The Creative Life

The Creative Life

The team here at Highball TV are always drawn to films which celebrate art and illustrate the power of creativity. This collection features a number of films which do just that. Between them, they portray the ways in which theatre, film, dance, art and music can inspire others, give a voice to the marginalized, alter perceptions and have a profound effect on contemporary culture. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Subscribe Share
The Creative Life
  • Nas: Time is Illmatic

    "[A] brisk, stylish and extremely heartfelt portrait of Nas' rise from the housing projects of Queensbridge to the heights of hip-hop royalty." Variety

    Tribeca Film Festival
    Vancouver Film Festival
    BFI London Film Festival

    Three decades after its release, Illmatic has become a hip-hop benchmark...

  • Bill Cunningham: New York

    "Genuinely in love with clothes, Cunningham makes you think of fashion in a more positive and enlightened way." Observer

    Bill Cunningham: New York chronicles a man who was obsessively interested in only one thing — the pictures he takes that documented the way people dress. Cunningham lived in t...

  • Manu

    "Emmanuelle Bonmariage delivers a multi-layered documentary about a filmmaker and extraordinary man’s road to remembrance." Cineuropa

    IDFA
    Docville
    Munich Dok Fest

    The Belgian filmmaker Manu Bonmariage now has Alzheimer's at age 76. As his memory starts to fade, his daughter Emmanuelle goes bac...

  • Luisita Photo Studio

    Buenos Aires Int’l Independent Film Festival
    Havana Film Festival
    Brooklyn Film Festival

    At the crowded Corrientes Avenue in Buenos Aires City, among all the theatres, you can find Estudio Luisita. From 1958 to 2009, the photographic studio produced iconic images of the stars of Buenos Aires sho...

  • Cinema Morocco

    Dok Leipzig 2018 – Next Masters Competition

    Cinema Morocco, located in São Paulo, Brazil was once the location of lavish red carpet film premieres and the most luxurious theatre in South America in the 50's. It was the host to Hollywood stars and South American premieres of classic films like Su...

  • The Other Side of Porcupine Lake

    Whistler Film Festival
    Rhode Island Film Festival

    This fascinating, behind-the-scenes documentary follows acclaimed independent Canadian director, Ingrid Veninger, as she makes her sixth feature film, Porcupine Lake.

    Canada - 2017 - 1h 15m
    Directed By: Julian Papas
    Cast: Ingrid Veninger, Lucind...

  • The Smart Studios Story

    SXSW

    Wendy Schneider’s illuminating documentary pays tribute to the history of Madison, Wisconsin-based recording studio, Smart Studios and its connection to the global rise of Alternative Rock in the 1990s. Featuring fantastic archive material and contributions from its founders and many of the...

  • Unarmed Verses

    "There's a quiet, discreet magic at work with Charles Officer's latest documentary, Unarmed Verses." The Globe and Mail

    Winner Hot Docs Film Festival
    Seattle International Film Festival
    Winner Vancouver Film Festival

    A thoughtful and vivid portrait of a community facing imposed relocation. At ...

  • A Drummer's Dream

    "It's pure emotion... ...A Drummer's Dream isn't really about drumming, but about joy and self-expression." The Globe and Mail

    Hot Docs Film Festival
    Tokyo International Film Festival

    Explosive talent, passion, humour and irresistible personality come together in a magical setting when seven di...

  • My Prairie Home

    "Director Chelsea McMullan captures Canadian transgender folk singer Rae Spoon's music and life story in sensitive detail." Variety

    Sundance Film Festival
    Cork International Film Festival
    Winner Milan International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival

    In this feature documentary-musical by Chelsea McM...

  • Debris

    Vancouver International Film Festival

    This short film is a portrait of Tofino, BC intertidal artist Pete Clarkson as he crafts his most ambitious and personal project to date: a memorial to the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami. He, like so many of us around the world, was deeply affe...

  • In Search of Blind Joe Death: The Saga of John Fahey

    Official Selection London Raindance Film Festival
    100% on Rotten Tomatoes

    The legendary American guitarist, composer and provocateur John Fahey is often considered the godfather of 'American primitive guitar'. This documentary features Pete Townshend, Chris Funk of The Decemberists and Joey B...

  • Robin & Mark & Richard III

    Over the course of three years, Martha Burns and Susan Coyne filmed the late theatre director Robin Phillips and performer Mark McKinney (The Kids in the Hall) rehearsing a piece from Shakespeare’s Richard III at Robin’s home outside of Stratford. Eventually joined by the actor Christine Horne, a...

  • A Breath with Pina Bausch

    Istanbul Film Festival

    A unique record of the visit to Istanbul in 2002 of legendary German dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch, and her Tanztheater de Wuppertal company, a visit which inspired the performance piece 'A Breath.' It provides a fascinating backstage look at a work in progress and ...

  • Black President

    Berlin International Film Festival
    Durban International Film Festival
    New Horizons Film Festival

    Mpumelelo Mcata’s debut documentary feature is an inventive and complex film looking at the life and work of Zimbabwean artist Kudzanai Chiuarai. The film uses the artist's 2011 exhibition ‘State of ...

  • The Road Forward

    Hot Docs Film Festival
    imagineNATIVE Film Festival

    Marie Clement's The Road Forward is a musical documentary that utilizes numerous filmmaking techniques to powerful effect. Using the story of Canada’s first Indigenous newspaper, The Native Voice, as its focal point, this particularly distincti...

  • Lo Sound Desert

    Hof International Film Festival
    American Documentary Film Festival

    A feature length documentary that unpacks the origins of California desert rock music, providing a unique insight into the Coachella Valley music scene in the 80s and 90s which begat bands such as Queens Of The Stone Age and Kyus...

  • The Case Of The Three Sided Dream

    “By emphasizing live performance and audio recordings over interviews, Kahan lets Kirk's talent speak for itself.” - Chicago Reader

    Raindance Film Festival
    Leeds International Film Festival

    Jazz musician Rahsaan Roland Kirk spent his career and life defying conventional limitations. Born blind,...

  • Una Banda De Chicas (A Girl's Band)

    Rotterdam International Film Festival
    Mar del Plata Film Festival
    FRAMELINE, San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival

    Una Banda De Chicas (A Girl's Band) sees former punk band bassist, Marilina Giménez, documenting women's bands from across Argentina, showing their struggles and achieveme...

  • Brainiac: Transmissions After Zero

    “Compelling… ‘Transmissions After Zero’ chronicles Brainiac’s unlikely rise and subsequent fall with intelligence and humor.” -Variety

    SXSW Film Festival
    Cleveland Film Festival
    Cork Film Festival

    In the mid 90’s the Dayton, OH music scene became a hot spot generating worldwide buzz for the inf...

  • Liyana

    "A lyrical work that's as bright and captivating as it is poignant." The Hollywood Reporter

    Dublin International Film Festival
    BFI London Film Festival
    Palm Springs Films Festival

    A Swazi girl embarks on a dangerous quest to rescue her young twin brothers in a tale is born of the imaginations o...