Only the Strong Survive

Jan 14, 2002

1h 35m

★ 6.5

Overview

A film featuring the veteran soul music artists and music of Stax Records. It tells the story of soul, a musical genre that was to have a major influence on other styles of music for decades. Ten legends of soul talk about the beginnings and still show at their concerts today that, despite their advanced age, they have lost none of the energy and joie de vivre that defines this music.

Genres

Documentary

Music

Production Companies

Pennebaker Hegedus Films

Only the Strong Survive Trailers

Cast

Self

Rufus Thomas

Self

Carla Thomas

Self

Isaac Hayes

Self

Wilson Pickett

Self

Mary Wilson

Self

Sam Moore

Self

Jerry Butler

Self

Jaye Michael Davis

Self

Don Bryant

Self

Luther Ingram

Self

Roger Friedman

Self

Ann Peebles

A detailed chronicle of the famous 1969 tour of the United States by the British rock band The Rolling Stones, which culminated with the disastrous and tragic concert held on December 6 at the Altamont Speedway Free Festival, an event of historical significance, as it marked the end of an era: the generation of peace and love suddenly became the generation of disillusionment.

0.0

Keepers of the Fire

Apr 23, 1994

For half of a millennium, First Nations women have been at the forefront of aboriginal peoples' resistance to cultural assimilation. Today, Native women are still fighting for the survival of their cultures and their peoples--in the rain forest and the city, in the courts and the legislatures, in the Longhouse and the media. Keepers of the Fire profiles Canada's Native 'warrior women' who are protecting and defending their land, their culture and their people in the time-honoured tradition of their foremothers.

6.9

Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations

Apr 21, 1938

Starting with a long and lyrical overture, evoking the origins of the Olympic Games in ancient Greece, Riefenstahl covers twenty-one athletic events in the first half of this two-part love letter to the human body and spirit, culminating with the marathon, where Jesse Owens became the first track and field athlete to win four gold medals in a single Olympics.

6.7

Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty

Jun 2, 1938

Part two of Leni Riefenstahl's monumental examination of the 1938 Olympic Games, the cameras leave the main stadium and venture into the many halls and fields deployed for such sports as fencing, polo, cycling, and the modern pentathlon, which was won by American Glenn Morris.

0.0

In Free Fall

Jan 2, 2010

The space of the junkyard allows various ‘crash’ narratives to unfold, with the stories of actual crashes and the remnants and afterlife of these machines becoming metaphors for economic decline. This is an investigation of planes as they are parked during the economic downturn, stored and recycled, revealing unexpected connections between economy, violence and spectacle, finding perfect example in the form of the Boeing 4X-JYI, an aircraft first acquired by film director Howard Hughes for TWA, which was subsequently flown by the Israeli Airforce before finding its way to the Californian desert to be blown up for the Hollywood blockbuster Speed. Through intertwined narratives of people, planes and places Steyerl reveals cycles of capitalism incorporating and adapting to the changing status of the commodity, but also points at a horizon beyond this endless repetition.

6.8

How the Lion Cub and the Turtle Sang a Song

Jan 1, 1974

The Tortoise composed a song and the Lion cub learnt it by heart and they sang it together.

6.7

Dig!

May 14, 2004

A documentary on the once promising American rock bands The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. The friendship between respective founders, Anton Newcombe and Courtney Taylor, escalated into bitter rivalry as the Dandy Warhols garnered major international success while the Brian Jonestown Massacre imploded in a haze of drugs.

7.1

In the Realms of the Unreal

Jan 15, 2004

In the Realms of the Unreal is a documentary about the reclusive Chicago-based artist Henry Darger. Henry Darger was so reclusive that when he died his neighbors were surprised to find a 15,145-page manuscript along with hundreds of paintings depicting The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glodeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Cased by the Child Slave Rebellion.

