twin cities black film festival this weekend

The 2010 Twin Cities Black Film Festival is taking place this weekend at the Hotel Ivy from Friday to Sunday.  They're screening 10 features and 8 shorts based around their mission of providing an "opportunity for independent filmmakers of color in which to have their works showcased before the community, as well as, serve as an avenue of discovery for industry professionals seeking new talent worldwide."  In addition to their movie programming, the festival is hosting panel discussions, parties concluding each day, and a Q&A with actors and producers of the opening night film, The Inheritance.

No one theme ties all the pieces together, ensuring something for most everybody.  Documentaries, romance films and horror stories are scattered throughout the 20 hours of programming scheduled this weekend.  See the list of films as well as the schedule to check out the festival's offerings.  The shows begin Friday at 6:45 with opening remarks and closes Sunday with an after party at Hotel Ivy at 10.

who is harry nilsson

Sound Unseen ends today and tonight with a ton of great movies playing at Trylon and Southern Theater.  Read the reviews and see the films before it's too late.

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Review Schedule:

Tues: The Agony & The Ecstasy (screening Thurs @ The Southern Theater -- 7:30)

Wed: Wheedle's Groove (screening Thurs @ Trylon -- 8:45)

Thur: Ride Rise Roar (screening Fri @ The Southern Theater -- 8:00)

Fri: This Movie Is Broken (screening Fri @ Trylon -- 7:00)

Fri: Everyday Sunshine (screening Sat @ Trylon -- 5:00)

Fri: Who Is Harry Nilsson? (screening Sat @ Southern Theater -- 8:00)

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There’s a misguided belief among a small group of music fans that some musicians are so great their work speaks for itself.  I had a roommate who’s passion for music was so great it couldn’t be contained entirely within himself.  Many times he would force me to drop everything and listen to some legendary song he recently discovered.  The speakers were playing some of the best music ever made, but I wasn’t hearing it.  At that point my roommate had already spent weeks with the same record and consumed every single article and review that existed on the artist or song or album or all of the above.  I, however, had no context to appreciate the music.


Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him) is well aware of the cult status the subject’s accumulated among seasoned music professionals.  The documentary’s hope is that, by overwhelming its audience with interview after interview of endless praise, you’ll be too overwhelmed to disagree.  The filmmaker brings up all the hallmarks of a conflicted genius:  After his dad left him at an early age his alcoholic mom raised him by herself.  He’s all the Beatles rolled into one.  He subconsciously desires self-destruction.  And on and on and on.

I don’t doubt that Nilsson was troubled or that his talents were immense.  But all the personalities interviewed seem either so far removed from the man or hold no real authority to discuss Nilsson’s motivations, madness or brilliance.  The result is a movie that sounds more like a documentary about the people who surrounded Nilsson than the man himself.  Truly momentous and life-altering events in Nilsson’s life are discussed by individuals who can only describe the man’s decisions with phrases like “for whatever reason,” “I never really knew why,” “he always shied away from that subject,” or “I have no idea.”

Somewhere in the middle of the documentary is a great 20-minute film where record producer Richard Perry discusses the studio sessions where him and Nilsson made the award-winning Nilsson Schmilsson and it’s compelling follow-up Son of Schmilsson.  We finally have an individual in Perry who can drive the story behind Nilsson’s more famous moments with a good deal of credibility.  We get a glimpse into the egomaniacal legend that, up until this point, we only heard about.  As a whole, though, the movie plays like a two hour trailer that fails to engage.

The assumption this documentary makes, that Nilsson’s music has an instant appeal, is a stretch to say the least.  Which isn’t to say that his talents don’t live up to the hype.  Another disturbed artist with endless comparisons to The Beatles and credibility among all of rock’s nobility, Daniel Johnston, was a musician that took five years of exposure to my ears before I finally heard the greatness others were talking about.  The fact that I’m spinning a copy of Nilsson Schmilsson right now is a hopeful sign that I’ll get to a similar place with Nilsson.  Additionally, it signifies that I must give this documentary some credit for rekindling my interest in this highly touted and influential artist.  The “re-” in “rekindling” is the part you should focus on when deciding if this movie is for you.

