Photo by Robert M Nielsen
OTHER MUSIC
Directors:
Puloma Basu and Rob Hatch-Miller
World Premiere:
Tribeca 2019
Select Festivals:
Montclair, Maryland, Calgary, Vancouver, Nashville, Cork, St Louis, Sound Unseen, Cleveland
About:
A love letter to the now-shuttered NYC record store institution.
In 1995, three co-workers at East Village staple Kim’s Video left to found their own alternative music store, brazenly picking a storefront right across the street from Tower Records in the East Village. Distinguishing itself as a site to discover an eclectic range of genres – alternative, electronic, avant garde, you name it – the store managed to develop a symbiotic relationship with its neighbor, outlasting it by several years. But as digital music changed the landscape for music consumption, Other Music could only hold on for so long. Filmmakers Puloma Basu and Rob Hatch-Miller chronicle the store’s history and impact on music culture as it approaches its closing in 2016, speaking with owners, employees, and customers, as well as several musicians it helped champion or otherwise influence. At once a celebration and a sentimental eulogy, their film captures the spirit that ingratiated the store to its die-hard supporters, while also revealing the too-cool-for-school aura that proved off-putting for others. But even if its employees could rightfully be accused of music snobbery, they brought a distinctive ear to their storied recommendations that distinguished Other Music and fostered a unique community that has been lost in an era of algorithmically-driven online culture.
what (not) to doc 