Peer into the world of contemporary composer John Adams with this documentary that blends performance footage with insightful interviews and commentary from his collaborators and the master himself. Highlights include performances of Adams's Grammy Award-winning operas “Nixon in China” and “El Niño” and excerpts from Penny Woolcock’s film adaptation of “The Death of Klinghoffer”. Works by Steve Reich and Conlon Nancarrow are also performed by the Ensemble InterContemporain at the Théâtre Musical de Paris-Châtelet.

Blues as a genre shaped the sound of jazz in the early 20th century and directly led to the creation of rock 'n' roll in the '50s. The scales, chords, and progressions of blues as a musical form can be found in styles from jazz to rock to contemporary R&B.

Interviews with and performance footage of conductor Sir John Barbirolli.

In a nostalgic Moscow of 1976, an unlucky actor meets a charismatic writer, a living classic of Soviet literature, who turns his life into a tragicomic farce with the artistic bohemia, foreign-currency prostitutes, the KGB staff and agents of the CIA.

This Hungarian documentary explores the life and career of Olympic Pentathlon champion Andras Balczo. After winning five gold medals in the event, he retired at age 34. He was offered lucrative positions as a coach in many countries but elected to remain in Hungary, despite the fact that he was never permitted to train anyone there.

The story of three Las Vegas showgirls, each at a different stage in her career.

Egoyan juxtaposes home-video images of his son Arshile with a self-portrait of the famed Armenian artist, Arshile Gorky; Egoyan narrates in English, while his wife narrates in Armenian. The self-portrait made from a photo of the artist as a child at the time of the great massacre of the Armenians is used as a focus for meditations on the nature of self-awareness, artistic expression, and the relationship between the artist and the viewer.

A pickpocket assumes various identities to steal from the aristocracy in early-20th-century Rio de Janeiro.

A circus daredevil is the next victim of a danger-seducing woman who tricks him into a potentially deadly stunt after he attempted to kill her.

A professional hitman is hired to kill a brain surgeon. However, it turns out that not only are he and the surgeon old friends, but they are both in love with the same woman.