-Tom Schmidt

Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everbody Talkin' About Him) screens at The Southern at 8:00 tonight.

everyday sunshine

Here's another review from Russell Anway.  This one is for Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone, playing at 5:00 tomorrow night at the Trylon.  It's another one of the offerings from Sound Unseen, which has plenty of screenings tonight as well, including The Carter, Shadow Play: The Making of Anton Corbijn, Ride Rise Roar, and This Movie is Broken.  Check out our reviews for the last two films as well as this new one on the Fishbone documentary.

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Review Schedule:

Tues: The Agony & The Ecstasy (screening Thurs @ The Southern Theater -- 7:30)

Wed: Wheedle's Groove (screening Thurs @ Trylon -- 8:45)

Thur: Ride Rise Roar (screening Fri @ The Southern Theater -- 8:00)

Fri: This Movie Is Broken (screening Fri @ Trylon -- 7:00)

Fri: Everyday Sunshine (screening Sat @ Trylon -- 5:00)

Fri: Who Is Harry Nilsson? (screening Sat @ Southern Theater -- 8:00)

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Everyday Sunshine features a phalanx of prominent musicians talking about the myriad ways they were influenced creatively by one of LA’s best rock bands.  Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers says they have the best base, Gwen Stefani says they have the best style, and Ice T says they are the “OG” original.  Before them there was nothing, apparently.  What band am I talking about?  Why Fishbone of course.  Perhaps you’ve never heard of them.  I hadn’t.  This documentary tells the story of how one of the best live acts LA has ever seen, the musicians that musicians look to, entered the public conscience most successfully with an appearance on the soundtrack of The Mask.  It tells the story of how this gifted band of performers, with the ear of the industry and LA as their stage, never got their hit, and what that does to people after twenty-five years.

Fishbone’s sound is at the heart of their creative success and also at the center of their commercial failure. Their sound could probably best be described as big band-punk, like The Sex Pistols with a horn section, but sometimes they sound more metal and at others front man Angelo Moore can sound a dead ringer for Freddie Mercury.

The documentary frames the band’s origin in terms of time and place as a way of both describing their scene and explaining the creation of their eclectic sound.  This early section is pieced together from interviews and dopey animations that will leave you thinking that you’re watching an episode of Fat Albert. The band mates started playing together in high school.  At the time in LA, as a result of racial tensions and as a reaction to the ongoing segregation of the disparate LA communities, children were being bused out of the largely black neighborhoods and into the white communities for school.  The documentarians use a clip from a stand-up routine from Damon Wayans which begins “I went a Fishbone show last night.”  It’s like a parallel universe where they are the mainstream.  He goes on, mocking them, as only two black people clap, “Is that that soul food place?” they are thinking.  The bit gets at the creative crucible of the group.  The black kids were taken from their neighborhoods and brought to the white neighborhoods and the resulting culture clash yielded something unique, but also something that many were not yet ready for.  The sound won over the white punk rock fans in the clubs but left the black culture feeling cold.

In the present the band still exists.  Angelo Moore, the bi-polar front man, and Norwood Fisher the fittingly rock steady base player still perform with assorted new members under the moniker of Fishbone.  The film is laced with the retellings and reactions to the milestones and pitfalls of their careers, and in their care the story becomes a meditation on what it means to live a creative life.  Late in the film one of the band’s early members rejoins them for a brief period saying he’d like to play music again, just for the fun of it, saying money doesn’t matter.  Angelo recounts the conversation bitterly, saying that the music is important, that creative expression is important, but after you lose your family because of it the money matters.  When people show up for the reunion tour they can’t know what twenty-five years on the road feel like.

