Described by the New Yorker as a "preternaturally accomplished" musician with "a voice like a velvet clarion" (New York Magazine), 16-year-old Nikki Yanofsky's commanding vocal performances often draw comparisons to a "young Ella Fitzgerald" (Seattle Post-Intelligencer). Viewers of her first PBS concert special, 'Nikki Yanofsky: Live in Montreal,' will understand why. Yanofsky's debut studio album 'Nikki' is out May 4th on Decca. Excerpts from the concert, recorded at Montreal's Salle Pierre Mercure, will be televised as part of the June PBS pledge drive. (Check local listings for air dates and times.) The full show will be available on DVD June 1st from Decca, with extra behind-the-scenes bonus footage.

Backed by a big band in her hometown, Nikki's vocal resemblance to Fitzgerald and fluid scatting are demonstrated in her compelling rendition of the Gershwins' "I Got Rhythm" and her ability to jump genres shines in her graceful reworking of Joni Mitchell's "Circle Game."

2010 debut studio album from the young Canadian sensation, whose recording of 'I Believe'- the official theme song of CTV's Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games - has been certified triple platinum. Nikki was produced by 15-time Grammy-winning producer Phil Ramone and Grammy-winning songwriter and producer Jesse Harris. It is a collection of newly arranged standards, classic selections from the American Songbook and elegant originals Yanofsky co-wrote with Harris, Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith and others. A composition written for Yanofsky by acclaimed Canadian songstress Feist also appears on the album.

BY THE PEOPLE: THE ELECTION OF BARACK OBAMA is a moving record of the Obama campaign's history-making odyssey to the White House. Interwoven with the drama of the campaign is never-before-seen footage of Obama behind the scenes, as well as interviews and candid moments with wife Michelle Obama, the couple's young daughters, Malia and Sasha, and senior campaign staff, volunteers, reporters, supporters and opponents.

Schmatta: Rags To Riches To Rags brings to life the vibrant, unexpected history of the Garment District which for many years was the heart and soul of Midtown Manhattan, but is now in danger of disappearing. For thousands of immigrants the garment industry was a path to their American Dream, but today most of those jobs are gone. A microcosm of the economic and social forces transforming our nation over the past one hundred years, Schmatta: Rags To Riches To Rags tells the story of this vanishing industry through the voices of the people who have experienced its highs and lows.

When Nahid Persson Sarvestani, an Iranian exile, set out to make a documentary about Farrah, the wife of the shah of Iran, she expected to encounter her opposite. As a child, Persson Sarvestani had lived in dire poverty, watching Farrah’s wedding as if it were a fairy tale. As a teenager, she joined the Communist faction of Khomeini’s revolution that deposed the shah, sending him and his family volleying from country to country. When Khomeini betrayed his promise for democracy, imposing more violent measures than the shah had, Persson Sarvestani was also forced to flee. Thirty years later, she needs key questions answered and goes directly to the source. Surprisingly, Queen Farrah welcomes her as a fellow refugee from their beloved homeland, granting unprecedented access. Over the next year and a half, Persson Sarvestani enters the queen’s world, planning to challenge the shah’s ideology; instead, she must rethink her own. When Persson Sarvestani’s prior opposition to the shah surfaces, the queen shuts down filming. Yet, in the struggle to understand each other’s experiences, an unlikely friendship has blossomed. Confronting Farrah about the shah’s repression has become not only a political conflict but a personal one, and Persson Sarvestani’s objectivity is shaken.In this gripping, poignant consideration of subjectivity as truth, we learn that people write history. And can also heal it. The Queen and I couldn’t be more relevant as we reach across our own political aisles.

In this breathtaking film, Spike Lee captures the highly-acclaimed eponymous Broadway musical show written by singer/songwriter Stew (with music co-written by his creative partner, Heidi Rodewald). The original show, winner of the 2008 Tony Award in for Best Book of a Musical, was universally applauded for its originality, its deep emotional resonance, and its powerful, often high-octane, music. The resulting work unites revelatory theater with superb filmmaking, raising the whole to a dizzying plateau of emotional engagement.

"Passing Strange The Movie" tells the semi-autobiographical story of a young black man who leaves behind his middle-class, church-ruled upbringing in mid-1970s Los Angeles to travel to Europe in search of his artistic and personal identity, or what he calls "the real." Picaresque misadventures with sex, drugs, politics, and art await him in far-out Amsterdam and hyper-militant Berlin. His eyes are opened ever wider, even revealing what he left behind. An absolutely superb cast, ably supported by sparing (but pitch-perfect) costumes, design, and stagecraft, bring to life the emotionally charged story with its astounding original music, narrated and overseen by Stew himself. Lee's multicamera coverage of the event (including backstage scenes) involves the audience in not only the text but the electricity of the ensemble’s onstage adventure.

"Passing Strange The Movie" is a tour-de-force of creative collaboration and inspiration.

