the growing reputation that came along with his recordings and live appearances, particularly those during New York’s burgeoning folk scene in the Fifties. He ultimately fell ill during his first tour of Europe in 1949 and died later that year from ALS, decades before being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
Buy or Rent Lead Belly: The Man Who Invented Rock & Roll
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: March 4, 2025 Price: DVD $49.95, Blu-ray $54.99 Studio: Film Movement
This week, Film Movement issues the wildly popular 1988 PBS series Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers for the first time ever on Blu-ray.
In the, mythologist and storyteller Joseph Campbell joins acclaimed journalist Moyers to explore what enduring myths can tell us about our lives.
In each of six episodes recorded at Skywalker Ranch and New York’s American Museum of Natural History – “The Hero’s Adventure,” “The Message of the Myth,” “The First Storytellers,” “Sacrifice and Bliss,” “Love and the Goddess,” and “Masks of Eternity” — Moyers and Campbell focus on a character or theme found in cultural and religious mythologies. In conversations that span millennia and cover the far reaches of the globe, the two discuss how myths are clues to the spiritual core of human nature, while touching on such diverse topics as religion, folklore and pop culture.
The Blu-ray (2 Discs). and DVD (3 Discs) editions contain the following features:
Bill Moyers’ Journal episodes: Joseph Campbell: Myths to Live By – Part 1 and Part 2
The Mythology of Star Wars with Bill Moyers and George Lucas (55-minute featurette)
24-page companion booklet featuring an extremely rare essay by Joseph Campbell, plus additional reading materials from the Joseph Campbell Foundation
Buy or Rent Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Jan. 14, 2025 Price: DVD $13.99, Blu-ray $20.99 Studio: Cohen Media/Kino Lorber
A century after Alfred Hitchcock’s first film, he remains one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. But how does his vast body of work and legacy hold up in today’s society?
That is the question…!
Mark Cousins, the award-winning filmmaker behind The Story of Film: An Odyssey, The Eyes of Orson Welles, and The Storms of Jeremy Thomas, tackles this question and looks at the auteur with a new and radical approach: through the use of his own voice. As Hitchcock rewatches his films, we are taken on an odyssey through his vast career – his vivid silent films, the legendary films of the 1950s and 60s and his later works – in playful and revealing ways.
Bonus features on the discs include an alernate trailer, audio of narrator Alastair McGowan’s voice test, film introductions by Mark Cousins, and more.
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Available now Price: DVD $13.99, Blu-ray $20.99 Studio: Cohen Media
Merchant Ivory is the definitive documentary of the legendary Merchant Ivory partnership, which produced such award-winning masterpieces as A Room with a View, Maurice, Howards End, and Remains of the Day. It is anchored by an interview with James Ivory and forty-one collaborators detailing and celebrating their experiences of being a part of the “wandering company” helmed by legendary producer Ismail Merchant.
With six Academy Award-winners among the notable artists participating, including Emma Thompson (Nanny McPhee Returns) and Vanessa Redgrave (Letters to Juliet), the documentary provides new and compelling perspectives on a unique partnership that produced seminal films over four decades.
Special Features:
• Interviews with Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, Hugh Grant, Vanessa Redgrave, and Hiroyuki Sanada
• Deleted Scene – Stephen Soucy
• James Ivory and Stephen Soucy Introduction from the NY Indian Film Festival
• James Ivory and Stephen Soucy in Conversation at the NYSWI Film Festival
• Rich Atmosphere: The Music of Merchant Ivory Films
• Theatrical Trailer
STUDIO: Gravitas Ventures | DIRECTOR: Michael Fiore RELEASE DATE: Nov. 12, 2024 | PRICE:Blu-ray $25.99 BLU-RAY BONUSES: director’s commentary, trailer SPECS: NR | 106 min. | Genre | 16:9 widescreen | Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo | English and Ukrainian subtitles
RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie
Best known for its borscht, pierogies and stuffed cabbage, New York City’s Ukrainian restaurant Veselka of the East Village (and most recently, with its newest outpost, of Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood) has taken on the additional role of freedom fighter since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022.
The lively documentary Veselka: The Rainbow on the Corner at the Center of the World(“veselka” is Ukrainian for “rainbow”) by writer/director Michael Fiore begins by t presenting the history of the well-known restaurant, which was founded in 1954 by a married pair of Ukrainian refugees. As we learn, Veselka has remained a family business since then and is now overseen by the founders’ grandson, Jason Birchard, who inherited it from his father Tom, who recently retired after running the show for some 54 years.
As we soon learn, Veselka provides more than just familiar food to Ukrainian immigrants and those of similar descent, but also serves as an integral part of the NYC’s lower east side Ukrainian community (for decades) and frequently provides jobs for its largely Ukrainian staff of cooks, waiters and maintenance workers.
