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Sometimes things catch me by surprise. For instance, I had no idea that Toronto’s North by Northeast music festival (patterned after Austin’s South by Southwest) also has a film festival component. The whole thing takes place this weekend, but tomorrow has two very promising screenings that I’m going to try to get to.
A.J. Schnack’s film Kurt Cobain: About A Son has been getting rave reviews all over the place, and this might be the only opportunity to see this film on a big screen for a while. The film features audio interviews with Cobain recorded by writer Michael Azerrad for his biography Come As You Are, and Schnack has combined the audio with footage of Cobain’s three hometowns in Washington state (Aberdeen, Olympia, and Seattle). It’s said to be powerful stuff. Watch an excerpt from the film here. You can catch it at 7:00 pm tomorrow at the Royal Cinema (608 College Street).
Wasted Orient will be a different but no less memorable experience, if the trailer is anything to go by. Filmmaker Kevin Fritz follows Chinese punk band Joyside around the country as they drink, vomit, play some music, and generally despair over the Chinese music scene and life in general. It’s showing at 3:00pm tomorrow at the National Film Board Theatre (150 John Street).
Tagged as:
china,
Documentaries,
music,
nxne,
suicide
Glastonbury (Director: Julien Temple, UK, 2006): For those on my side of the Atlantic who are not familiar with it, the Glastonbury Festival is England’s version of Woodstock and Burning Man rolled into one. Over the course of a long weekend each June, the pastoral setting is overrun with performance artists, buskers, ravers, rockers, stoners and just about anyone in the UK with an ounce of eccentricity. Oh yeah, and bands. It began in 1970, when farmer Michael Eavis organized a festival for a few hundred hippies. Recently, it’s grown in attendance to over 150,000 people. Along with that growth has come some unwelcome changes, such as the increasing presence of corporate sponsors, and, most notably in the film, the presence of a security wall that surrounds the entire property. The fence was constructed in 2001 after ongoing problems with gatecrashers, but the extensive security apparatus, including the wall, security cameras, and a substantial force of security police, seems at odds with the spirit in which the festival was founded. This in itself could have made a compelling film. But it’s not this film.
Instead, director Julien Temple (The Filth and the Fury) aims for a more impressionistic experience, using a mixture of amateur and professional footage shot over more than thirty years to give the viewer an idea of what it feels like to be there. While this conveys some of the mixture of emotions attendees must feel, it’s slightly disorienting. Organizer Michael Eavis pops up in footage from the 70s until the present, but we only gradually figure out who he is. As well, trying to cram as many bands from as many eras as possible into the film means that there isn’t a complete performance from any of them. And though there is a lot of endearing eccentricity on display, the film seems to revel in it just a bit too much, at the expense of conveying any coherent information about the festival and its history.
For example, there is a fascinating interlude in the middle of the film when Eavis allows the itinerant “Traveller” community to participate in the festival for a number of years. But by 1990, he has to throw them out after their community disputes erupt into violent fights during the festival. Just a bit of standard documentary exposition would have been welcome here. Same for the issues of security and sponsorship.
As it is, the film feels true to the spirit of anarchy that characterized the festival’s beginnings, and although it’s overlong at 138 minutes, it certainly communicates some of the exhilaration and confusion that make festivalgoers risk the (strong) possibility of torrential rains and knee-deep mud each year.
(7/10)
Tagged as:
Documentaries,
DVD,
music
Echoes of Home (Heimatklänge) (Director: Stefan Schwietert, Switzerland/Germany, 2007): You might think a documentary about yodeling — wait, yodeling? Yes, you read right — may induce yawning from an audience, but Echoes of Home proves the contrary. It investigates yodeling through the eyes (and vocal cords) of three Swiss musicians: Christian Zehnder, Erika Stucky and Noldi Alder. In some way I was prepared for an 81-minute version of the Lonely Goatherd song from The Sound of Music, a fun song, albeit Richard Rodgers’ “musicalized” take on the Swiss tradition. But what I got was a beautiful film about the traditional yodeling as expressed by Noldi (part of the famous Alder family) and the more contemporary sounds of Christian and Erika. Their voices mimicked seagulls at the shore or the chugging of a locomotive or a baby’s cry. It sounded odd at first, but I grew accustomed to the wordless, harmonious notes.
