MILES
ELECTRIC: A DIFFERENT KIND OF BLUE
US 2004 DIRECTOR: MURRAY LERNERWHITSELL
AUDITORIUMGUILD
THEATREWhen Miles Davis released ‘Bitches Brew”
in 1970, the reaction was much like that of Dylan purists
who recoiled at his going electric in 1965. Davis’ new
direction, coming on the heels of his pioneering “In
A Silent Way,” brought to full flower the influences
of street funk, Jimi Hendrix, John McLaughlin and others experimenting
in the intersection of jazz, blues, rock. Davis’s performance
at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival in front of 600,000 rock
fans marked a key moment in his musical transition and provides
the core of Lerner’s film, around which is interspersed
contemporary reminiscences by musicians who were at Davis’
side —Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, Dave
Holland, Gary Bartz— as well as Carlos Santana, Joni
Mitchell and others profoundly affected by his innovations.
(87 mins.)
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BE
HERE TO LOVE ME: A FILM ABOUT TOWNES VAN ZANDT
US 2004 DIRECTOR: MARGARET BROWNGUILD
THEATRE“Steve Earle offered to ‘stand on Bob Dylan's
coffee table in my cowboy boots’ to declare him the
world's greatest songwriter. In concert, Lucinda Williams
often dedicates ‘2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten’ to him.
His songs have been recorded by artists as diverse as Emmylou
Harris, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and The Meat Puppets.
In other words, the late Townes Van Zandt (1945–1997)
was a songwriter's songwriter, the kind of artist who is always
more famous dead than alive. That Townes is so achingly present
in this tender documentary portrait owes much to Austin-based
filmmaker Margaret Brown's feel for his art and œuvre,
expressed with an elegant assembly of lively archival footage
and heartfelt interviews. Fans of Van Zandt's music will be
pleased to find that the songs are at home here, impressively
haunting this evocative biography. For those of us slackers
new to the music and to the man, they are a revelation: sad
and beautiful and perfect.”—TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL.
(99 mins.)
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HANK
WILLIAMS: HONKY TONK BLUES
US 2004 DIRECTOR: MORGAN NEVILLEGUILD
THEATREHank Williams, the architect of country music, was
a superstar at 25 and a dead icon at 29. Neville’s (MUDDY
WATERS: CAN’T BE SATISFIED) engrossing portrait, narrated
by Hank Williams III, sheds light on this mercurial singer-songwriter
whose tender musings on love and ruin didn’t just embody
the honky tonk ethos, but practically invented it. Loaded
with spectacular archival footage and interviews with fellow
Drifting Cowboys, family and friends, HONKY TONK BLUES provides
an engrossing portrait of a life lived hard and a music that
endures like no other. (90 mins.)
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DAVID
HOCKNEY: THE COLORS OF MUSIC
FRANCE 2003 DIRECTOR: MARYTE KAVALIAUSKAS, SETH SCHNEIDERMANWHITSELL
AUDITORIUM David Hockney has long been one of the more celebrated
artists of his generation. Among his many passions has been
a love of music and opera, which has led him to design stage
sets for 11 operas. Through his imaginative use of lighting
and color, Hockney has transformed opera into an experience
audiences enjoy watching as well as hearing, the sad irony
being that over the last decade he has slowly become deaf
from a genetic condition that has curtailed his prized collaborations.
THE COLORS OF MUSIC provides a rare, insightful look at the
artistic process and one man's deep passion for linking sound
and image. (85 mins.)
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 FALLEN
ANGEL: GRAM PARSONS
GERMANY/BRITAIN 2004 DIRECTOR: GANDULF HENNIGGUILD
THEATREHennig’s meticulously researched film traces
the former Byrd, Flying Burrito Brother and solo artist’s
life (1946–1973) from his privileged upbringing to the
still-bizarre, controversial (to some) circumstances of his
death from an overdose of morphine and tequila in the Joshua
Tree Desert. Generally considered to be the pioneer of the
country-rock genre, his groundbreaking style influenced everyone
from the Eagles to the Rolling Stones to Wilco. Interviewees
include family and numerous former bandmates including Chris
Hillman and “Sneaky” Pete Kleinow, plus Keith
Richards, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris and notorious “Road
Mangler” Phil Kaufman. Highlighted by great music rare
footage and frankly told tales, FALLEN ANGEL is a bittersweet
tribute to one of rock and country’s most influential
musicians. (88 mins.) Gandulf Hennig will introduce the film.
