Notions of Freedom

★ 0.0 2007 16m HD

Ulysses Jenkins charts the history of jazz—what he calls “the first true American art form"—from its beginnings in New Orleans and the American South to the classic work of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington and through the major innovations of Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra, and Miles Davis. Also included are clips of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, explicitly linking the development of jazz to the Civil Rights Movement. Motion-capture animated figures are seen dancing, superimposed, over the archival footage of the musicians. Wearing colorful costumes, they perform Jenkins’ original choreography. The dancers exert a powerful influence over the historical documentation as their movements extend across the decades and, finally, into the future.

Watch Notions of Freedom free in the app.

Stream it in full at no cost — the whole MovieAro catalog is free.

Watch free — get the app
Release 2007-12-31

Cast

More Like This

Wick Is Pain poster

Witness the never-before-seen footage and true story behind the John Wick phenomenon – from indepen…

Wick Is Pain

★ 7.4 2025

Quincy poster

An intimate look into the life of icon Quincy Jones. A unique force in music and popular culture fo…

Quincy

★ 7.3 2018

Take the Lead poster

A former professional dancer volunteers to teach dance in the New York public school system and, wh…

Take the Lead

★ 6.9 2006

Zappa poster

With the help of more than 10,000 dedicated Zappa fans, this is the long-awaited definitive documen…

Zappa

★ 7.3 2020

Respect poster

The rise of Aretha Franklin’s career from a child singing in her father’s church’s choir to her int…

Respect

★ 6.8 2021

Chevalier poster

The illegitimate son of an African slave and a French plantation owner, Joseph Bologne rises to imp…

Chevalier

★ 6.4 2023

Swiped poster

Whitney Wolfe uses extraordinary grit and ingenuity to break into the male-dominated tech industry.

Swiped

★ 6.6 2025