Restauranteur Jason Birchard (ctr.) and his father (r.) cut through the borscht with New York City mayor Eric Adams in Veselka.
Director Fiore smartly and sensitively captures the interactions between the Birchard family and Veselka employees as every day brings news of the war.As the many months of the Russian-Ukraine war affects the staff (following the pandemic and lockdown), taking both a mental and emotional toll, the Birchards and their employees raise nearly three-quarters of a million dollars in aid for the war efforts, while also sponsoring regular drives for clothing and household items to provide for the citizens of Ukraine. Most of the staff has family in Ukraine suffering from the war’s devastation, and those effects are deeply felt by all, from the Birchards themselves to the food preppers who make the pierogies to those who cook who mans the friers. (Oh, and in case the impression wasn’t given, Veselka’s food looks really, really GOOD. And I can tell you from experience, that IT IS!)
Once the state of affairs in Ukraine the eatery’s history has been established, the film moves forward episodically, focusing on events that have gone down since the escalation of the war. Among them are a sequence where NYC mayor Eric Adams and his staff drop by Veselka for a meal and discussion about the situation. The media hover all about during Adams’ visit, where he tells Jason Birchard that he will add his voice and powers to the struggle (which includes allowing outdoor dining during the late stages of the pandemic) even as he mugs for the media’s surrounding cameras. (Later on, the Birchards have a similar meet-and-eat with Governor Kathy Hochul.) Another bit finds a visiting Ukrainian baseball team dining in the restaurant prior to a game again the New York Police Department.
In the most emotional segment, one of Veselka’s managers, a young man named Vitalii, engineers bringing his mother to New York during the war, the two having not seen each other in years. In NYC, she is hired by Jason Birchard as a food prepper, which allows her the opportunity to meet fellow Ukrainians in her age group and feel more comfortable during what become an extended stay in the U.S.
It’s sequences like this one that encompass the surprisingly wide range of emotions that come with this tale of war and family and hope and pierogies.
Like Vitalii’s mother says upon driving into Manhattan after her arrival: “I didn’t expect it to be so beautiful.”
Buy or Rent Veselka: The Rainbow on the Corner at the Center of the World
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Oct. 29, 2024 Price: DVD $9.99, Blu-ray $20.99 Studio: Cohen Media
Martin Scorsese first encountered the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger when he was a child, sitting in front of the family TV. When their famous logo came up on screen, Scorsese says, “You knew you were in for fantasy, wonder, magic – real film magic.”
The Red Shoes (1948)
With David Hinton’s 2024 documentary Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger, he tells the story of his lifelong love-affair with their movies, including The Life and Death Of Colonel Blimp, Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes and The Tales of Hoffmann. “Certain films you simply run all the time and you live with them.” Scorsese says. “As you grow older they grow deeper. I’m not sure how it happens, but it does. For me, that body of work is a wondrous presence, a constant source of energy, and a reminder of what life and art are all about.”
Drawing on a rich array of archive material, Scorsese explores in full the collaboration between the Englishman Powell and the Hungarian Pressburger – two romantics and idealists, who thrived in the face of adversity during World War II but were eventually brought low by the film industry of the 1950’s. Scorsese celebrates their ability to create “subversive commercial movies” and describes how deeply their films have influenced his own work.
Buy or Rent Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Aug. 13, 2024 Price: DVD $13.99, Blu-ray $22.49 Studio: Cohen Media
The 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, a principal architect of the Holocaust, is revisited in a gripping and surprising new vision from American filmmaker Jake Paltrow (De Palma).
Based on true accounts, June Zero is told from the unique perspectives of three distinct figures: Eichmann’s Jewish Moroccan prison guard; an Israeli police investigator who also happens to be a Holocaust survivor and a precocious and clever 13-year-old Libyan immigrant. Entirely shot on 16mm film, Paltrow’s vividly textured work brings to life the varied experiences of these characters, emphasizing that the same historical events are often perceived differently by people around the world.
June Zero underscores the notion that shared traumas have the power to forge the strongest bonds and give rise to unexpected moments of triumph and connection. As the film delves into the complexities of the human experience during this pivotal trial, it serves as a poignant reminder that history’s impact can be both diverse and unifying.
Filled with Ladysmith’s powerful music, the feature-length documentary covers the full breadth of the band’s career, from early years in rural South Africa to the height of global success and Shabalala’s passing in 2020. Along with footage and insights into the Graceland recording sessions, the film introduces us to many of the luminaries who worked with Shabalala, including Dolly Parton, Whoopi Goldberg (The Player) and, of course, Paul Simon. The film also documents the complex history of Isicathamiya music – the musical idiom whose boundaries he helped to expand – in terms of the political and musical forces that helped to form it. This social context opens a window into his relationship with Nelson Mandela, who loved the music.
