The New Orleans Film Fest starts Friday. Here’s a look ahead at the music-related movies (with a little leeway) in chronological order with text provided by the film festival. Note that the late, great Earl Palmer was part of The Wrecking Crew, so he’s one of the subjects of the film by the same name focusing on the L.A. session greats.
Fri, Oct 10 2008, 9:15 pm | Contemporary Arts Center
The Drummer
Directed by Bill Block, 19 mins
NARRATIVE SHORTS
REGIONAL PREMIERE
In this funny, quirky “love letter to music” a down and out musician gets one last opportunity to realize his dream by embarking on a journey that takes him far beyond his comfort zone.
In Attendance: Bill Block
Fri, Oct 10 2008, 11:45 pm | Landmark’s Canal Place Cinema
Nerdcore for Life
Directed by Daniel Lamoureux, 84 mins
DOCUMENTARY FEATURES
REGIONAL PREMIERE
Though it has existed on-line for almost a decade, only recently has Nerdcore gone from being an internet fad to an underground cultural phenomenon. Filmed over the course of two years, Nerdcore for Life profiles the top names in the genre as they celebrate “geek life” and their passion for hip hop to the fullest, fight anti-nerd stereotypes, and attempt to overcome the common obstacles that block musicians of all types from fulfilling their dreams. The documentary follows these dedicated artists as they go from recording rhymes in their mother’s basement to performing live for thousands of cheering fans. From their first song to their first MTV appearance, Nerdcore for Life chronicles the amazing transformation of a group of unknown nerds into internet celebrities and rising hip-hop stars.
Sat, Oct 11 2008, 1:00 pm | Southern Repertory Theater
A Conversation with Harry Shearer
60 mins
PANELS & WORKSHOPS
Harry Shearer is a comic personality who takes “hyphenate” to new levels. First and foremost an actor, he is also a bestselling author, journalist, director, satirist, 2007 Grammy nominated musician, radio host, playwright, multi-media artist and record label owner. On radio, Shearer’s one-hour satirical sandbox Le Show is heard weekly on stations nationwide. For nineteen years the Los Angeles native has voiced popular and multiple characters for The Simpsons. He also contributes regularly to the Huffington Post. Harry has just released a new CD Songs of the Bushmen from Courgette, available on iTunes.
Shearer’s film credits include This is Spinal Tap, Real Life, The Right Stuff, Portrait of a White Marriage, The Fisher King, Godzilla, The Truman Show, Small Soldiers, Dick, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration. He has been a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live twice and, in 2002, wrote and directed his first feature film, Teddy Bears’ Picnic.
Harry lives in both Los Angeles and New Orleans.
Sat, Oct 11 2008, 2:00 pm | Contemporary Arts Center
First Bass
Directed by Philip Hodges, 15 mins
NARRATIVE SHORTS
REGIONAL PREMIERE
Twelve-year-old Abbey loves baseball and playing the bass. Sneaking out to a ball game at Chicago’s Wrigley Field with a friend, she discovers a truth about her parents that changes her relationship with her mother and instrument forever.
Sun, Oct 12 2008, 5:30 pm | Prytania Theater
Crazy
Directed by Rick Bieber, 104 mins
NARRATIVE FEATURES
Inspired by legendary guitar player Hank Garland, Crazy is a story of musical genius, passion, and betrayal. Emerging from the Nashville country music scene in the ’50s, Hank quickly establishes his brilliant playing in many genres – country, rock and jazz. But his adversarial relationship with the Nashville mob – those who controlled the music industry – causes him to be seen as a trouble maker. From fighting for artists’ rights, to bringing black jazz musicians into the restricted southern music culture, Hank refuses to compromise in his pursuit for excellence.
His demise is triggered partly by this his rebellious nature, and partly by his tempestuous relationship with his beautiful but elusive wife, Evelyn. After surviving a car crash, Hank is subjected to electro-shock treatments which tragically ends his career at the young age of 31.
With stellar performances and beautiful camerawork, this powerful film has touching insight into a troubled genius, and stands proudly beside films such as Walk the Line and Sweet Dreams.
Over 40 years after Hank disappeared from the music scene, his guitar playing lives on in an impressively large number of hit records, and one amazing solo jazz tune.
Sat, Oct 11 2008, 9:00 pm | Contemporary Arts Center
Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story
Directed by Jeffrey Schwarz, 78 mins
DOCUMENTARY FEATURES
REGIONAL PREMIERE
Spine Tingler: The William Castle Story chronicles the last great American showman, filmmaker William Castle, a master of ballyhoo who became a brand name in movie horror with his outrageous audience participation gimmicks. In the 1950s and ’60s, Castle treated delighted moviegoers to buzzing seats, flying skeletons, luminescent ghosts and life insurance policies. His is a rags to riches tale of a larger than life showman who climbed his way up the Hollywood ladder by reinventing himself as a modern P.T. Barnum, all the while driven by a fear of failure and a longing to be respected among his peers.
