The New Orleans Film Society presents the 2013 New Orleans Film Festival at select theatres throughout New Orleans from Thursday, October 10 through Thursday, October 17, and while it is always difficult to narrow down your viewing choices during the jam-packed week of new, innovative films, the OffBeat staff is here to make a few recommendations to music buffs and New Orleans lovers. It’s always cool to see your ‘hood as the backdrop in a movie scene, n’est ce-pas? Check out our picks for the must-see music flicks, as well as the films set in New Orleans and made in Louisiana here.
Boneshaker
An African family, lost in America, travels to a Louisiana church to find a cure for its problem child. Starring the now-legendary Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild).
October 11 – 5:15pm and October 13 – 12:pm
Good Ol’ Freda
Freda Kelly was just a shy Liverpudlian teenager when she was asked to work for a local band hoping to make it big. Though she had no concept of how far they would go, Freda had faith in the Beatles from the beginning, and they had faith in her. History notes that the Beatles were together for 10 years, but Freda worked for them for 11. Many people came in and out of the band’s circle as they grew to international stardom, but Freda remained a staple because of her unfaltering loyalty and dedication. As the Beatles’ devoted secretary and friend, Freda was there as history unfolded; she was witness to the evolution—advances and setbacks, breakthroughs and challenges—of the greatest band in history. In Good Ol’ Freeda, Freda tells her stories for the first time in 50 years. One of few films with the support of the living Beatles and featuring original Beatles music, the film offers an insider perspective on the beloved band that changed the music industry.
October 11, 15, 17 – 7:00pm
Death Metal Angola
Following nearly 40 years of unrelenting war – with every attendant horror – peace and reconstruction are slowly arriving to Angola. Damaged first by the war for independence from Portugal, Angola was then ripped apart by a devastating civil war that orphaned thousands of children. Huambo, Angola’s second largest city, finds 55 of these children in the Okutiuka orphanage under the care of Sonia Ferreira. Sonia’s boyfriend, Wilker Flores, is a death metal guitarist who uses the brutal sounds and rhythms of hardcore music as a path to healing, or, as Sonia says, “to clear out the debris from all these years of war.” Death Metal Angola tracks Wilker and Sonia’s dream – to stage Angola’s first-ever national rock concert, bringing together members from different strands of the Angolan hardcore scene from different provinces – as it unfolds in fits and starts against the bombed out and mined backdrop of the formerly stately Huambo.
October 11 – 10:00pm and October 16 – 8:00pm
The Battle of the Jazz Guitarist
The story concerns Max, a once-famous jazz guitarist from the Fiji Islands who gave up his career to move to America for the betterment of his children. But when the documentary begins to take a turn, the son begins to shed some light on other dark parts of his past, as well as his own.
October 12 – 11:30am
One Song
Father by day and musician by night; as a single parent, Coni barely gets by. A faded photograph is the only reminder of his daughter’s mother. But one day, shortly after Coni seems to be over her, she shows up again.
October 12 – 2:00pm
The Pleasures of Being Out of Step
Pleasures profiles legendary jazz writer and civil libertarian Nat Hentoff, whose career tracks the greatest cultural and political movements of the last 65 years. Brought to life with powerful narration by actor Andre Braugher, the film is about an idea as well as a man – the idea of free expression as the defining characteristic of the individual. Hentoff is a pioneer who raised the idea of jazz as an art form and was present at the creation of “alternative” journalism in this country. Pleasures wraps the themes of liberty and identity around a historical narrative that stretches from the Great Depression to the Patriot Act. Braugher’s narration doesn’t tell the story – it is the story, consisting entirely of writing by Hentoff and some of his subjects. With a potent mix of interviews, archival footage, photographs and music, the film employs a complex non-linear structure to engage the audience in a life of independent ideas and the creation of an enduring voice.
October 12 – 2:30pm and October 15 – 6:00pm
*NOTE: Saturday Screening* will have an intro from music writer Tom Piazza. Also arrive early for the musical performance of local jazz musicians Adam Guthrie and Noah Young. Music starts at 2:15 p.m. Live music at NOFF is sponsored by the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation.