0.0

Kygo: Back at the Bowl

Sep 26, 2025

Step inside one of the most iconic venues in the world for an unforgettable night of music, energy, and spectacle. Captured live from Kygo's sold-out Hollywood Bowl performance on his record-breaking world tour, Kygo: Back at the Bowl delivers a next-level concert experience—remixed, remastered, and reimagined for the big screen. Directed by Sam Wrench, this immersive concert film brings fans front row through cutting-edge SCREENX and 4DX formats, featuring surprise guest performances by Ryan Tedder, Ava Max, Zara Larsson, Calum Scott, and more. Whether you're a longtime fan or discovering Kygo for the first time, this is your all-access pass to the magic of a live show—like you've never seen or felt before.

3.4

Kristina Talking Pictures

Nov 2, 1976

Kristina, a self-named Hungarian female lion tamer, arrives in New York to become a dance choreographer. Kristina, now a middle-class NYC artist concerned about the environment, has a sailor lover named Raoul. The film, a collage work, an essay film, a fictional narrative and a documentary all rolled into one, is one of the most important independent American feminists films made during the 1970's.

6.2

O Seasons, O Castles

May 1, 1958

A short documentary on the chateaux of the Loire in France was commissioned by the French Tourist Bureau.

7.5

Woodstock

Mar 26, 1970

An intimate look at the Woodstock Music & Art Festival held in Bethel, NY in 1969, from preparation through cleanup, with historic access to insiders, blistering concert footage, and portraits of the concertgoers; negative and positive aspects are shown, from drug use by performers to naked fans sliding in the mud, from the collapse of the fences by the unexpected hordes to the surreal arrival of National Guard helicopters with food and medical assistance for the impromptu city of 500,000.

7.8

The Rape of Recy Taylor

May 30, 2019

Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old black mother and sharecropper, was gang raped by six white boys in 1944 Alabama. Common in Jim Crow South, few women spoke up in fear for their lives. Not Recy Taylor, who bravely identified her rapists. The NAACP sent its chief rape investigator Rosa Parks, who rallied support and triggered an unprecedented outcry for justice. The film exposes a legacy of physical abuse of black women and reveals Rosa Parks’ intimate role in Recy Taylor’s story.

5.6

Welcome to São Paulo

Jul 16, 2004

All the feature is given prestige to by the narration in Caetano Veloso's voice, that also signs one of the segments of the project. São Paulo is the largest city of the Southern Hemisphere, with an incessant dynamics of cultural mixtures, with immigrants of all the world and migrants of all parts of Brazil. The gathering of these peculiarities are seen through the 13 film directors's sensibilities and their segments.

8.4

Gaga Chromatica Ball

Jul 19, 2024

In front of a sold-out crowd of 52,000 people, Lady Gaga delivers a career-defining performance at Los Angeles's Dodger Stadium during her 2022 Chromatica Ball Tour.

6.7

Wayne's World

Feb 14, 1992

The adventures of two amiably aimless metal-head friends, Wayne and Garth. From Wayne's basement, the pair broadcast a talk-show called "Wayne's World" on local public access television. The show comes to the attention of a sleazy network executive who wants to produce a big-budget version of "Wayne's World"—and he also wants Wayne's girlfriend, a rock singer named Cassandra. Wayne and Garth have to battle the executive not only to save their show, but also Cassandra.

4.9

Clara

Nov 7, 2008

A look at the lives of 19th-century composers Clara and Robert Schumann.

7.7

Cinema Through the Eye of Magnum

Sep 2, 2017

The film tells the story of the intimate and unprecedented encounter between the photojournalists of the Magnum Agency and the world of cinema. The confrontation of two seemingly opposite worlds – fiction and reality. For 70 years their paths crossed: a family of photographers, amongst them the biggest names in photography, and a family of actors and filmmakers who helped write the history of cinema, from John Huston to Marilyn Monroe to Orson Welles, Kate Winslet and Sean Penn.

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7.0

The Homestretch

Jun 19, 2014

Three homeless teenagers brave Chicago winters, the pressures of high school, and life alone on the streets to build a brighter future.

6.7

Underwater Dreams

Jul 11, 2014

Underwater Dreams, narrated by Michael Peña, is an epic story of how the sons of undocumented Mexican immigrants learned how to build underwater robots. And go up against MIT in the process.