Angelo is the most interesting part of the documentary.  He is a constant outpouring of emotion and extreme.  It’s easy to see where the band’s explosive stage shows came from; he lends the same entertainment to the documentary that he did to his band.  He is relentlessly cheerful in stage footage and music videos early in his career. In the present day his smile is as wide as ever but underlined with age, as when he drunkenly compares himself to the aging Batman of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight, “Still crackin’ skulls, still doing magic.”  It’s as easy to see his charm as it is to see the personal cost he paid when his explosive personality and performance failed to translate into record sales.  The cost looks like a man getting off the bus carrying a saxophone and wearing the uniform of a marching band leader from the future, imagined from the past.  A soldier in Michael Jackson’s army.  Rehab or no, family or no, Angelo Moore is the sunshine he sings about.

-Russell Anway

Everyday Sunshine screens Saturday at the Trylon -- 5:00

this movie is broken

Here's a pleasant surprise for you.  We've got a late addition to our list of reviewed movies playing at Sound Unseen right now.  The review for Who Is Harry Nilsson has been pushed backed to tomorrow to make room for This Movie Is Broken, a Broken Social Scene concert/romance film.  Don't know what that means?  Read the review, son.  And make sure you come back later in the afternoon when we have a review for Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone.  

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Review Schedule:

Tues: The Agony & The Ecstasy (screening Thurs @ The Southern Theater -- 7:30)

Wed: Wheedle's Groove (screening Thurs @ Trylon -- 8:45)

Thur: Ride Rise Roar (screening Fri @ The Southern Theater -- 8:00)

Fri: This Movie Is Broken (screening Fri @ Trylon -- 7:00)

Fri: Everyday Sunshine (screening Sat @ Trylon -- 5:00)

Fri: Who Is Harry Nilsson? (screening Sat @ Southern Theater -- 8:00)

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When I first watched the trailer for This Movie Is Broken back in the spring of this year, I couldn’t help but become giddy. Broken Social Scene, pioneers of Canadian indie rock and one of my favorite bands, finally got their grandiose, hands-to-the-heavens concert experience put on film, and this was certainly long overdue. I could already envision the movie sitting amongst the other concert DVDs on my shelf, between Stop Making Sense and Rattle and Hum. “Ooh, and there’s more to this movie too,” I thought. “There’s also a story going along with the concert.” This is where the “broken” element comes in; the movie is broken in half.

The two major players in this “rock show romance,” as the trailer suggests, are Broken Social Scene (a musical collective unit) and fans Bruno/Caroline/Blake (a love collective unit). As the band plays an outdoor venue on a balmy Toronto night, a narrative is weaved together alongside the performances--before, during, and after the gig. Love is lost and found numerous times by the concertgoers and is a fitting representation of the themes and moods the band tends to be attracted to since their formation in 1999.

Just before things get too cutesy and you half expect Zooey Deschanel to waltz in and make a cameo, the final act takes an odd turn for the young lovers, one that will probably make or break (there we go) the movie experience for most.  Like a lot of the band’s songs suggest, love is a complicated, strange, foul, dirty mess, while also always maintaining a simultaneous sense of beauty and honesty. One can’t really argue the film went against the band’s viewpoint, warts and all, even though you almost wished they would have.

But this is what makes Broken Social Scene so provocative and unique. They’ve built their reputation on toying with rock and roll conventions, and it was only a matter of time before they gave their perspective on romantic conventions in film too. This Movie Is Broken is not perfect, but it doesn’t need to be. After all, they were never anything but completely honest with their audience when coming up with the title.

-Davis Wille

This Movie Is Broken screens at the Trylon tonight at 7:00.

wheedle's groove

Today continues our coverage of Sound Unseen films, which kicks off tonight at the Trylon with the screening of The Adventures of Prince Achmed at 7:30 and 9:00.  Here's the schedule of our reviews as well as the review of Wheedle's Groove screening tomorrow at 8:45 at Trylon.

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Review Schedule:
Tues: The Agony & The Ecstasy (screening Thurs @ The Southern Theater -- 7:30)
Wed: Wheedle's Groove (screening Thurs @ Trylon -- 8:45)
Thur: Ride Rise Roar (screening Fri @ The Southern Theater -- 8:00)
Fri: Everyday Sunshine (screening Sat @ Trylon -- 5:00)
Fri: Who Is Harry Nilsson? (screening Sat @ Southern Theater -- 8:00)

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Creating a documentary on a moment in time 40 years ago that received no national attention is one of the more daunting challenges a filmmaker can accept.  Oftentimes it’s impossible to find footage or get in contact with any major players to convince any audience member this story is worth their time.  That’s not the case with Wheedle’s Groove.