Sat, Oct 11 2008, 11:15 pm | Landmark’s Canal Place Cinema
Lou Reed’s Berlin
Directed by Julian Schnabel , 85 mins
DOCUMENTARY FEATURES
Lou Reed’s 1973 album Berlin was a commercial failure and was never performed live…until five nights in December 2006 at St. Ann’s Warehouse Brooklyn, when Reed performed his masterwork about love’s dark sisters: jealousy, rage and loss. Berlin was said to be one of the most depressing albums ever made but as it was brought to life it was far from dismal. Using the divided city of Berlin as its backdrop, the story of Caroline (Emmanuelle Seigner) and her lovers is told through the singer’s emotive and provocative words. With performers like Fernando Saunders, Antony, Steve Hunter, Rob Wassermann, Rupert Christie and Sharon Jones, a 7-piece orchestra and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus all working to create a captivating and enveloping world, we bear witness to Caroline’s self-destruction. Directed by Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), who also designed the film’s sets.
Sun, Oct 12 2008, 2:15 pm | Contemporary Arts Center
A Place to Dance
Directed by Alan Berg, 60 mins
DOCUMENTARY FEATURES
It’s Sunday night, and the Jefferson Orleans is buzzing as veteran orchestrator Pat Barberot’s big band kicks into a sizzling rendition of “Sing, Sing, Sing.” Decked to the nines, septuagenarians and octogenarians hit the dance floor, all of them relishing this wartime era wonderland. Filmmaker Alan Berg endearingly captures a sacred New Orleans space for friendship, romance and good times. Not even the aftermath of Katrina can hamper the spirits of the club’s clientele, who remain determined to use the best of the past to enjoy the present.
Sun, Oct 12 2008, 5:15 pm | Contemporary Arts Center
Hard Since a Little One
Directed by Michael Kennedy, 4 mins
NARRATIVE SHORTS
Puppet rapper Lil Doogie, raps about himself, his past, and the streets of New Orleans’ West Bank. Featuring puppets Lil Doogie and Chippy (the chipmunk).
In Attendance: Mike Kennedy
Mon, Oct 13 2008, 5:30 pm | Prytania Theater
Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry
Directed by Erich Weiss, 77 mins
DOCUMENTARY FEATURES
REGIONAL PREMIERE
Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry is a feature-length documentary exploring the roots of American tattooing through the life of its most iconoclastic figure Norman “Sailor Jerry” Collins. Considered by many the foremost tattoo artist of all time, Collins, is the father of modern day tattooing whose uncompromising lifestyle and larger than life persona made him an American legend. Through rare interviews, photographs and hours of archival footage, ‘Sailor Jerry: The Life and Times of Norman Keith Collins’ explores the past, present and future of the global tattooing phenomenon. Based in Honolulu for most of his career, Sailor Jerry would come to symbolize the masculine ethos at a time when thousand of enlisted men were embanked in Hawaii during World War II. Miles from home and ready to die, fueled by devil-may care attitudes, these men went on shore leave with a single purpose in mind: to get “Stewed, Screwed, and Tattooed.”
Tue, Oct 14 2008, 7:00 pm | Prytania Theater
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Directed by Alex Gibney, 118 mins
DOCUMENTARY FEATURES
Gonzo is the definitive film biography of a mythic American figure, the man who Tom Wolfe called “our greatest comic writer,” whose suicide by shotgun, led Rolling Stone magazine, where Thompson began his career, to devote an entire issue (its best-selling ever) to the man that launched a brash, irreverent, fearless style of journalism named “gonzo” after an anarchic blues riff by New Orleans’s own famed piano man, James Booker. From Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) and producer Graydon Carter (Surfwise, The Kid Stays in the Picture) Gonzo is a probing look into the uncanny life of national treasure and gonzo journalism inventor Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. A fast moving, wildly entertaining documentary with an iconic soundtrack, the film addresses the major touchstones in Thompson’s life—his intense and ill fated relationship with the Hell’s Angels, his near-successful bid for the office of sheriff in Aspen in 1970, the notorious story behind the landmark Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, his deep involvement in Senator George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign, and much more. While director Gibney shaped the screen story, every narrated word in the film springs from the typewriter of Thompson himself. These words are given life by Johnny Depp, the actor who once shadowed Thompson’s every move for the screen version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and who bankrolled Thompson’s spectacular funeral (photographed for this film), in which the good doctor’s ashes were fired from a rocket launcher with a towering two-thumbed fist whose palm held a giant peyote button.