As the years pass since John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged their 1969, weeklong "Bed-In for Peace" at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, the event’s reputation has taken on an increasingly clownish aspect in memoirs and biographies written about life with the Beatles. But John & Yoko: Give Peace a Song, a documentary drawing from hundreds of hours of film footage shot in the celebrity couple’s small bedroom, proves the time was well spent in exhaustive, public exchanges between Lennon and some of the most influential people of the day. Talking with and sometimes debating the likes of Timothy Leary, Tommy Smothers (fresh from the controversial cancellation of his outspoken comedy show on CBS), Dick Gregory, and assorted revolutionaries, Lennon stayed on-message about the practicality of non-violent solutions to the era’s most serious problems. It might be easy today for some of their then-contemporaries to look back and dismiss Lennon and Ono as self-aggrandizing and politically naïve publicity hounds. But the depth, rigor, and consistency of Lennon’s thinking about peace, both as a personal choice and collective tool for social change, was quite striking as evidenced in this movie. Everything leads to the momentous, chaotic, and fun recording of "Give Peace a Chance," which–as the film demonstrates—instantly became an anti-war anthem for millions. Special features include a terrific, complete television interview with Lennon on the CBC.

–Tom Keogh

The debut release from one of the most talked about young vocalists in the country! Ella… Of Thee I Swing, features a DVD capturing the 14 year-old jazz sensation in a sold-out show in Montreal. After four packed concerts at the 2007 Montreal Jazz Festival, Nikki Yanofsky returned, by popular demand, to Place des Arts to reprise her tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, entitled Ella… Of Thee I Swing. This magical night resulted in one of Nikki's most memorable performances. Owning the stage, she captivated her audience like a veteran performer three times her age.

90-minute DVD- The Arena Tour 2008, Live From Rotterdam

After topping the jazz charts with her latest release 'Make Someone Happy', Sophie Milman has toured the world, playing night after night of sold-out performances to her adoring fans from Tokyo to New York. The sultry, smooth vocals of this young, beautiful, Russian born Israeli have characterized her concert performances bringing fans to their feet time and time again. For the first time on DVD, 'Sophie Milman- Live in Montreal' captures 2008 Juno Award winner Sophie Milman at her best, delivering a knock-out performance at the place that started it all, the world renowned Montreal International Jazz Festival.

Performing songs from her chart topping album 'Make Someone Happy' including Stevie Wonder's hit
'Rocket Love', The Guess Who's 'Undun', as well as favorites like 'Ochi Chornye' and `People Will Say We're In Love', this DVD is a must have for jazz fans everywhere.

Live in New Orleans DVD is an uplifting fusion of gospel, blues and soul from one of the longest-running groups in the world, The Blind Boys Of Alabama. Their rousing performance included favorites like 'Free At Last', 'Down By The Riverside', 'Amazing Grace' and 'People Get Ready'. Special guests include Susan Tedeschi, Dr. John, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Henry Butler and Marva Wright.

Internationally acclaimed, Juno Award winning Jazz vocalist Sophie Milman returns with her highly anticipated 2009 album Take Love Easy. Sophie ventures into a more contemporary sound with this album, recording covers of Paul Simon's '50 Ways to Leave Your Lover', Joni Mitchell's 'Be Cool', and Bruce Springsteen's 'I'm On Fire', but she remains firmly rooted in Jazz as evidenced the inclusion standards such as 'Day In Day Out' and 'Love For Sale' and Sophie's insistence on recording with the best Jazz musicians in the business.

The year is 1980. The Levis, a large family with a unique lifestyle, live in what was then a rather naive State of Israel. Mr. Levi lectures his children daily on the importance of fulfilling their dreams, while his wife preaches absolute family loyalty. The family's twin boys both fall in love with a new girl in town. Erez, our hero, discovers how difficult it is to balance family loyalty against fulfillment of one's personal dreams. Matters become increasingly complicated when Erez somehow causes a severe family crisis. Beset by guilt feelings, he attempts to escape his fate, somehow exchanging dreams with his twin brother. He is drafted into a commando unit of the Israeli Army, just as his brother always dreamed of doing, while Ofer remains at home to take care of his broken family and has an affair with the love of Erez's life. Can Erez challenge destiny? Of what value is the life of someone who does not fulfill his dreams?

For over four decades, Leonard Cohen has been one of the most important and influential songwriters of our time, a figure whose body of work achieves greater depths of mystery and meaning as time goes on. His songs have set a virtually unmatched standard in their seriousness and range. Sex, spirituality, religion, power - he has relentlessly examined the largest issues in human lives, always with a full appreciation of how elusive answers can be to the vexing questions he raises. But those questions, and the journey he has traveled in seeking to address them, are the ever-shifting substance of his work, as well as the reasons why his songs never lose their overwhelming emotional force. Documentaries, awards, tribute albums and the ongoing march of artists eager to record his songs all acknowledge the peerless contribution Cohen has made to what one of his titles aptly calls "The Tower of Song."

In 2008 Leonard Cohen embarked on his first tour in 15 years. Quickly recognized as musical folklore in the making, 29 of the original dates sold out almost immediately, leaving fans and critics alike hailing the show as a once in a lifetime experience. By popular demand, the Canadian/UK tour was extended and by the end of that year it had reached 84 markets worldwide, selling more than 700,000 tickets. The Live In London release fully captures and recreates the extraordinary show from that tour that earned Cohen more than 80 five-star reviews for his performances.

The debut release from one of the most talked about young vocalists in the country! Ella… Of Thee I Swing, features a DVD and CD capturing the 14 year-old jazz sensation in a sold-out show in Montreal. After four packed concerts at the 2007 Montreal Jazz Festival, Nikki Yanofsky returned, by popular demand, to Place des Arts to reprise her tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, entitled Ella… Of Thee I Swing. This magical night resulted in one of Nikki's most memorable performances. Owning the stage, she captivated her audience like a veteran performer three times her age. The deluxe package includes the DVD and CD of the concert, 3 studio bonus tracks, and a 30 minute documentary on Nikki.