This Is the Life

Feb 8, 2008

1h 37m

★ 5.8

How the West was One

Overview

In 1989, a collective of young hip hop artists gathered at a health food café in South Central Los Angeles. Their mandate? To reject gang culture and expand the musical boundaries of hip hop. DuVernay's documentary chronicles the historic legacy of the Good Life Cafe — the open mic nights that became an L.A. institution, the eclectic array of talented young MCs that emerged there, the alternative hip hop movement they developed, and their worldwide influence on the artform.

Genres

Documentary

Music

Production Companies

The DuVernay Agency

This Is the Life Trailers

Cast

Self

Abstract Rude

Self

Big Al

Self

Busdriver

Self

Chali 2na

Self

Cut Chemist

Self

Ellay Khule

Self

Fat Jack

Self

NgaFsh

Self

Tray Loc

Self

Riddlore

Self

Wreccless

Self

Ganjah K

On September 1, 2004, a group of heavily armed rebel extremists stormed into School No. 1 in Beslan, Russia. For three days, more than a thousand children and adults were held hostage in a sweltering gymnasium, denied food and water, and forced to keep their hands over their heads. The harrowing siege ended on September 3 with a series of explosions and a hail of gunfire that killed some 350 people - half of them children. In this film, the youngest survivors of Beslan tell their story.

7.5

Beyoncé: Live at Wembley

Apr 26, 2004

Live at Wembley is a full concert-performance shot in London during Beyoncé’s first solo international tour Dangerously In Love.

7.5

Bulletproof Salesman

Mar 10, 2008

Fidelis Cloer is a self-confessed war profiteer who found The Perfect War when the US invaded Iraq. It wasn't about selling a dozen cars, or even a hundred, it was a thousand-car war where security would become the ultimate product.

5.5

Aggregate

Nov 29, 2018

The guided tours in the Reichstag building are well attended; there’s lots of laughter at the simulated vote on a bill. At the Bundestag’s “Infomobile” in Dresden, a citizen complains that the government is out of touch with the people. SPD parliamentarians attend a workshop to practise strategies for dealing with right-wing populist topics. A crowd chants: close the borders! Journalists from the taz and Bild-Zeitung newspapers discuss the issues of the day. An editorial team from TV station MDR produces a report entitled “Attack on Democracy – the New Right.”

1.0

Casanova Gene

Feb 17, 2018

A person enters the frame dressed up as a bird. In a dressing room, John Malkovich sheds the costume of Casanova. A young woman's skirt is just as orange as the beak of a zebra finch singing in a cage. White lilies stand at the foot of a statue of the Virgin Mary, red roses in front of the window of an SM studio. There the quiet game of submission in exchange for money, in a museum an embrace, a poem whispered in the ear. Children playing in a forest in autumn. A forest in summer, framed by light. An orgasm and a dance.

0.0

Exsultate Jubilate Alleluja

Jan 7, 1991

A film miniature to classical music inspired by the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Praise for the joy of life, synchronously set to the vocalization of Mozart's piece.

7.0

We the Economy: 20 Short Films You Can't Afford to Miss

Oct 21, 2014

Everyone’s talking about it, but who can explain it? Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Productions and Morgan Spurlock’s Cinelan have partnered to produce WE THE ECONOMY 20 Short Films You Can’t Afford to Miss. Each film is helmed by an acclaimed filmmaker, each with their own creative vision. The series aims to drive awareness and establish a better understanding of the U.S. economy. Told through animation, comedy, musical, non-fiction, and scripted films, WE THE ECONOMY seeks to demystify a complicated topic while empowering the public to take control of their own economic futures.

8.8

How Not to Be Seen: A Fucking Didactic Educational .MOV File

Oct 12, 2013

How Not to Be Seen: A Fucking Didactic Educational .MOV File (2013) mocks an instructional film on the idea of becoming invisible in the digital world.

6.0

What Walaa Wants

Feb 17, 2018

Raised in a refugee camp in the West Bank while her mother was in prison, Walaa dreams of being a policewoman, wearing a uniform, avoiding marriage, and earning a salary. Despite discouragement from her family, Walaa applies - and gets in. But her own rebellious behavior and a complicated relationship with her mother are a challenge, as are the circumstances under which she lives. Following Walaa from 15 to 21, this first-ever look inside the Palestinian police academy brings us the story of a young woman navigating formidable obstacles, learning which rules to break and follow, and disproving the negative predictions from her surroundings and the world at large.

0.0

Refuge

Jan 1, 1972

A documentary about the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order in London.

6.6

Young Solitude

Nov 14, 2018

Claire Simon portrays an important time for any individual, from 16 to 18 years of age. Set in the Paris suburbs in high school (for those lucky enough to go), teenagers chat after and even during class, sitting in the hallway or outside on a bench, looking at the city below them.

7.8

The Waldheim Waltz

Oct 4, 2018

Ruth Beckermann documents the process of uncovering former UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim’s wartime past. It shows the swift succession of new allegations by the World Jewish Congress during his Austrian presidential campaign, the denial by the Austrian political class, the outbreak of anti-Semitism and patriotism, which finally led to his election.

5.0

Wild Relatives

Feb 16, 2018

Deep in the earth beneath the Norwegian permafrost, seeds from all over the world are stored in the Global Seed Vault to provide a backup should disaster strike. For the first time ever, seeds held there from a major gene bank in Aleppo are now being replicated, after its holdings were left behind when the institution had to move to Lebanon due to the civil war. It is refugees from Syria who are carrying out this painstaking work in the fields of the Beqaa Valley. In the Levant, dry conditions and the power of global agricultural corporations are the biggest challenge, while in the Arctic Circle - where the seed vault was supposed to withstand anything - it is rising temperatures and melting glaciers.

7.6

Gorillaz: Demon Days Live at the Manchester Opera House

Mar 27, 2006

Demon Days: Live at the Manchester Opera House is a Grammy Award nominated live DVD by Gorillaz, It compiles live performances by the band from the 1st through the 5th of November 2005 at the Manchester Opera House that recreated the Demon Days Studio album.

1.0

August 28: A Day in the Life of a People

Aug 26, 2017

Documentary film on events that happened on August 28th in African-American history, shown at the Smithsonian African-American History Museum.

0.0

The Fascinator

Invalid Date

The Man is bound in an endless loop of fascination with a woman who haunts his thoughts. On the brink of a breakdown he desperately tries to break free before he is consumed.

7.0

It Came from Kuchar

Sep 22, 2009

It Came from Kuchar is the definitive, feature documentary about the legendary, underground filmmaking twins, the Kuchar brothers. George and Mike Kuchar have inspired two generations of filmmakers, actors, musicians, and artists with their zany, "no budget" films and with their uniquely enchanting spirits.

6.7

Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer

Nov 21, 2003

British documentarian Nick Broomfield creates a follow-up piece to his 1992 documentary of the serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a highway prostitute who was convicted of killing six men in Florida between 1989 and 1990. Interviewing an increasingly mentally unstable Wuornos, Broomfield captures the distorted mind of a murderer whom the state of Florida deems of sound mind -- and therefore fit to execute. Throughout the film, Broomfield includes footage of his testimony at Wuornos' trial.