Cecil Taylor was the grand master of free jazz piano. "All the Notes" captures in breezy fashion the unconventional stance of this media-shy modern musical genius, regarded as one of the true giants of post-war music. Seated at his beloved and battered piano in his Brooklyn brownstone the maestro holds court with frequent stentorian pronouncements on life, art and music.
Oki fuses documentary elements with narrative filmmaking to such a point that it's difficult to distinguish one from the other. The film is both the story of two men falling in love with each other on a beach, and a faithful document to the filmmaking process. In the film within a film titled "Gay Couple Trying to Connect on the Beach", the documentary footage of director Hiroyuki Oki will be double and triple transcribed. The documentary film explores the relationship between the director and the world, as well as interviews with friends. Soon the director realizes that "kokoro" is not what is inside of him, but the feeling that arises when confronted with something.
"Mal, a Portrait of Mal Waldron" examines the life and contributions of legendary jazz pianist Mal Waldron.
When his wife leaves him, a young French actor, François Combe, moves to New York to work for a television company. One evening, he meets an attractive young woman, Kay Larsi, in a bar.
The work of sculptor Inge Hardison is the subject of this beautiful short portrait of an artist. Hardison is perhaps best known for "Negro Giants in History," her important series of busts made during the early 1960s. Hands of Inge was edited by Hortense "Tee" Beveridge, a pioneer in her field who worked in the commercial industry and on independent, non-commercial films such as Amiri Baraka's 1968 film "The New-Ark". In the mid-1950s Beveridge became the first Black woman to gain admission to Local 771, the motion picture editors union.