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JANDEK
ON CORWOOD
US 2004 DIRECTOR: CHAD FRIEDRICHSGUILD
THEATRE The musician known only as Jandek has played live
only ßonce, has only given one interview in 25 years—over
the phone—and is the only artist on the Corwood Industries
label, identified only by a Houston PO Box. Yet Jandek has
released 35 albums and can count among his cult followers
Kurt Cobain, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Beck.
His music is agonized, confessional and difficult to listen
to—a cacophonous mix of rock and suicide-note blues
with untuned acoustic guitar, cracked voice and occasionally
a distant piano or skeletal percussion. Proclaimed one of
“the ten most interesting musicians of the 1980s”
by SPIN magazine, Friedrich’s assembles the scant evidence,
rounds up celebrity fans and combines it all with haunting
imagery to investigate the fanciful theories that swirl around
one of music’s most enigmatic phenomenon. (89 mins.)
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 THE
NOMI SONG
GERMANY 2004 DIRECTOR: ANDREW HORNGUILD
THEATRE Klaus Nomi, a cult figure in the New York underground
club scene, was one of the early ‘80s most profoundly
bizarre, yet extremely talented performance artists-musicians.
With his stunning stage performances of such hits as Saint-Saën's
“Samson and Delilah,” Donna Summer's “I
Feel Love” and Chubby Checker's “The Twist,”
Nomi became an icon in the downtown art scene beginning in
the late '70s and an influence to musiciansas diverse as Morrissey
and David Bowie. Horn’s film chronicles Nomi's life
and early death from AIDS, incorporating footage from live
performances as well as interviews with relatives, friends
and colleagues to uncover the mysteries of a man whose fame,
influence and visual style so captivated a generation. (96
mins.)
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BETTY
BLOWTORCH (AND HER AMAZING TRUE LIFE ADVENTURES)
US 2003 DIRECTOR: ANTHONY SCARPAWHITSELL
AUDITORIUMGUILD THEATRE For two years, director Anthony Scarpa followed the
all-girl rock band Betty Blowtorch, documenting the band’s
ferocious sound and dangerously low-tech pyrotechnic show,
unaware of the turmoil and tragedy that he would ultimately
capture. Betty Blowtorch quickly rose through the Los Angeles
music scene, winning the LA WEEKLY’S award for Best
Punk/Hardcore Band in 1999 and gaining a rabid fan base across
the country. Scarpa captures their amazing story without ever
letting you forget just how much the band rocked. "Meet
the girls your parents warned you about dating. . .or turning
into."—ALTERNATIVE PRESS. (98 mins.)
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 WHOSE
IS THIS SONG?
BULGARIA 2003 DIRECTOR: ADELA PEEVAWHITSELL
AUDITORIUM "In a nice little restaurant in Istanbul, we
were having dinner with friends from various Balkan countries—a
Greek, a Macedonian, a Turk, a Serb, and me, a Bulgarian.
There I heard the song whose story is told in the film. As
soon as we heard the song, we all started humming it, each
of us in his own language. Everyone claimed that the song
came from his own country. Then we started a fierce fight—whose
song is it? I knew from my childhood that the song was Bulgarian.
I wanted to find out why the others also claimed the song
as their own."—AP. Full of irony and barbed humor,
WHOSE IS THIS SONG? is a comic road movie across Greece, Turkey
and the Balkans that offers a microcosm of the area's infamous
ethnic and national rivalries through the story of a song
in different guises—from love ballad to religious hymn
to rousing march—that each, with cultural fervor, claims
as their very own. (71 mins.)
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LAST
OF THE FIRST
US 2004 DIRECTOR: ANJA BARONGUILD
THEATREIn 1973 Al Volmer put together the Harlem Blues and
Jazz Band to provide performance opportunities for legendary
musicians of the Swing era. They have been playing ever since.
