A hit and miss affair which flits frantically from pretention to mildly diverting and back again. 1 Giant Leap is a new take on the Baraka/Koyaanisqatsi kind of film, showing 'highlights' of life on earth, lobbing in some philosophy and popular culture to keep the Red Bull generation interested. Highlights include the ever-sharp insights of Kurt Vonnegut, dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson and some truly inspired visuals. The downside is the same as with most of these macroscopic attempts to show the find out more...

1960s; young scouser Jude crosses the Atlantic and meets upper class Lucy in this musical tale of two star-crossed lovers set against the raging waters of the volatile 60s counterculture movement; race riots, Vietnam, civil rights, protest, music, drugs, dance, art, hippies and psychedelia. Over 30 Beatles songs are woven into the plot together with visual allusions to their films and, with cameos from Bono and Eddie Izzard, this weird, loud and colourful montage will either have you breaking ou find out more...

You know the interviews that Ali G did with high powered establishment figures, they were fresh, witty and clever; Well this film is their doppelganger, using as it does a level of humour that would need you to explain how a calculator works before it struggled to add 2 and 2. Ali becomes the darling of the British public and the British parliament when he and his Staines Massive make a valiant fight to stop their local community center from closing. Funny....if you're so bladdered the bed looks find out more...

Amandla! examines the pivotal role music played in South Africa's successful struggle to abolish Apartheid and in particular how lyrics and song became part of the then political activism within the country. The film also highlights the inspirational fight for freedom, where music created an effective underground form of communication within prison boundaries, providing a means of expression and uniting a nation of oppressed citizens. find out more...

Set during the cultural revolution in China we follow two urbane young men after they are dismissed to a remote, but beautiful, mountainous corner of the country to re-learn the basic tenets of Chairman Mao's communist ideology. At first depressed by their predicament, the two lads soon perk up when they come across a hidden selection of western literature, a find they eagerly share with the curious and beguiling local seamstress. They also survive by telling stories, making music and pulling te find out more...

This excellent documentary follows Billy Bragg as he embarks on a mission to put music to a selection of lyrics penned by folk legend, Woody Guthrie. Billy's love of the People's Troubadour is evident as he visits his home town, tracing Woody's life and influences with the help of his daughter, Nora Guthrie. The music (compiled on two albums, 'Mermaid Avenue' Vol.'s 1 and 2) is excellent and is lifted with the collaboration of Wilco. Jeff Tweedy, lead singer with Wilco, seems particularly inspir find out more...

Wrinklies rock or is that wrinklies' rock? find out more...

In Greendale, Neil Young has made what he calls a "musical novel," telling the story of a three generational family, a cop's inadvertent murder and the sociopolitical evolution of a girl named Sun Green. Not a concert film, Young directs actors on locations on his Northern California home turf to create his Greendale, a rural town microcosm of a world in crisis. He shot the film himself on a German Super 8 underwater camera he loves. Then it was blown up to 35mm, giving the film a rough-hewn, al find out more...

Small time gangster's moll Blondie kidnaps a big-wig local politico's junkie wife in order to secure her husband's release from the local mafiosi. Altman's homage to his hometown is a swirl of bourbon soaked atmospherics on the themes of love, crime, race and politics, grafted onto a fine jazz soundtrack. find out more...

Tense and engaging account of contemporary Parisian street life. The recriminations against the notorious police for an injured friend are realised by a documentary style of film making with voyeuristic undertones. Violently realistic and bitter drama. Excellent soundtrack. find out more...