Frank Cassenti

Roland des Roncesvalles is a legendary knight from the age of chivalry in France. In the 11th-century epic La Chanson de Roland, he is depicted as a key figure in halting the advance of the Arabs into France. In this story, the 10th-century legend is staged by a group of 12th-century pilgrims using the 11th-century poem. Their acting is interrupted by a violent peasant uprising, which kills many of the pilgrims. However, one of the survivors, is converted to the peasant cause and later speaks out in favor of more just treatment for the downtrodden.

1984 performance by the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Cecil Taylor

This somber drama chronicles the writings of Paltiel Kossover (Michel Jonasz), a Rumanian Jew who was incarcerated in a Stalinist prison. Zupanev (Erland Josephson) is a sympathetic court registrar who smuggles the documents and later presents them to the poet's son Grisha (Vincent David).

Recorded during the 10th Paris Jazz Festival - 3rd November, 1989 at Le Zenith, Paris, France, with Kenny Garrett, Kei Akagi, Joe "Foley" McCreary, Benny Rietveld, Ricky Wellman, and John Bigham. Also includes interviews with Miles.

To mark the 25th edition of Jazz à Porquerolles, ARTE is showing festival highlights from previous years: in 2010, jazz virtuoso Archie Shepp took to the stage with guitarist Marc Ribbot to perform his project ‘Stars In Your Eyes’.

A company wants to make a play about Mont Valerien resistant fighters who were shot by the Nazis and the French collaborators.

From the island of Porquerolles to Cuba, it’s just a stone’s throw for Archie Shepp and Chucho Valdés! Relive the Afro-Cuban Project, an iconic concert that we fondly remember, for the 25th edition of Jazz à Porquerolles.

Sun Ra, Archie Shepp and company in concert in Paris, 1984. Documents performances and rehearsals in Paris, France, 1984. It includes the compositions "Love in Outer Space," "Nuclear War," and "1984" by Sun Ra and the standards "Tea for Two" and "Blue Lou," as well as interviews with Sun Ra and Archie Shepp.

In this French crime caper film, a young misfit who has grown tired of his job as a bank teller deliberately gets fired. When some underworld characters ask him to share the layout of the bank so that they can more effectively rob it, he does. He also joins in the robbery. But when members of the gang start shooting at one another, it becomes clear that he is definitely in over his head.

A unique film about a night of trance (“Lila de Derdeba”) in a Gnawa family in Essaouira, Morocco. The Gnawa are descendants of West African slaves who have preserved their musical and therapeutic ritual. The entire ceremony is filmed from the preparation (buying the sacrificial animals) to the following morning at sunrise. The film takes us, body and soul, beyond the music to reveal the splendor of a universal message that has travelled through time to celebrate life. Featuring Mahmoud Guinea, one of the greatest Gnawa masters in Morocco, and his partner Malika.

In August 1936, the Olympic Games, orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels, the Third Reich's Minister of Propaganda, took place in Berlin. This was a vast charm offensive designed to present Germany as a nation that respected the Olympic principles of equality and fraternity. This documentary reveals the political strategies of the Third Reich, which benefited from the complicity of the International Olympic Committee in thwarting calls for a boycott by several countries. Once the games were over, Nazi policy intensified. How could the civilized world turn a blind eye to this "great illusion"? Gretel Bergmann, the German Jewish athlete at the center of a bargaining chip between the German authorities and the US government, and Noël Vandernotte, who won a bronze medal in rowing, share their stories.

Jazz legend Archie Shepp toplines this unique and informative documentary. It intercuts performance footage of Shepp with interviews where he speaks candidly about such topics as Jazz's African origins, the genre's "revolutionary" purpose, and the social isolation of African Americans today.