Anja Baron’s infectious and touching tribute captures
the joy and spirit that this cadre of 70-90 year-old greats
bring to themselves and audiences worldwide. Among the legends:
Al Casey (87), Fats Waller’s and Art Tatum’s guitarist;
Lawrence Lucie (95), guitarist with Duke Ellington and Louis
Armstrong; Johnny Blowers (91), drummer for Artie Shaw and
Frank Sinatra; Ivan Rolle (85), string bassist with Louis
Armstrong and Billie Holiday; Laurel Watson (88), vocalist
with Duke Ellington and Count Basie; and many more. The film
follows band members from regular Harlem club gigs to Russian
tour on which, in the sunset of their years, they remain heroes.
(88 mins.)
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 TRIBUTE
TO ELMER BERNSTEIN:
MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM
US 1955 DIRECTOR: OTTO PREMINGER “Drug-addicted poker dealer (Frank Sinatra) struggling
to kick the 'monkey on his back' and to live on good terms
with his crippled wife (Eleanor Parker) and the general assortment
of drunks, cardsharps, and dope peddlers that inhabit his
world. Excellently played (particularly by Sinatra) and with
some finely realized backgrounds of the Chicago slums, although
the things that stay in the memory long after the rest of
the film has been forgotten are Elmer Bernstein's strident
jazz score (played by Shorty Rogers) and the ingenious credit
titles of Saul Bass who designed the titles for a number of
Preminger's films. . ..”—Roy Pritchard. (119 mins.)
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TRIBUTE
TO ELMER BERNSTEIN:
SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS
US 1957 DIRECTOR: ALEXANDER MACKENDRICK J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster), a cynical, heartless
New York gossip columnist (a loosely based composite of Walter
Winchell and Ed Sullivan), will stop at nothing to prevent
his younger sister Susan (Susan Harrison) from having a romance
with jazz musician Steven Dallas (Martin Milner). He convinces
blackmailing press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) to break
up the duo, which proves to be more difficult than he anticipated.
“By turns shrill and tragic, the film pulsates with
Bernstein's discordant, jazzy score, which sends shrieking
trumpets up dead-end alleys after characters and throbs deep
bass ostinatos under scenes of agonized internal conflict.
Even when Chico Hamilton's experimental jazz quartet takes
a confident, thoughtful turn in the Elysian Room, it plays
against the tense background of Sidney's Byzantine cloakroom
intriguing.”—Kevin Jack Hagopian. (96 mins.)
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WITH
POWERS OF
TEN
US 1968 DIRECTOR: CHARLES AND RAY EAMES
A trip into deep space and back—into the universe of
the human body. (9 mins.)
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COLUMBIA
PICTURES RESTORATIONS
ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK
US 1956 DIRECTOR: FRED F. SEARSGUILD
THEATRE This year marks the 50th anniversary of Bill Haley’s
rock and roll classic, which when it was featured in THE BLACKBOARD
JUNGLE (1955), ignited the teen rock and roll movie genre.
Producer Sam Katzman’s quick capitalization on Haley’s
popularity was the first time a rock star was at the center
of a film. When a record promoter (Johnny Johnston) happens
upon Haley and his band in rural Pennsylvania, he whisks them
to New York and turns them into rock and roll stars. The thin
plot allegorizes the meteoric rise of rock and roll from a
down-home hybrid of blues and country music into a national
phenomenon, but never gets in the way of invigorating performances
by rock and roll pioneers such as Haley and His Comets and
the Platters, among others (77 mins.)
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WITHDON'T KNOCK
THE ROCK
US 1956 DIRECTOR: FRED F. SEARS
Aimed squarely at the generation gap between rock-and-roll-loving
teenagers and their parents, the follow-up to ROCK AROUND
THE CLOCK probably didn’t convert many elders . When
rock and roll star Arnie Haines (Alan Dale) returns to his
hometown, he finds that his folks don't much care for the
new sounds on the radio. With the help of the local teens
and other musicians he tries to win them over by drawing the
connections between rock and roll and 1920s jazz. It's a tough
sell, but Little Richard belting out "Tutti Frutti"
and "Long Tall Sally" is evidence enough to persuade
anyone that rock and roll's was there to stay. (84 mins.)