The Whole Gritty City
The Whole Gritty City follows three New Orleans marching bands rising up in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. As band directors prepare students for Mardi Gras parades, they battle for these children’s lives and souls against the lures and dangers of the streets. Scenes of the bands in rehearsal and performance interweave with individual stories: kids and their teachers in their homes, churches, and neighborhoods. It includes footage captured on small cameras by the kids themselves. The 11-year-old Bear learns to play the trumpet, while mourning the brother killed at age 19. Eighteen-year-old drum major Skully venerates his school band’s founder who was killed before the band’s instruments arrived. Celebrated musician Derrick Tabb creates a new marching band to pass on the legacy that saved his own life. The charismatic band director Wilbert Rawlins, Jr., the lone survivor among his closest childhood friends, copes with the loss of the protégé he has loved as a son. Navigating the urban minefield through moments of setback, loss, discovery, and triumph, these kids and their adult leaders reveal the power and resilience of a culture.
October 12 – 6:30pm (with world premiere after-party at CAC) and October 14 – 4:15pm
Brasslands
A tiny Serbian village explodes with brass cacophony and riotous celebration as more than half a million music fans descend upon Guca, Serbia, site of the world’s largest trumpet competition. Amidst a cast of defending Serbian champions and struggling Roma Gypsies, an unlikely brass band from New York City, Zlatne Uste, voyages to represent the United States only a decade after NATO bombs rocked Belgrade. They will be the first Americans ever to compete at Guca. Brasslands offers an intimate and unsettling portrait of how the hopes and fears of this diverse group of characters collide in their search for common ground and musical ecstasy.
October 12 – 4:45pm and October 14 – 2:00pm
Growing in the Desert
In many New Orleans neighborhoods, hundreds of people are affected by food deserts, which are places without easy access to fresh produce. The film explores the food crisis that is unknown, but is happening in our neighborhood, through the eyes of a family living in the Ninth Ward.
October 13 – 12:30pm
Better Days Hip Hop
A shape shifting dancer exposes the universality of rhythm. The dancer represents everyone and brings to light what we all have in common: rhythm. Hip Hop is life-affirming.
October 13 – 2:30pm and October 16 – 6:00pm
Can’t Stop the Water
For 170 years, a Native American Cajun community has occupied Isle de Jean Charles, a tiny island deep in the bayous of south Louisiana. They have fished, hunted, and lived off the land. Now the land that has sustained them for generations is vanishing before their eyes. Years of gas and oil exploration have ravaged the surrounding marsh, leaving the island defenseless against the ocean tides that will eventually destroy it. As Chief Albert Naquin desperately looks for a way to bring his tribe together on higher ground, those that remain on the island cling to the hope that they can stay.
October 13 – 2:45pm
Signs of Life
Signs of Life follows Clarence White III, a social worker of the Abandoned Buildings Outreach Team, in his daily work. White and his co-workers search for signs of life in abandoned buildings in the New Orleans metro area, most of which have been demolished by Hurricane Katrina over eight years ago and have not been repaired. Homeless people are what they are looking for. Today, much of the city’s homeless population is squatting in abandoned buildings, often under degrading circumstances without plumbing, electricity, or medical treatment. The Outreach Team tries to help these homeless individuals by providing them with housing and other services. White and his co-workers are the only ones reaching out to the abandoned building squatters in New Orleans.
October 13 – 12:30pm and Louisiana Film Shorts Showcase October 11, 12, 13, 16
King of Herrings
An off-beat look at four Crescent City layabouts, who dream big in a small change world of cards, women and endless cups of coffee. Their passionate blundering, like their rants, can be at once funny, poignant, ridiculous and heartbreaking. “Ditch” their self appointed king, is an irascible son-of-a-bitch with a Napoleon complex, and his pals love him for it. Until one day he pushes the self-tenured “Professor” too far. A game of threats, posturing and sexual ploys lead them down a dark but comic road in this exploration of what it is to be a man today. Filmed in black and white, this richly textured character study could be the bastard child of Woody Allen and Tom Waits, brought to life by an ensemble of real-life character actors who have known each other and worked together for over 25 years.
October 13 – 5:00pm and October 15 – 4:00pm
Phil Collins and the Wild Frontier
In May 2012, after his retirement from music, Phil Collins participated in a publicity tour across Texas to promote his new book that archived his collection of artifacts from the Battle of the Alamo. The film follows Mr. Collins on a 5-day tour as he answers questions about his obscure collection and is bombarded by music fans at every turn. The film takes an observant look at the duality of a man who collects artifacts who is himself a “relic” of a bygone time.