The filmmakers track down musicians that comprised Seattle’s burgeoning funk/r&b scene that started in the late 60’s and ended with the start of the disco era.  Having been away from the limelight for over 30 years, everyone was eager to talk about their music, their community and the other groups that made this scene so vibrant.  The quality of the music being churned out by during this era is very apparant.  Song after song, the film takes it’s time demonstrating just how deep Seattle’s catalogue of “hits” goes.  

That leads us to our film’s main argument.  Wheedle’s Groove contends that Seattle’s late 60’s/early 70’s soul/r&b movement should be noted in history alongside the city’s other notable musical movements and even among other local scenes that altered the sound of the entire industry.  There’s no doubt that these artists are talented and made great tunes, but it’s unclear how Seattle’s soul scene stacked up against other cities like Philadelphia or Memphis.  Everyone feels there own community’s a special one deserving of more attention.  However, it’s our ability to identify with that feeling that makes the movie work well.  It doesn’t matter if these groups are as good as they say they are, but it’s their belief in themselves that draws you into the story.

The other selling point for this movie is its version of the struggling artist trying to make it big.  I don’t know of any musician friends naive enough to believe that the industry typically rewards quality musicianship with stardom. Yet musician after musician interviewed believed with the whole of his heart that his group would make it onto the national scene in a big way.  Maybe that’s just a reflection of a different time, but I find it surprising that not one of them held doubts about their larger-than-life ambition.  None of them look back on their time with disappointment, however, as they acknowledge their time in music still made for the best years of their lives.  It’s hard for them to be regretful of their mistakes when they simply had no way of knowing how things would turn out.  They’ve been able to find importance in ways outside of celebrity, or just redefined their idea of celebrity.

And that’s what keeps this film bouncy and positive.  It’s the story of funk and R&B for Christ’s sake!  Who could feel down for too long about unfufilled dreams when the soundtrack is this infectious.  Like the London DJ who recently breathed new life into a song all but forgotten by the gospel singer who recorded it 30 years earlier, the fact that this documentary exists demonstrates that the potential for these songs and this movement to find a new audience is still there.

-Tom Schmidt

Wheedle's Groove screens at the Trylon this Thursday at 8:45

the agony and the ecstasy

This is the first of several reviews by Watch Minneapolis of Sound Unseen films.  The Agony And The Ecstasy of Phil Spector screens this Thursday at the Southern Theater at 7:30.  Thanks to contributing writer Russell Anway for this review.

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The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector

Phil Spector is one of the greatest musical talents of the 20^th century.  But if you know his name it is as likely that you know him as the lunatic with the permed afro who was found guilty of  murder as it is you know him by his music.  The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector, a documentary showing Thursday October 7^th at The Southern Theater as a part of this week’s Sound Unseen Film Festival, is comprised of courtroom footage from Spector’s murder trial and interviews with him from the same time.  He is a strange man, but not uncharming.  He is fascinating like a car accident.  As you hear his songs and his musings on them it is impossible not to get caught up in their massive sound and catchy hooks, and equally challenging not to be unnerved by their perverse biographical parallels within Spector’s personal history.

Early in his career Spector was known as “The Tycoon of Teen,” a name he received for his rock and pop song’s popularity amongst the youth of their day.  His earliest hit was “To Know Him is To Love Him.”  It seems like a simple song of unrequited teen love, but as always with Spector there is a dark alter explanation.  The song, Spector tells us, is about his father, who we will later learn committed suicide when he was very young.  This basic dichotomy between apparently simple themes of happiness and young love, and their bizarre or deranged counterparts within Spector’s biography, supply the bulk of the documentary’s intrigue.