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HITLER’S
HIT PARADE
GERMANY 2003 DIRECTOR: OLIVER AXER, SUSANNE BENZEWHITSELL
AUDITORIUM GUILD
THEATRE When the Nazis came to power in the 1920s and1930s,
Germany was one of the world’s most sophisticated, highly
educated cultures, home to many of the world's pre-eminent
artists, writers, composers, scientists and thinkers. How
was it that this advanced society could unleash one of civilization’s
greatest tragedies? HITLER'S HIT PARADE uses a collage of
music and archival footage—from feature films, home
movies, educational and propaganda films and commercials—to
reveal the false idealism that characterized the Nazis' rise
to power. Forgoing didactic narration, Axer and Benze’s
sound and image track of the popular music culture of the
era provides a meditation on the emotional undercurrent in
a nation blithely preparing to destroy much of the world.
(76 mins.)
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BRUCE
HAACK: THE KING OF TECHNO
US 2003 DIRECTOR: PHILIP ANAGNOSGUILD
THEATRE A musical visionary whose imaginative songwriting
and arranging was only matched by his electronic wizardry,
Bruce Haack (who died in 1988) left a legacy of almost unparalleled
creative output. The 1950s and 1960s saw him producing imaginative
children’s albums (DANCE, SING, & LISTEN), penning
pop songs, and appearing on TV shows (even Mr. Rogers) to
showcase homemade devices such as the Dermatron, a heat-sensitive
synthesizer that made music by skin-to-skin contact. In the
1970s and 1980s, Haack expanded into darker areas (THE ELECTRIC
LUCIFER) and his singular contribution to hip-hop (PARTY MACHINE).
BRUCE HAACK: THE KING OF TECHNO reveals that the world is
still catching up to this prolific and distinctive pioneer.
(60 mins.)
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WITHMOOG
US 2004 DIRECTOR: HANS FJELLESTAD
Bob Moog changed the sound of modern music. The inventor of
the Moog synthesizer, this engaging portrait of a mad-scientist
provides a fascinating history of the impact of his epochal,
eponymous instrument, first used in TV commercials and electronic
music before the smash success of “Switched-On Bach”
catapulted it into the heart of pop music. The eclectic mix
of performers and testifiers includes Keith Emerson, Rick
Wakeman, DJ Spooky, Money Mark, and Mix Master Mike and the
soundtrack features new music created on Moog instruments
by Stereolab, Meat Beat Manifesto, Tortoise, and others. (70
mins.)
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DESPERATE
MAN BLUES
AUSTRALIA 2003 DIRECTOR: EDWARD GILLANGUILD
THEATRE Obsessive record collector Joe Bussard parties like
it's 1929! A cultural scavenger, he’s been collecting
and preserving 78 rpm records—particularly blues, hillbilly
and folk music from the ’20s and ’30s—for
more than 50 years. Now in his mid-60s he has rescued more
than 25,000 shellac artifacts from attics and basements across
the US and he’ll happily spin them all day long with
a running commentary on the music and perhaps the story of
the find. With a soggy cigar perpetually clamped between his
teeth, straddling his custom-built turntable in his basement
in his home in Virginia and surrounded by his treasure trove,
this is one man who truly waxes ecstatic. (83 mins.)
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FOLLOWED
BY
LOSER’S CLUB
US 2003 DIRECTOR: PIERRE OUElLETTE
Born and bred in the age of hot rods and surf music, Portland
guitarists and bandleaders Jim Mesi and Steve Bradley became
local legends in the ‘70s Portland music scene. Mesi,
who toured with BB King, cemented his position as a world-class
blues guitar player while Bradley became an anchor in the
local club scene with his quirky songwriting and inventive
rock and roll bands. Over the years, both artists have honed
their musical visions to polished perfection—playing
on virtually every stage in Portland. Ouellette, a guitarist
himself, affectionately explores the lives of these journeymen
performers as they rock-on across the tides of pop music trends,
the siren calls of fame and fortune, and audiences that inevitably
change, but always love them. (60 mins.)
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BIG
CITY DICK
US 2003 DIRECTORS: SCOTT MILAM, KEN HARDER, TODD POTTINGERGUILD
THEATRE An engaging portrait of Richard (Big City Dick) Peterson,
an autistic street performer in Seattle. A musical savant
who plays trumpet and piano, Peterson grew up obsessed by
‘50s television music (particularly “Sea Hunt”)
and various pop-culture fixations including Johnny Mathis,
who he has managed to befriend in the course of traveling
the country to see him. An endearing celebrity stalker whose
friends range from local radio and TV personalities to Mathis
and soul-mate , actor Jeff Bridges, Peterson has managed to
produce four albums that quirkily incorporate his 50 years
of memorized musical themes, as well as improbably play with
Seattle’s The Young Fresh Fellows. “[This] rollicking,
breathless documentary . . . an oddly touching tribute to
a vanishing vaudevillian spirit . . ..”—VARIETY.