October 13 – 6:15pm
The African Cypher
Street dance in South Africa is a complex, convoluted underworld that, like most sub-cultures, exists as a sum of its participants. In Mapetla, Soweto, if you steal phones and hand bags you will not live long. The community will kill you. If you do a heist, they will tell the police you are not there– Prince tells us this as we walk back to Mada’s place from the shisa nyama (an informal outdoor fire where you can buy some meat to cook and drink a beer.)
Prince is a pantsula. He used to be a tsotsi, a gangster, a thug. Today he walks his streets with pride; he is a pantsula dancer and a little bit famous. Tom London from Soweto’s Finest says, “When we dance we find purpose with our bodies.” Prince, strolling down the dusty street with his fluid movement, with a swagger, is perhaps the embodiment of that sentiment. When he dances on the street corner with Mada, the kids, the tsotsis, the mamas, the unemployed and the hustlers all stop to watch him. No props, no burning hoops– nothing. Whatever this dance thing is, it is beautiful part circus/part soul. No matter the context or style. We all ultimately dance for an audience of one.
October 13 – 9:30pm and October 15 – 9:30pm
Tradition is Temple
Tradition is a Temple explores New Orleans’ unique musical culture and the fragility of tradition in the modern world. This performance-based music documentary shares intimate discussions with various iconic contemporary New Orleans musicians, highlighting their history and upbringing, while demonstrating how a musical tradition has shaped their identity, community and learning environment for the youth of the crescent city. New Orleans is unique in its history and culture, but remains a reflection of the rest of the United States. The music is described as being a like gumbo: Africa, the Caribbean, and Europe, mixed together and seasoned with history to create something new and wholly American.
October 13 – 8:15pm
Omitted
Best friends, Shelby “Skip” Skipper and Donald “Big Choo” Norris, have been in love with New Orleans bounce music for as long as they can remember. It originated in New Orleans, and the musical style or “that beat” (as many call it) brought these two individuals together almost eight years ago. Ghost of Elysian Films follows their lives as they dance and perform through the streets of New Orleans during Super Bowl XLVII and Mardi Gras 2013. Constantly battling the growing misconceptions of bounce music, Skip and Big Choo have dedicated their lives to the music. From competing local acts to national competitions, they fight for their placement in the growing worldwide bounce community.
October 15 – 8:30pm
A Warehouse on Tchoupitoulas
On January 30th 1970 the Warehouse opened its doors to thousands of fans to see the Flock, Fleetwood Mac and the Grateful Dead. In the ensuing 12 years some of the best musicians in the world would grace the stage, including the Allman Brothers, Bob Dylan, The Doors, Pink Floyd, The Who, Bob Marley, David Bowie, Foghat, Jethro Tull, The Clash, The Talking Heads, Rush, Dr. John and many, many more. This documentary is an attempt to capture some of the magic that so many of us missed.
October 16 – 8:45pm
Bayou Maharajah
Bayou Maharajah: The Tragic Genius of James Booker explores the life, times and music of piano legend James Booker, whom Dr. John described as “the best black, gay, one-eyed junkie piano genius New Orleans has ever produced.” Keyboard Magazine described Booker as “Ray Charles on the level of Chopin.” Harry Connick Jr. called him “the greatest musician I’ve ever heard, period.” The Huffington Post described his music as “unrivaled.” The director of the Louisiana State Museum described him as “the strangest man I’ve ever known.” This roller coaster portrait traces Booker’s life from his early years as a chart-topping child prodigy, his star-studded years playing as a sideman, through to his outrageous solo career characterized by onstage performances in his underwear, dishing out drug-fueled conspiracy theories. Featuring interviews with the likes of Harry Connick Jr., Irma Thomas and Allen Toussaint and a generous helping of archival footage, the film brings to life the unforgettable story of this amazing and personally ethereal musician.
October 17 – 7:00pm
*Join the New Orleans Film Society and OffBeat Magazine for the official Bayou Maharajah after-party at the Little Gem Saloon immediately following the premiere screening at the Civic Theatre. NOFF VIP pass holders receive complimentary admission to the after-party and a free copy of the recently released CD of James Booker’s final recordings, Classified, courtesy of Rounder Records.
Complete NOFF schedule, online tickets and more info: www.neworleansfilmsociety.org