Tue, Oct 14 2008, 9:00 pm | Contemporary Arts Center
Living the Blues
Directed by Larry Banks; Tim Duffy, 40 mins
MUSIC MOVIES
An intimate visit with nine elder blues artists who have kept a musical tradition alive. These men and women have experienced the transition from the old South to the new. They have worked as sharecroppers and laborers in the factories and fields of the American South. Their stories define how the gift for musical expression can sustain anyone through the hardest of times.
Tue, Oct 14 2008, 9:00 pm | Contemporary Arts Center
Pickin’ & Trimmin’
Directed by Matt Morris, 23 mins
MUSIC MOVIES
REGIONAL PREMIERE
Down at The Barbershop in the small town of Drexel, North Carolina, the atmosphere is laid back and the music is a cut above the rest. For over 40 years, Lawrence Anthony and David Shirley have been cutting hair and providing a gathering place for all who yearn for the good ol’ days. The film captures a piece of small town America, where if it wasn’t broke, they didn’t fix it.
Tue, Oct 14 2008, 9:00 pm | Contemporary Arts Center
Victoria
Directed by Charles Sommer, 12 mins
MUSIC MOVIES
REGIONAL PREMIERE
A short film about an old piano, Victoria, and the people who play her. Located in the St. Anthony Dining Room in San Francisco, Victoria is visited and played daily by many members of San Francisco’s homeless and low-income population. Despite being out of tune, missing keys and having broken pedals, Victoria, as one guest says, “…is just like us; she may be all broken but she still plays, she still has a melody.” An upright grand that has physically seen better days and has a mostly unknown history, Victoria, it could be argued, has never sounded so good.
Wed, Oct 15 2008, 5:15 pm | Prytania Theater
Toot Blues
Directed by Chris Johnstone, 75 mins
MUSIC MOVIES
WORLD PREMIERE
In the late 1980s, Timothy Duffy, a penniless North Carolina musicology student, became deeply involved in Winston-Salem’s drinkhouse music scene, an off-the-grid hotbed of gritty traditional blues. He established a foundation after observing and living with the deep poverty of the blues artists he befriended and championed. Footage of the foundation’s early artists, including Guitar Gabriel, Cootie Stark, and Willa Mae Buckner, informs modern day performances from Music Maker artists, who are captured in the organization’s small North Carolina studio, at their homes, and on the road. The foundation now helps hundreds of older Southern musicians with everything from financial assistance to tour support. North Carolina musicians Captain Luke and Macavine Hays serve as an unofficial welcoming committee, and Toot Blues travels with them and other Music Maker artists as they tour Europe and South America, where they receive star treatment, while enduring a grueling tour schedule at an advanced age. Duffy himself travels to record 80-year-old bluesman Boo Hanks in deep rural Virginia, while a trip to the Deep South yields recording sessions with New Orleans Jazz Fest legend Little Freddie King. Visits to Music Maker’s studio bring blues raconteur Drink Small and Durham legend John Dee Holeman, providing an up-close look at their eclectic styles, while a late night juke-joint guitar jam by Cool John Ferguson supports this ‘hidden’ guitarists’ worldwide reputation. The joy the artists bring to recording and touring is infectious, providing a rare window into a classic American musical form at its most grass-roots level.
Wed, Oct 15 2008, 7:00 pm | Prytania Theater
The Wrecking Crew
Directed by Denny Tedesco, 95 mins
MUSIC MOVIES
REGIONAL PREMIERE
You heard them playing on the Beach Boys hits, on the Mamas and the Papas’ recordings, on Frank Sinatra records, on Monkees’ singles and they were Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound. Simply put, you heard them everywhere. They have performed on more number one singles than the Beatles. They were one of rock and roll’s most legendary bands, a hit-making machine. Most likely, you never heard their name. If you knew who they were, you called them the Wrecking Crew.
Hal Blaine, Carole Kaye, Tommy Tedesco, Glen Campbell, Earl Palmer. These are a few members of the Wrecking Crew. Their story is remarkable. Tedesco’s son, Denny Tedesco, knew it well enough to see that it had to be told to more than a small circle of friends. Just prior to his father’s death, Denny Tedesco set out to film his father and other members of the Wrecking Crew to capture their story firsthand.
The film features conversations with Brian Wilson, Cher, Nancy Sinatra, Mickey Dolenz, Herb Alpert, Lou Adler, Dick Clark, Jimmy Webb, Brian Wilson and Roger McGuinn.
