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Preview: NxNE Film Festival

Written by Nadine Bachan Monday, 15 June 2009 09:13

Sketchy is coming. The much-beloved deranged rabbit mascot of North By Northeast will once again bring the celebrated music festival to the city for five jam-packed days. From June 17th to the 21st, Toronto will be host to hundreds of bands and several events, interviews, panels, and workshops to discuss everything and anything music. Also on the agenda will be the NxNE Film Festival, now in its eighth year.

This year’s films are as diverse as they can get, spanning musical and theatrical genres. The selections cover a wide range of subject matter, from the rise into stardom to the decline into madness. So surely there is a flick here for everyone. To give you a taste of what NxNE is offering, here is a glimpse at five of the 31 films being screened this year.

African Underground: Democracy in Dakur Screening: Thursday June 18th, 5:00 pm

Produced by Nomadic Wax (a record label and production company that specialized in the genres of underground and hip-hop) and Sol Productions, this documentary reveals the dynamic between hip-hop, youth activism culture, and politics in Senegal, West Africa. The film has a particular focus on the effects it had during and after the February 2007 presidential election campaign. African Underground is a demonstration of the strength, courage, and social consciousness of artists and individuals in the fight for a fair society. Co-directors Ben Herson, Magee McIlvaine and Chris Moore capture the struggles in Dakur through features, interviews, and ‘guerrilla-style’ filming of rappers, DJs, journalists, and politicians who witnessed, were a part of, and spoke out during the course of the campaign.

African Underground, which was originally released as a series of Internet shorts and has now been compiled together into a feature-length film, has received praise from the BBC (“a highly motivated, politically conscious project”), XLR8R (“demonstrates both the politics of hip-hop in Senegal and the country’s rich musical tradition”), and the CML Music Marathon (“Senegalese rhymers pull no punched about poverty, war, corruption, globalization, injustice – and are invading the charts to boot”). It has also received honours, including the Our Stage Viewer’s Choice Award for 2007.

Depeche Mode: The Posters Came From the Walls
Screening: Thursday June 18th, 7:00 pm; Saturday June 20th, 1:00 pm

NxNE 2009 marks the Canadian premiere of a UK film about the power of 1980s New Wave, particularly the music of one English band. Co-directors Jeremy Deller and Nicholas Abrahams take the audience country-hopping, showing us the incredible and strange phenomena that was, and continues to be, Depeche Mode fandom.

In Russia, May 9th is both the national holiday Victory Day, and is also Dave Day, in homage to the Dave Gahan’s birthday. To many, Depeche Mode’s music became the soundtrack of rebellion and freedom as the Berlin Wall fell. In Iran, fans did whatever they could to get their hands on the albums, despite a ban on all Western music in the region. Mexican fans find divinity within imagery used in the band’s promotional materials. And in the UK, Depeche Mode aren’t simply musicians, they are a religion.

The documentary’s debut at the 2008 London Film Festival received a great reception and was heralded as the “most fun film’ that year. The Posters Came From the Walls has been described as an entertaining, odd and heartfelt glimpse at a common, global experience: Worship and a search for meaning and truth through song.

Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison
Screening: Friday June 19th, 7:00 pm. The film’s producer will be in attendance.

We’re all familiar with the scene – Johnny Cash, looking brawny and well turned-out in a dark three-piece suit, sitting before a sea of prisoners. There he was, connecting with a crowd of downtrodden men, heart and soul, at the January 1968 performance (and subsequent album) that would become symbolic of him and his music. It was perhaps the most important day of his career. Director and Co-Producer Bestor Cram pulls together imagery, rare footage, and interviews with those lucky enough to be there, recapturing the sense of turmoil and change surrounding the politics and people of the time and within The Man in Black himself.

Since its premiere at the Austin Film Festival last year, reviews for the documentary have been highly favourably, from the likes of New York Times, Paste Magazine, Cinequest, and Mercury News: “Fascinating.” “Illuminating.” “Vivid and Courageous.” “Beautiful.” Considered to a remarkable portrait of the renowned singer, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison reveals first-hand, the moments, the individuals, and the history that made that fateful day one for the history books. The film’s tagline gets it right — Out of Darkness, Comes Light.

I Need That Record! The Death (or Possible Survival) of the Independent Record Store
Screening: Saturday June 20th, 6:30 pm.

For most of us, especially in the midst of our current economic crisis, filmmaker Brendan Toller’s look at the fall of Mom-and-Pop-style music vendors will definitely hit home. In an age of packaged superstars, consumerism, and the digital revolution, what room is there left for the small legitimates with shallow pockets? What’s more, now even the corporate giants are beginning to buckle, and the future of our favourite little shops looks worse than bleak. According to the documentary, over 3,000 stores have closed in the United States in the past ten years. Why? Will this continue? Toller and several others take a good hard look at these and other dire questions.

Among the stories and struggles of hard-working indie record dealers, several notable faces make an appearance in this feature: Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Noam Chomsky (author and activist), Mike Watt (The Minutemen), Patterson Hood (Drive-by Truckers), Chris Frantz (The Talking Heads), and Legs McNeil (punk author) are among the participants here. Together, they and the rest of world discuss and contemplate the fate of these vendors and the music industry as a whole.

The Eternity Man
Screening: Sunday June 21, 1:00 pm

This Australian film adaptation also makes its Canadian debut at NxNE 2009. Based on the 2003 opera by the same name, The Eternity Man is a story of one man’s loneliness as he treads the gritty streets of Sydney. As he walks, the forlorn figure is compelled to write the word ETERNITY in chalk on the pavements. Passing through history and space, his words in white cast a haunting, sad presence upon the night. Julien Temple directs the journey of protagonist Arthur Stace, a character and story created by poet Dorothy Porter and composer Jonathan Mills.

The 64-minute film received quite a few noteworthy awards last year: the ATOM Award for Best Experimental Film in Australia, the Rose d’Or Award in Switzerland, and the Judge Award for Best Work of the Year at the Queensland Australian Cinematography Awards. Critics have hailed it as a “mesmerising, beautifully filmed work”, as well as “bold [and] stylistically inventive”. An eventful and emotional drama, The Eternity Man may be one of this year’s artistic best.

The National Film Board of Canada will be showcasing this year’s diverse selections from its Ontario centre: The NFB Theatre, a modern multimedia facility located at 150 John Street. Other venues include the Hyatt Regency and Bloor Cinema. Check out www.nxne.com for all the details, including purchasing tickets and wristbands.