During the film many of Spector’s songs are played in their entirety.  They are used in the background, as songs are generally played on movie soundtracks, but they are also presented to us as the subject itself.  When the songs play, critical notes about their content and instrumentation are written on the bottom of the screen.  At first they slip by largely unnoticed, and are at times slightly annoying.  But as more of them roll through, and the juxtaposition of the music with courtroom images becomes more obvious, and more ironic, the gag becomes clear.  It’s hard not to chuckle at the combination of a court room photo array of handguns and munitions taken by the prosecution as “Going To The Chapel” plays behind it.  And there is a disturbing “Top 40” charm to a courtroom parade of women describing the ways they were physically and emotionally abused by Spector when they are paired with the infections “Be My Baby,” until slowly the scene fades to a discussion of The Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling.”

The film is never about the trial directly, it is a music doc first and foremost.  But the music is never left to exist completely apart from the man.  There is a discussion of Spector’s song “Da Doo Ron Ron.”  He tells of how the song was a reaction to Duke Ellington’s “If It Ain’t Got That Swing,” an infectious, silly, poppy hit.  He tells us, “The real title was ‘When He Walked Me Home,’ but the hook was so dirty […] it was almost like committing incest.”  He says that at the time he was so brazen that he named the song after the background singers’ part just to see what he could get away with.  As he says this the director shows him sitting in the courtroom, flanked by lawyers, laughing.  Spector was eventually found guilty, but the film does not present him as a murderer.  Instead it phrases Spector’s story as something all too common:  A powerful man seeing what he can get away with.

This documentary’s title is an allusion to Michelangelo, but the documentarians are not alone in their comparison.  Spector is fond of comparing himself to the greatest artists of his millennium, saying that he came to a blank canvas and created the song “Be My Baby” just as DaVinci came to a blank canvas to create “The Last Supper.”  He thinks little of the musicians he worked with, excluding a small handful, viewing them as paints and brushes to his painter, remarking that any of his artists could have been replaced by any of his other artists.  He brushes aside the many high praises he has received throughout his career by way of their prolonged discussion.  While watching this documentary you may be repulsed by his personality or actions, but you can only be entertained by his music and wonder if he doesn’t deserve the place in history he feels he deserves.

-Russell Anway

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Trailer for The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector from VIXPIX Films on Vimeo.

sound unseen starts this wednesday

The 11th annual Sound Unseen film festival begins this Wednesday night and continues through this Saturday, with 12 films screening at The Southern Theater, Trylon and Red Stag Supper Club.  The festival is a celebration of music in cinema, with movies by bands, about bands, about fans of band, and even featuring band performances.  This site will have reviews of many of the screenings starting tomorrow, so make sure you come by often this week to get the skinny on all of the Sound Unseen events going on this week.  Oh, and don't forget to check out their sweet trailer, embedded below.



For all you diehard Watch Minneapolis fans out there, that trailer does indeed feature both of the artists I hyped last Friday.

manhattan short film fest tonight and tomorrow

MN Film Arts will be screening the Manhattan Short Film Festival tonight and tomorrow:

Film lovers in Minneapolis will get the chance to unite with audiences spanning 6 continents this week in watching and then voting for the short film - from 10 selected - they think should become the winner of the AnnualMANHATTAN SHORT Film Festival to take place at the St. Anthony Main Theatre on October 1 & 2. 

I can't embed the trailer in this post (angry face), but if you go to their site you could watch it there. You can catch the fest at St Anthony tonight and tomorrow at 7.

music in motion at fine line tonight

It's Day 3 of the Twin Cities Film Fest tonight, and there's a special showing at the Fine Line starting at 7.  Music in Motion showcases locally-made music videos and even some live performances, all for $10/$12.  Check it out tonight.

