Before you can fly, you have to be free.
At the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese village by Madame Mao's cultural delegates and taken to Beijing to study ballet. In 1979, during a cultural exchange to Texas, he falls in love with an American woman. Two years later, he managed to defect and went on to perform as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet and as a principal artist with the Australian Ballet.
Elizabeth Mackey
Li Cunxin - adult
Li Cunxin - teenage
Niang
Ben Stevenson
Charles Foster
US Federal Judge
Mary McKendry
Lori
Bobby Cordner
Dilworth
Herself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
David
20 Mar 2015
We seek to find the inner light of each one and thus turn on new lights, to leave the paths illuminated, so as not to walk blindly and alone. It is having a real awareness of our actions, that our life is a commitment and that if each one of us acts, a great change will be seen in the world. The power of life is to give us existence.
13 Jan 1972
October 1918: Karl Liebknecht is released from prison and Berlin workers celebrate his release. Although WWI is almost over, the German Kaiserreich in vain sends its last reserves to the slaughter. The working class is in a rebellious mood; the uprising of Kiel’s sailors against war and militarism sets off a call for revolution led by Liebknecht. On November 9, Liebknecht declares the Free Socialist Republic of Germany. But pro-Kaiser military and right wing Social Democrats oppose him.
18 May 1950
An elderly man falls in love with a beautiful young woman, without knowing that she is in love with his son.
05 Aug 1948
This is the story of three brothers - a priest, a soldier, and an outlaw - that are raised separately by their godfathers once their mother dies. They cross their paths again when the soldier and the priest move into two towns near the town the outlaw lives in. The drama will unfold once the three brothers meet each other.
16 Oct 1952
A fading music hall comedian tries to help a despondent ballet dancer learn to walk and to again feel confident about life.
01 Jan 1982
The Royal Ballet's 1980 production of Tchaikovsky's classic ballet.
07 Jun 2000
A mute female dancer who wows audiences in club competitions but can't get Broadway jobs because of her handicap, develops a "voice" when a young scientist invents a device that allows her to make music via her dance movements.
02 Sep 1982
Stern, intelligent Sylvia, a lawyer, finally met her match. Only that the person is a woman, and was convicted of murder.
07 May 1937
Ballet star Petrov arranges to cross the Atlantic aboard the same ship as the dancer and musical star he's fallen for but barely knows. By the time the ocean liner reaches New York, a little white lie has churned through the rumour mill and turned into a hot gossip item—that the two celebrities are secretly married.
28 Aug 1978
On a northern Italian farm, Batistì and his wife decide to send their son Minec to school, sacrificing his help in the fields but hoping to break the cycle of poverty in the family. But when Minec’s shoe breaks while walking for miles, Batisti puts the family’s future at risk to replace the clog.
03 Jan 1956
A humble and simple Takezo abandons his life as a knight errant. He's sought as a teacher and vassal by Shogun, Japan's most powerful clan leader. He's also challenged to fight by the supremely confident and skillful Sasaki Kojiro. Takezo agrees to fight Kojiro in a year's time but rejects Shogun's patronage, choosing instead to live on the edge of a village, raising vegetables. He's followed there by Otsu and later by Akemi, both in love with him. The year ends as Takezo assists the villagers against a band of brigands. He seeks Otsu's forgiveness and accepts her love, then sets off across the water to Ganryu Island for his final contest.
23 Feb 1984
Convinced that his subtenant is a spy and an enemy of the state, Ilija Čvorović falls into deep paranoia which leads to an absurd and destructive chain of events.
30 Jun 2023
Late 18th century, Tohoku. An outcast girl, Rin lives in a village suffering from famine. She draws strength from Mt. Hayachine, where the spirits of humans ascend after passing.
17 Oct 2014
Mattis feels rejected by his dad and seeks attention from his male dancing teacher. But this night, something is different. Mattis induces a power struggle and when the dancing teacher desperately tries to set boundaries, they both loose control.
17 Mar 1989
An American ballerina arrives in Hungary to enroll in a ballet school and it soon becomes apparent that things are not what they seem.
16 Feb 1929
The Redeeming Sin (1929) is a crime drama part-talking silent film with Vitaphone music and sound effects. It was produced and distributed by Warner Bros. and stars Dolores Costello. This film is currently a lost film.
Renata is recovering from a cerebrovascular thrombosis that marked the end of her dance career. A year later, she starts to regain her bodily autonomy and feels confident to rekindle her intimacy with her husband. But before she does, she must face her changing feelings towards her emotionally distant husband, Jaime, who is in denial that their relationship has changed.
04 May 1949
Josh and Dinah Barkley are a successful musical-comedy team, known for their stormy but passionate relationship. Dinah feels overshadowed by Josh and limited by the lighthearted musical roles he directs her in. So she decides to stretch her skills by taking a role in a serious drama, directed by another man.
20 Jan 2010
A glimpse at the life of French singer Serge Gainsbourg, from growing up in 1940s Nazi-occupied Paris through his successful song-writing years in the 1960s to his death in 1991 at the age of 62.
01 Jan 2003
Jagan, Akash and Nisha belong to a dance club. Their ambition is to become big in the dancing profession. Jagan and Nisha are lovers. Jagan is a middle-class man who dreams of becoming a millionaire over night. In the process he meets an actress named Sonia who offers him a ridiculously large amount of money for a 3 hours strip tease show to be done among a group of ten high society women who are bored with their husbands. Jagan asks his best buddy Akash to accompany him in the job. That show becomes a big hit and Jagan gets another call from Sonia for another strip show. Akash, however, is not comfortable with that profession. Jagan does the solo strip tease. There he meets a sexy older women named Savitha who has a secret identity that will end up compromising Jagan's world. - Written by gavin