Schwietert captures these musicians in various settings, whether in front of an audience, on the mountains, in the kitchen or in a pub. They need no concert hall, only a quiet space — a void — to create sound.
Although about 10 minutes too long (there were several points around the 70-minute mark where it could have ended), the film certainly warrants a look – and a listen. And if the harmonious sounds are too much, just mute the DVD and enjoy the scenery.
Official site for the film
(9/10)
Tagged as:
music,
switzerland
Girls Rock! (Directors: Arne Johnson, Shane King, USA, 2006): I’m a sucker for documentaries with kids in them. At every festival, often full of dark films about human greed and violence, I always try to pick a film with kids in it. There’s just something wonderful about seeing their eyes when they learn something new, or hearing them talk about the things that matter to them. Girls Rock! combines that sense of wonder with the kick-ass attitude of DIY rock by taking us inside the Rock N’ Roll Camp for Girls, an annual week-long crash course for young women from 8-18.
This real-life School of Rock takes place in Portland, Oregon and girls and young women come from all over the country to be part of it. We get to witness their initial anxiety about being grouped with others to form bands, choosing an instrument, and even choosing names for their bands. It’s clear that the camp organizers want to use the power of rock music to give these girls a voice. In a society that limits women’s choices so early and in so many ways, this camp is a shot in the arm; literally an innoculation against all the negative messages that are thrown at young women today.
But that sounds preachy. And even when the film is throwing statistics at us, it does it in a playful way, using cute animations and jazzy fonts. And a film about rock music should be fun, and the film definitely is that, even when band squabbles and unresolved behavioural problems threaten to destroy the vibe.
The girls we meet are all adorable and gifted in unique ways, even though a few of the younger ones fall into that “precocious” category that can be entertaining in small doses, but can drive you crazy if you see them getting their way too often. In this area, it needs to be said that there are some problems that can’t be solved by music alone, especially in a week.
The camp experience culminates in a huge concert in front of 750 people, and it was great to see all of these thrown-together bands playing songs they’d written themselves. It was hard to believe the camp was only a week long.
It was also hard to believe that this was the feature debut of the two directors, who’ve produced a polished piece of work that manages to deliver a positive message in such a fun way.
Here is the Q&A with directors Arne Johnson and Shane King from after the screening:
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Duration: 19:32
Official site for the film
(9/10)
Tagged as:
children,
music
Beyond Beats: A Hip-Hop Head Weighs In On Manhood In Hip-Hop Culture (USA, 2006, Director: Byron Hurt, 62 minutes): Byron Hurt is a former college quarterback and a huge hip-hop fan. But after he begins a job as a college counselor conducting programs for men about violence against women, he begins to look at his beloved music in a new light. This film is a record of his attempt to understand why hip-hop is so obsessed with images of violence, misogyny and homophobia. Hurt uses the metaphor of a box to describe the narrow image of masculinity in which black men are trapped, and he backs this up with numerous interviews with academics, hip-hop artists, and fans. Also interesting (and actually hilarious) are his deconstructions of rap videos, which are filled with the same ridiculous cliches repeated again and again.
I applaud him for trying to take on so many controversial issues in rap music, but it was discouraging to see so many people unwilling or unable to engage him on these subjects. When he brings up the issue of homophobia with Busta Rhymes, for instance, the rapper gets up and leaves. An executive from BET refuses to answer his questions, and hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons gives him only evasive answers. All in all, it’s clear that most people don’t see these issues as problems, especially when rap music is making them all so much money.
The only flaw in this film is that it was too short. I’d love to see a longer version, or even better, a longer series about these issues where the filmmaker could pursue some answers over an extended period. Gadflies like Byron Hurt will need to be patient if they want to see anything change, and I hope that he can document the process even more comprehensively. It’s definitely worth watching.
Visit the director’s web site
(9/10)
NOW Toronto: NNN (out of 5) (review)
EYE Weekly: ***** (out of 5) (review)
Tagged as:
Documentaries,
homosexuality,
Hot Docs,
manhood,
music