(120 mins.)
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 ARVO
PÄRT: 24 PRELUDES FOR A FUGUE
ESTONIA 2002 DIRECTOR: DORIAN SUPINGUILD
THEATREEstonian Arvo Pärt is one of the most popular
and distinctive composers working today, his work finding
new audiences through use in numerous films, including Tom
Tykwer’s HEAVEN and Gus Van Sant’s GERRY. Supin
captures the composer in short segments, as if trying to trace
the source of his genius. Pärt copies out a score, recalls
his childhood, argues with his wife about whether tomatoes
are sweet or savory, comments on his trademark simple style,
dubbed tintinnabuli, and on his turning-point composition,
“Für Alina.” Pärt quotes a street sweeper
he once met: “a composer should love every sound,”
and says “When they announce the time on the radio,
it sometimes sounds like one’s whole life is behind
it.” Pärt spent 13 years in exile before returning
to Estonia in 1993, where he accepts the gift of his supreme
talent with a touching sense of wonder, responsibility, joy
and melancholy. (87 mins.)
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TRIBUTE
TO ELMER BERNSTEIN:
MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
US 1960 DIRECTOR: JOHN STURGESWHITSELL
AUDITORIUM In this remake of Akira Kurosawa ’s THE MAGNIFICENT
SEVEN, seven gunfighters are recruited from the United States
to defend a small Mexican village from bandits who terrorize
the inhabitants each year. They teach the locals how to defend
themselves, but when the lead bandit arrives he must survive
the ultimate face-off against some equally bad hombres—Yul
Brenner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Horst
Bucholtz and Eli Wallach. Bernstein’s score remains
one of the most memorable Western themes and Charles Lang’s
great cinematography captures the stirring action scenes with
flair. (128 mins.)
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SANTO
DOMINGO BLUES
US 2003 DIRECTOR: ALEX WOLFGUILD
THEATRE tells the story of Luis Vargas
and Bachata, the guitar blues of the Dominican Republic. Born
in the bars and brothels of the poor, Bachata was infamous
as the anthem of the hard-drinking, womanizing, down-on-his-luck
everyman. Once looked down upon by the high culture, it is
now eclipsing rap as the music of choice for Latino youth
across the US. Thanks to Vargas and his contemporaries, who
came to New York and popularized it among Dominican immigrants,
the once scorned music has been transformed into an emblem
of national pride. With performances by Luis Vargas, Raulín
Rodríguez, Luis Segura, Eladio Romero Santos, Aridia
Ventura, Ramón Cordero, Teodoro Reyes and Joan Soriano.
(74 mins.)
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QUEEN
OF THE GYPSIES: A PORTRAIT OF CARMEN AMAYA
US 2003 DIRECTOR: JOCELYN AJAMIGUILD
THEATRE Carmen Amaya (1913–1968) transformed the art
of Flamenco dance. From humble beginnings in a Barcelona gypsy
slum, by her early teens, patrons were throwing plates and
shattering china in appreciation after the great guitarist
"Sabicas" (Augustin Castellon) introduced her at
the Villa Rosa. By 1941, already a film star, she had begun
touring the US where Carnegie Hall patrons threw mink alongside
the roses. She moved to Hollywood where, despite being limited
to stereotypical roles, she became the first Roma to gain
international stardom. Weaving electrifying performance footage
and music, along with interviews with scholars, family members,
fellow artists and friends, Ajami celebrates the life of an
astonishing legend. (81 mins.)
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WHY
VIVALDI?
USA 2003 DIRECTOR: TEDDY GROUYAWHITSELL
AUDITORIUM Over the past decade there has been a surge in interest
in Antonio Vivaldi's music; he has been outselling all the
other classical composers. Grouya visits with scholars and
devotees from different countries, backgrounds and tastes—all
of whom are uniquely drawn to the great Italian Baroque composers
masterworks. Along the way the journey leads to Venice and
the rooms where Vivaldi, known as “The Red Priest,”
lived and wrote his music. In Florence, as a Baroque ensemble
plays Vivaldi's music on instruments from the time, the reasons
for his enduring popularity are not hard to hear. (70 mins.)