Between the bands, we will be screening music video premieres from

Greg Hubacek and Victor Rukavina – DOOMTREE
Phil Harder – THE STAR FOLK
Andrew Melby – TOKI WRIGHT
Jon Thompson – CLOUD CULT
Justin Staggs – THE MELISMATICS
Shane Nelson – SICK OF SARAH
Walter Pitt – THE SPECTACULARS
Joe Brandmeier – READY GOES
Arlo Myron – CULTURE CRY WOLF
Adam Zuehlke – MATT DODGE AND THE LOBSTERS
Jesse Roesler – Rockumentary – Man & Machine: Godried and Moniek’s Naked Robotic Orchestra – SNEAK PREVIEW!

twin cities film fest kicks off... last night

Yesterday began the inaugural Twin Cities Film Festival.  Things started off with the documentary Waiting For Superman screening at the Mall of America followed by a Q&A with the film's director, Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth).  The 5-day festival continues tonight with three screenings, including Nowhere Boy and locally-made Phasma Ex Machina playing at Block E and the first screening in their Mexican films program, Sin Retorno, playing at the Mall of America.

There was a feature on this festival in Sunday's Strib by movie critic Colin Covert, and I must say it seems he was biting his tongue just a little bit [I'd link to the article, but it's locked for those who don't subscribe to the rag].  For example, sub headers that say "Organizer insists that yes, we do need a new film fest," suggest there's a fair amount of skepticism surrounding this event.  I'd have to count myself as one questioning the need for such a program.  I'll let the Strib article explain my thoughts on this (emphasis mine):

No one could argue that there is a shortage of such events here.  There's the huge Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival... the music-oriented Sound Unseen... specialized Polish, gay, Arab, black, Jewish, Italian and French series, the globetrotting Beyond Borders lineup, even a Bicycle Film Festival.  Some observers would argue that we're already at the saturation point.

Attendance and coverage of the aforementioned events are depressingly sparse, making the need for a "come-one, come-all festival" seem exaggerated.  I would believe it to be very worthwhile for someone to better promote and connect the numerous niche festivals that are already in place, leading to better coverage and attendance for these important and focused cultural events.

Covert's skepticism continues:

Most of the major films are scheduled to arrive in theaters over the next few weeks or months.

Last night, for the price $25, you could've have driven down to Bloomington to view the premiere film.  Or you could wait till Friday when the movie opens up at the Lagoon and catch it for $9.

I don't want to be too much of a downer on this festival, because there are definitely a few worthwhile events, most of which are of the locally-produced variety.  In addition to tonight's Phasma Ex Machina, there are two other feature-length Minnesota-made films, and I'm sure to attend their "Music In Motion" program screening at the Fine Line tomorrow night.

Besides, starting a festival of this size is by no means an easy task.  I'm holding out hope that this year's fest is mostly a chance for the organizers to get their feet wet, stake out their claim in the metro area's film scene, and hopefully expand on their mission and focus in the years to come.

tcff films slowly being unveiled

The Twin Cities Film Festival is taking their sweet time announcing the lineup for their inaugural fest taking place this month.  Just recently they announced the films in their Mexican Cinema program, and their opening film is Waiting For "Superman," a documentary on the state of education in the United States.  That seems like an interesting choice for an opening film, considering the movie will be showing at area Landmark theaters around the same time.  But in any case, the $25 ticket will get you access to the opening night party as well as a chance to hear the director speak and answer questions before and after the film.

I'll point out a couple of films that have peaked my interest thus far, before I send you head first into the entire program.  Checking out shorts programs in festivals is never really a risky bet, and there should be some particularly strong showings in both their Minnesota Shorts series as well as Music in Motion, the latter of which also includes live music performances.

One feature that looks particularly promising, if only for its impressive festival showings across the country, is Night Catches Us.  Taking place in 1976 Philadelphia, we follow a black panther in the midst of a love affair and an organization that's become increasingly disconnected with the same social movement it's looking to uphold.  The movie played to favorable reviews at Sundance, Seattle, and New York's Film Society of Lincoln Center, which is no small feat considering its competition.

Also of interest to me is the documentary Streetball.   Truthfully, I've heard nothing about this film from a film-lover's perspective that warrants special attention.  But as a former soccer player racked with liberal guilt, the idea of a homeless world cup is more than enough to get me to the theater.

I'll post more thoughts on the festival as we get closer to the opening date of Sept 28.  In the meantime, peruse the films for yourself.