Sonic Cinema, DOC NYC‘s popular section devoted to docs about music and musicians, wraps up today’s festival preview:
DOC NYC Sonic Cinema
BÉLA FLECK: HOW TO WRITE A BANJO CONCERTO
Directors: Béla Fleck and Sascha Paladino
NYC PREMIERE
Commissioned to create a first-of-its-kind concerto for the banjo and an 80-piece symphony orchestra, virtuoso musician Béla Fleck faces an intensely personal challenge of collaboration and composition.
Expected to attend: Béla Fleck
DON’T THINK I’VE FORGOTTEN: CAMBODIA’S LOST ROCK & ROLL
Director: John Pirozzi
NYC PREMIERE
A fascinating exploration of history as reflected through a nation’s popular culture, this film excavates Cambodia’s lost era of American-inflected music.
Expected to attend: John Pirozzi
HEAVEN ADORES YOU (pictured above)
Director: Nickolas Rossi
NYC PREMIERE
An artful tribute to the too-soon departed singer/songwriter Elliott Smith.
Expected to attend: Nickolas Rossi, Producer Marc Smolowitz
JINGLE BELL ROCKS!
Director: Mitchell Kezin
NYC PREMIERE
An entertaining quest to locate the top twelve most under-appreciated holiday songs you’re likely to ever hear.
Expected to attend: Mitchell Kezin
SALAD DAYS: A DECADE OF PUNK IN WASHINGTON, DC (1980-1990)
Director: Scott Crawford
WORLD PREMIERE
An exploration of the development and evolution of the Washington DC punk scene, and how it shaped independent music and popular culture in the decade that followed.
Expected to attend: Scott Crawford, producer Jim Saah, film subjects Michael Hampton (SOA, Embrace), Tom Lyle (Government Issue), Bert Queiroz (Untouchables, Double-O, Youth Brigade), Jenny Toomey (Tsunami, Simple Machines Records)
SONGS FOR ALEXIS
Director: Elvira Lind
NYC PREMIERE
Eighteen-year-old hopeless romantic Ryan, a young transgender man, writes songs about his sixteen-year-old girlfriend Alexis as the couple navigates a long distance relationship between Long Island and San Francisco.
Expected to attend: Elvira Lind, film subject Ryan Cassata
Why You Should Attend:
Films about music can have the blessing of an immediate core fan base, and a curse of seeming too insider to appeal to the unconverted. Like sports docs, the best of them are able to tap into themes that transcend an individual performer or music genre and thus appeal to outsiders. This incredibly diverse collection of music docs does just that, focused on the fundamental process of creativity, tackling the intersection of history and political ideology, exposing the pitfalls of fame and depression, reveling in the community formed by mutual interest and outsiderness, and exploring the universal themes of love and lovesickness.
Many of the filmmakers are no strangers to music docs: Béla Fleck and Sascha Paladino previously collaborated on THROW DOWN YOUR HEART, in which Fleck seeks the origins of the banjo in West Africa. John Pirozzi’s previous documentary, SLEEPWALKING THROUGH THE MEKONG, followed a Los Angeles band to Cambodia. JINGLE BELL ROCKS! producer Bob Moore previously produced music docs AMIN and TAQWACORE: THE BIRTH OF PUNK ISLAM, the latter with another JBRx! producer, Mila Aung-Thwin, who counts several other music-focused projects among her credits: MUSIC FOR A BLUE TRAIN, CHAIRMAN GEORGE, and RIP: A REMIX MANIFESTO.
More Info:
To purchase tickets, click on the individual titles above, and follow links for ticketing; or check out the new options for Passes.
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