TEDDY GROUYA in attendance.
WITH
THE MAN WITH AN OPERA HOUSE IN HIS LIVING
ROOM
UK 2003 DIRECTOR: MIRA ERDEVICKI
Erdevicki’s wry film documents one man's unusual fortitude
in realizing his idiosyncratic dream in the middle of the
serene (sometimes stodgy) English countryside. Former professional
opera singer Richard White (a true eccentric) fights bravely
against stifling parking regulations, the ill will of his
neighbors, budgetary limitations and more in his determination
to mount a fully-staged performance of a Mozart opera (literally)
in his own living room. The quiet village of Claxton in Norfolk
soon gains a reputation that attracts classical music enthusiasts
from far and wide, something the entrenched, peace-loving
inhabitants don't like at all. (60 mins.)
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 DIFFERENT
DRUMMER: ELVIN JONES
US 1979 DIRECTOR: ED GRAYGUILD
THEATRE-visiting artist Last spring saw the passing of jazz giant Elvin Jones,
who powered one of the most extraordinary ensembles in jazz
history, the John Coltrane Quartet. In Gray's film Jones demonstrates
the fierce polyrhythmic approach of his impressionistic playing,
touching musical philosophy and his evolution to what many
considered him to be-the greatest drummer of his era. In addition
to performance footage of his band at the time are clips from
the Coltrane era, of which he says, "We didn't have to
talk much. It was telepathy." (30 mins.)
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WITH
STRANGER: BERNIE WORRELL ON EARTH
US 2004 DIRECTOR: PHIL DI FIORE
Since writing a piano concerto at age eight, Bernie Worrell
has been acknowledged as a musical genius. He joined the Washington
Symphony Orchestra at 10 and attended the Boston Conservatory
of Music. Then, amazingly, he joined Geroge Clinton and Bootsie
Collins in Parliament/Funkadelic, where, with his arranging
skills, innovation with keyboards and synthesizers and monster
chops, literally changed music forever. Through his work with
Parliament, Talking Heads, Keith Richards, Warren Hynes (Govt
Mule) and Mos Def, Worrell almost single-handedly shaped the
electronic sound of the last four decades and has become one
of the most sampled musicians in hip-hop. Yet at age 60, Worrell
is struggling and anonymous. Phil Di Fiore captures the life
and sound of an overlooked musical mastermind who deserves
his place in the pantheon. "Bernie will be historically
significant in the way that Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Muddy
Waters and Howlin' Wolf were." -Warren Hayes. (40 mins.)
Director Phil Di Fiore will introduce the film.
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MUSIC
FROM THE INSIDE OUT
DIRECTOR: DANIEL ANKERWHITSELL
AUDITORIUM MUSIC FROM THE INSIDE OUT is a unique exploration
of the magic and mystery of the musical experience, told through
the stories and music of some of the 105 musicians of one
of the world's finest symphony orchestras, The Philadelphia
Orchestra. The Orchestra's first film project since 1940 when
they rose to prominence after being featured in Disney's FANTASIA,
it is a unique collaboration between Anker and the musicians
themselves which started five years ago with a series of filmed
workshops in which the musicians gathered to ponder the unanswerable
in music. Does our musical personality reflect who we are?
How do musicians find self-expression as part of an ensemble?
Is it possible to put into words the intangibility of the
musical experience? Intimately delving into the lives of the
eclectically gifted musicians outside, as well as inside the
concert hall, it reveals that for all, music is more than
a job. Whether their passions lie with bluegrass, salsa, jazz,
Middle Eastern music, or string quartet and symphonies, music
offers solace, comfort, and a sense of belonging to those
who follow its beat. (90 mins.)
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BODYSONG
UK 2002 DIRECTOR: SIMON PUMMELLGUILD
THEATRE is an epic story of love, sex, violence, death
and dreams told entirely through archival footage from around
the world and across 100 years of cinema history. A kaleidoscopic
lifecycle journey experienced through striking imagery from
a wide variety of silent films, newsreels, documentaries,
and home movies, Pummell’s KOYAANISQUATSI-like meditation
is accompanied by a hypnotic, electro-futuristic musical score
by Radiohead's multi-instrumentalist wonder Jonny Greenwood.