Wed, Oct 15 2008, 9:00 pm | Prytania Theater
The Sweet Lady with the Nasty Voice
Directed by Joanne Fish, 75 mins
MUSIC MOVIES
The Sweet Lady with the Nasty Voice is the story of Wanda Jackson, a country singer who turned into the queen of rockabilly. Her wild and raw style paved the way for female rock stars that includes the likes of Janis Joplin and Chrissie Hynde. During the 1950s she toured with Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly. Her story is told through vintage films of her as a teenager strumming her guitar with a vengeance and snarling lyrics of songs like her biggest hit “Let’s Have a Party” and through interviews with Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, and Jim Phantom. Sweet Lady documents the recording of Jackson’s new CD release, I Remember Elvis, and follows her tour across the U.S. and Europe. Another Elvis, Elvis Costello, is also featured, as an advocate of inducting Jackson into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Costello penned a letter urging it to induct Jackson, who, he said, “was making a sound that was wild and raw as any rocker, man or woman, when other women were asking for the doggie in the window.” Performers Jackson toured with, highlighted in archival footage throughout this tour doc, include: Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis. Presley, whom Jackson dated, was influential in Jackson’s choice to move from country music to the male-dominated world of rockabilly.
Thu, Oct 16 2008, 2:00 pm | Contemporary Arts Center
Composing For Film
60 mins
PANELS & WORKSHOPS
A composer is one of the key components in modern filmmaking. Underscore is a powerful tool to convey emotion, drama, pacing, suspense, comedy and storytelling and yet is one of the least understood elements in the process of creating a film, television program or video game. This panel will serve to explain the process of writing and recording underscore, dissect the relationship between filmmaker and music maker, and attempt to demystify the creation of music that is meant to be felt more than heard. This is a panel for filmmakers who want greater insight in this process and for composers looking to hone their craft.
Jay Weigel (Moderator) composer George Acogny, composer, music producer and supervisor C.C. Adcock, musician, composer Julianne Jordan, composer, music supervisor Christopher Lennertz, composer, producer, conductor, and arranger
Thu, Oct 16 2008, 4:00 pm | Contemporary Arts Center
Licensing Music for Film
60 mins
PANELS & WORKSHOPS
“How do I get my music in your movie”? This is the question most frequently asked of music supervisors. With music playing an ever increasing role in films, television, advertising and video games, it is the music supervisor who must have both the creative instincts and the business skills to handle all aspects of creating new and using pre-existing music in productions. Whether it is working with a composer, recording new songs, licensing masters, or working with an artist on camera, Music supervisors need to know how to answer the filmmaker’s question “How do I get the best music for my movie…and for my budget…”?
Joel C. High (Moderator) music executive, supervisor, Joanne Fish, filmmaker (The Sweet Lady with the Nasty Voice), Carter Armstrong, Vice President of Music for Warner Bros. Pictures, Dave Jordan, music supervisor, producer
Thu, Oct 16 2008, 8:00 pm | Landmark’s Canal Place Cinema
Dark Streets
Directed by Rachel Samuels , 85 mins
Dark Streets is a stylish noir fever dream of blues music, seduction, and murder.
Set in a visually dazzling fantasy of the 1930’s, Dark Streets is the story of Chaz Davenport (Gabriel Mann), a dashing but naive playboy who owns the hottest new nightclub in town – “The Tower”. Surrounded by the blues music he adores, and caught in a triangle between two gorgeous singers at the club (Bijou Phillips and Izabella Miko), Chaz is the envy of every man; but his charmed life is spiraling out of control. He’s up to his neck in bad debts and bad choices, which threaten to bring his dream world crashing down. The unexpected suicide of his father seems only more mysterious and strange, the more Chaz looks into it. As Chaz is drawn deeper into a web of lies and betrayal, he no longer knows who to trust or who to fear.
The film features 12 original songs composed by James Compton and Tim Brown, with dance numbers choreographed by Keith Young (known for Rent). The song & dance numbers feature the beautiful Phillips and Miko, as well as underground performer Toledo, and a stage full of L.A.’s most talented dancers. Original off-camera songs are sung by some of the best contemporary blues artists alive today, including Dr. John, Etta James, Natalie Cole, Aaron Neville, Chris Thomas King, Solomon Burke and Richie Sambora; and the film’s rich blues score, composed by George Acogny, also features contributions from BB King and Richie Sambora.
Dark Streets is a beautiful music-driven feast for the eyes and ears.
Thu, Oct 16 2008, 9:30 pm | Contemporary Arts Center
Heavy Load
Directed by Jerry Rothwell, 91 mins
MUSIC MOVIES
REGIONAL PREMIERE
Heavy Load are Lewes’ answer to the Ramones, a punk outfit subject to the inflammatory mix of ego, fantasy and desire that fuels any emerging band. They’re also, uniquely, made up of musicians with and without learning disabilities, which makes the bands’ survival a precarious negotiation between two different worlds: on the one hand the institutional timetable of day centres, work placements and social workers; on the other the chaotic slacker life of rehearsal rooms, studios and gigs. Shot over two years as the band record their first album The Queen Mother’s Dead, the film is a comedy of conflicting ambitions, capturing the sweat and romance of playing in a band as they move out of the ghetto of disability club nights to test whether their dreams can survive in the mainstream.
For more on the film festival, go here.
