LUCIDMEDIA

Select Reviews from the NxNE Film Fest

Written by Adam A. Donaldson Monday, 22 June 2009 13:23

This year, the North By Northeast film festival portion was bigger and more ambitious than ever. With 30 films over four days, it would have been a Herculean task to see them all, but I did catch a few choice offerings.

Depeche Mode: The Posters Came From the Walls

Musical phenomena that translate globally are about as rare as 50-cent pieces and golden gooses. The thing of it is that we don’t sometimes realize how revolutionary a band is at the time, and little do we realize that we’re witnessing history in the making right there in from of us. One good example of this, as show in the documentary The Posters Came From the Walls is the English new wave band Depeche Mode, who… Wait a second. Depeche Mode. “Personal Jesus” Depeche Mode? “Policy of Truth” Depeche Mode? “I Just Can’t Get Enough” Depeche Mode?

So it seems as the cameras of filmmakers Nick Abrahams and Jeremy Deller track so-called Mo’ Heads from England to California, to South America, to Eastern Europe and even the underground music trade in Iran, where all western music’s forbidden even if it is Depeche Mode. The energy and enthusiasm of these Mo’ Heads is captured in a very hands off way as these fans tell there stories and the reasons why they love this band the way they do. The film begins in Depeche Mode’s hometown of Basildon, England, south of London, where unless you already know, there’s no standing monument to the band that gave us the ironically titled “Enjoy the Silence.”

From a pair of young people in Pasadena that were barely born when Depeche Mode played their famous concert at the Rose Bowl (oddly enough, it’s the same day the film had its Canadian premiere at NxNE- June 18) to the neighbourhood’s formally in East Germany, even the most fervent anti-Mo’ Head would have to admit that band has legs. What’s further interesting is that this is purely a film for the fans; for them and I presume by them. The band’s sole presence is through its music, be it a marching band rendition of “Personal Jesus” or a group of St. Petersburgians making their own, homemade video for “Enjoy the Silence.” The Posters Came From the Walls is a brilliant, if none-to-subtle tribute.

Out of Our Minds

Out of Our Minds is one of those movies so self-aware, like Snakes on a Plane, that you know exactly what it’s about from the title. Well in this short film we get three different stories: one about a haunted woman that smashes head-on into a logging truck, another about some kind of forest witch being pestered by a Viking and the last about lumberjacks cutting down bleeding trees. What does it all mean? Don’t ask me, I just watched the thing. I will say however that it was an incredibly enrapturing film, with some beautiful visuals and a magnanimous patience to it. Melissa Auf Der Maur proved that she doesn’t just have the singing pipes, but a fascinating screen presence.

Sigur Ros: Vid Spilum Endalaust

Sigur Ros is a tremendously talented and eccentric band from Iceland, so it’s only fitting that a short film featuring them carries the very same characteristics. Basically, Vid Spilum Endalaust is a concert film, but that thin description barely does it any justice. Shot on Super 8 and filled odd clips and excerpts from the band, their friends and support staff, Vid Spilum Endalaust is really more of a video collage than a film. It’s interesting to watch, especially when you come to realize that it’s not just some random confluence of images, but an incredible, artistic re-imagining of the concert film. Plus, needless to say, the music’s great.

Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison

In another Canadian premiere, NxNE gave us a film that offers unique insight into a one of a kind music event that’s been unequalled before or since. The year was 1968, and one Mr. Johnny Cash was doing a serious self-inventory following a battle with drugs and his own personal demons. Looking for a comeback and a venue, he turned to kindred spirits and in a nod to his pre-fame roots, and one of the songs that made him a success, he performed live for the inmates in Folsom Prison and recorded it for an album. But that only really scratches the surface of what that concert meant because it had reverberations beyond simply what it did for Johnny Cash’s career.

At first I was unsure about this film. It seemed part Coles Notes version of Cash’s biography and part experimental concert film where animation and slideshows replaced performance footage. But in a way, the story of Johnny Cash’s concert at Folsom becomes the story of Glen Sherley, a man convicted for armed robbery but gifted with a musical talent that was enough to catch the attention of the Man in Black. Cash played one of Sherley’s songs, and later advocated on Sherley’s behalf to get him released from prison.

Sherley was at once a success story and a failure story for Cash; Sherley became a valued member of the Cash collective of performers but his inability to reintegrate into lawful society led to his untimely death by suicide. During that time period, Cash spoke giving voice to prisoners facing harsh treatment in American institutions like Folsom. More than that, he gave these men hope. The rewarding experience of a couple of simple hours in the prison café, listening to live music is reverberated in the remembrances of Cash’s children and the surviving inmates and others that were there that day  The enduring power of music to be a liberating force, even from institutionalized incarceration is a tremendous lesson in this film.

I Need That Record! The Death (or Possible Survival) of the Independent Record Store

With Michael Moore-like tenacity, director Brendan Toller pursues the causes of the growing disappearance of the independent record store. And yes that is “causes,” as in plural, not singular. More than greedy labels, more than the proliferation of digital downloading, and more than a general public moving away from searching for albums, I Need That Record! pursues all the various threads and possibilities, not as a pessimistic piece, but as one that’s actually surprisingly hopeful. Additionally, there’s a kind of D-I-Y aesthetic to the film that makes it feel less polished, but all the more passionate in its portrayal of the plight of the indie stores.

Making its Canadian premiere at NxNE, I Need That Record attracted a sold out crowd to the Nation Film Board’s screening room on John Street. In fact, so immense was the line that a kind of class warfare permeated the mood as badge-holders, people with wristbands and those wanting to buy tickets were separated out in order to determine who got in first. The NFB’s overflow room had to be opened up in order to accommodate the crowd. It was certainly a sight that I’d never before seen at the NFB, which admittedly was kind of cool. It also spoke to the tremendous passion that remains for the indie record store and the unique vibe that surrounds it. It’s a vibe that the film captured with its collection of colourful characters and a knowing, can-do spirit that transcends music lovers and reaches anyone that remembers with longing the places that heavily informed the person they are and how those things may no longer be there any more, or might not be for much longer.

Also part of the program this year was a number of shorts, part of a series designed for-mobile-electronic-devices called City Sonic. These three-minute City Sonic films highlighted a different musical venue in Toronto and looked at it through the eyes of some well-known musicians. The two I saw were kind of hit and miss; the one about the Barenaked Ladies at the Ultrasound Showbar was a hit, but the other featuring the Cancer Bats at the Adrift Clubhouse, despite being directed by Bruce McDonald, was kind of a miss. Still, it’s an interesting series combining my loves of music and history and doing both justice. I’m looking forward to seeing more.