The result is a truly unique experience in music and moving
image that explores the universal in human experience. (83
mins.)
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TEXAS
TENOR: THE ILLINOIS JACQUET STORY
US 1991 DIRECTOR: ARTHUR ELGORTGUILD
THEATRE Jean Baptiste "Illinois" Jacquet died last
July at the age of 81, leaving a fiery, bluesy musical legacy
begun at age 19 in the Lionel Hampton Band with his famous
solo on “Flying Home.” Noted fashion photographer
Arthur Elgort's stylish documentary captures both the blazing
swing player and the sensitive, master balladeer, who as sideman,
bandleader, entertainer and teacher was the undisputed “King
of the Texas Tenors” and one of the most influential
bridges between the big band and rhythm and blues eras. Featuring
interviews with Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins
and Les Paul among many others. (81 mins.)
 CABALLÉ:
BEYOND THE MUSIC
SPAIN 2003 DIRECTOR: ANTONIO FARREWHITSELL
AUDITORIUM“Music is like vitamins which the blood distributes
throughout the entire body.” So exclaims Montserrat
Caballé in this engaging excursion through the life
of Spain's greatest soprano. Featuring stunning concert footage
and interviews with her peers, including Zubin Mehta, Mstislav
Rostropovich, Placido Domingo, Joan Sutherland, Claudio Abbado,
Renée Fleming, and Marilyn Horne, Farré traces
her rise from humble beginnings in Barcelona, through her
early years as a professional in Basel and Bremen, her career-defining
1965 Carnegie Hall performance in Donizetti's “Lucrezia
Borgia,” to her rise as an international star of the
first magnitude. Surveying her many historic performances
and recordings, a personal as well as professional portrait
emerges—of Montserrat, the person and Caballé,
the diva. (98 mins.)
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PEPPER’S
POW-WOW
US 1996 DIRECTOR: SANDRA OSAWA@
THE 5TH AVENUE CINEMA—visiting artist For those who heard Portland tenor saxophonist Jim
Pepper (1941–1992), he was an unforgettable jazz player.
Of Kaw-Creek ancestry, Pepper was one of the innovators of
jazz-rock fusion, a gifted composer who successfully melded
Native American music with jazz, and an awesomely talented
musician, equally at home with a ballad or playing burning,
straight-ahead bebop. Seattle filmmaker Sandra Osawa’s
fitting tribute traces Pepper’s life and musical association
with such famed collaborators as Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry,
Bob Moses, Larry Coryell and Charlie Haden, the impact of
his songs such as “Wichi Tai To” and “Comin’
and Goin’,” and an astonishingly rich and diverse
array of performances and recordings. (60 mins.) SANDRA OSAWA
in attendance.
This screening is at the 5th Avenue
Cinemas, 510 SW Hall and cosponsored by the Portland State
University Film Committee. Presented in association with the
Portland Jazz Festival, February 11–20, the Oregon Cultural
Heritage Commission, and the Leroy Vinnegar Jazz Institute—collaborators
on a series of events celebrating Pepper’s legacy. For
a full schedule of events go to www.pdxjazz.com and ochc.org.
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TOUCH
THE SOUND
GERMANY/NETHERLANDS 2004 DIRECTOR: THOMAS RIEDELSHEIMERWHITSELL
AUDITORIUM Riedelsheimer, who brilliantly documented Andy Goldsworthy's
ephemeral art in RIVERS AND TIDES, has made another captivating
portrait. Almost totally deaf due to a neurological disorder,
Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie has a rare ability to
use her whole body to capture sounds and transform them into
stunning music. Glennie performs in cities from New York to
Kyoto with a variety of classical, found and experimental
instruments, from which she is able to coax a startling variety
of sounds. She entrances onlookers in Grand Central Station
with her beloved snare drum, while in Japan she taps out a
rhythm on detritus she finds in a café, while in an
abandoned warehouse, she performs magical duets with guitarist
Fred Frith. Filmed over the course of a year, TOUCH THE SOUND
is a poetic exploration of the primal relationships between
body, rhythm, and sound—a lesson in listening and allowing
our senses to really sense. (99 mins.)
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