Deep Blues

Begun as the official chronicle of a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bus tour through New Orleans and southwestern Louisiana, it turns into a more informal, out-of-the-way journey to blues and zydeco clubs, gospel churches and radio stations, and musical family gatherings in backwater bayous.

Poet, musician and activist Gil Scott-Heron reflects on race, politics, creativity and the Black experience through candid interviews and electrifying live performances. Blending spoken word, jazz, funk and soul, the film captures an artist whose voice remains as urgent as ever.

Robert Mugge's 1986 film provides a full-blooded portrait of the Latino singer, actor, bandleader, and composer. Blades' Panama homeland, his Harvard Master's degree, and a New York performance with his band Seis de Solar all serve as stops on this biographical journey.

Documentary about Gil Scott-Heron.

In 1971, Bruce Iglauer founded Alligator Records, the most successful modern blues label. In early 1992, Iglauer staged the Alligator Records 20th Anniversary Tour starring Koko Taylor, Elvin Bishop, Katie Webster, Lonnie Brooks (w/Ronnie Baker Brooks), and Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials. Director Robert Mugge's film, PRIDE AND JOY: THE STORY OF ALLIGATOR RECORDS, documents that exciting tour.

A film about the art of the hula explores Hawaiian dance traditions going back to 500AD when Polynesians first arrived in the islands. Those traditions have been passed along from generation to generation by kahuna (priests and sages) and kumu hula (master teachers). In this film, shot at exotic locations throughout the islands, Vicky Holt Takamine and other respected kumu hula reveal ancient traditions that have survived, flourished, and (where appropriate) evolved in spite of attempts by Nineteenth Century missionaries, plantation owners and US Marines to repress Hawai'i's indigenous culture. Together, these two films present Hawaiian art and life as few outsiders have seen it: rich, expressive, colorful and utterly unique. In 2015, both films were transferred to HD video from their original 16mm and stereo audio masters and lovingly restored.

Tenor saxophone master Sonny Rollins has long been hailed as one of the most important artists in jazz history, and still, today, he is viewed as the greatest living jazz improviser. In 1986, filmmaker Robert Mugge produced Saxophone Colossus, a feature-length portrait of Rollins, named after one of his most celebrated albums.

An 85-minute film on Hawaiian music. Transferred to HD from the original 16mm film and lovingly restored.

GATHER AT THE RIVER points Mugge's cameras (and his sharply recorded sound) at the ongoing evolution of bluegrass, the 'high lonesome' music that is celebrated each year at the World of Bluegrass Festival in Owensboro, Ky. The 1993 event constitutes the entirety of Mugge's film, a generous feast of performance by the finest bluegrass musicians, punctuated by authoritative commentary about the past, present and future of bluegrass music… Pure magic.

Attempting to name a new "king of zydeco" in the mid 1990s, The Kingdom of Zydeco looks at the Black Creole music scene of Southwest Louisiana.

Robert Mugge filmed jazz great Sun Ra on location in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. between 1978 and 1980. The resulting 60-minute film includes multiple public and private performances, poetry readings, a band rehearsal, interviews, and extensive improvisations. Transferred to HD from the original 16mm film and lovingly restored for the best possible viewing experience.

A documentary featuring live performance footage and interviews with eight contemporary female blues' artists including Mavis Staples, Denise LaSalle, Irma Thomas, Odetta, Deborah Coleman, Bettye LaVette, Ann Peebles and Renee Austin.

The story of R&B singer Al Green, who gave up a successful singing career to become a gospel minister.

The meteoric rise of Frank L. Rizzo from cop on the beat, to law and order police commissioner, to controversial mayor.

The region of Bucovina is located on the northern slopes of the central Eastern Carpathians and adjoining plains. The name came into official use in 1775 when the region was annexed from the Principality of Moldavia by the Habsburg Monarchy and then controlled by the Austrian Empire and later Austria-Hungary. But over the centuries, the region has also been subjugated by the Romans, Goths, Turks, Nazis, Russians, and others, and now is split between Northern Romania and Southern Ukraine. 'Souvenirs of Bucovina' is divided into two 80-minute acts which explore the history of the region, its enduring culture, the oppression of gypsies, the slaughtering of Jews in World War II, decades of Communist rule, and life since the democratic revolution of 1989.

A 54-minute portrait of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Crumb featuring a performance of his "Vox Balaenae for Three Masked Players."