Here are some highlights from the Tenth Anniversary NXNE Film Festival:
NXNE Film is thrilled to present the Canadian premiere of Kunst-Camera: J.X. Williams’ Cabinet of Curiosities as the Gala Film of NXNE Film 2011.
Cabinet of Curiosities indeed...
This coveted film is a rare look at the work of legendary avant-garde director J.X. Williams, acknowledged as a huge influence on Tarantino and Scorcese and as a pioneering director of 1970’s L.A. punk-rock videos – but infamous for his films’ incendiary content: Kunst-Camera sparked a police crackdown at this year’s Slamdance Film Festival.
Trailer:
The Mats: Achin' To Be is still one of our faves
Also a Canadian premiere, this film is an obsessive tale about the ’80s American band The Replacements. Director Gorman Berchard cuts together interviews with fans, friends, and peers for a riveting documentary about one of the most influential – but least celebrated – rock bands of all time.
Trailer:
Better Than Something: Jay Reatard.
Jay Reatard: the late great
NXNE’s third 2011 Canadian premiere, is the long-awaited intimate portrait of the complicated yet prolific low-fi rock icon at the height of his career. The film features candid, never-before-seen footage of Reatard at his home in April of 2009 – just months before his death.
Trailer:
Other films confirmed to date include:
Bloodied but Unbowed - This engaging film tackles the first wave of Vancouver’s punk scene with all its respect and urgency. The film asks questions about innocence and rebellion and why some people just cannot fit into society’s norms. (Director Susanne Tabata in attendance).
Trailer:
Road Dogs – Director: Shane Aquino *Canadian Premiere Three of Los Angeles’s craziest bands—Heavenly Trip to Hell, Kettle Cadaver, and the Peppermint Creeps—tour America, learning hard lessons about the difference between being hometown heroes and being out-of-town weirdoes wearing stacked heels in the backwaters of Indiana.
You Can’t Sing It For Them – Directors: Jacqueline C. Richard and Margot E. Fassler *Canadian Premiere This documentary profiles the struggle of the new Director of Music at a 120-year-old Messiah Baptist Church as he attempts to reorganize its deteriorating choir program while presenting a history of African American sacred music. TRAILER
Player Hating: A Love Story – Director: Maggie Hadleigh-West *Canadian Premiere Player Hating follows hip hop artist Half-a-Mill and his Brooklyn crew as they fight to escape hardship and bloodshed through music in the Albany Housing Projects. TRAILER
Beatboxing: The Fifth Element of Hip Hop – Director: Klaus Schneyder *Canadian Premiere Poor, and lacking any instruments, a young artist is inspired to imitate drum rhythms with his mouth – creating the term and genre “Human Beatbox.” Beatboxing shows how this modern style of music, a true art form, has enriched the entertainment world. TRAILER
Sand Mountain – Director: Kathryn McCool *Canadian Premiere On a solo journey to the American south to meet reclusive musician Cast King, photographer Kathryn McCool attempts to find the America she conceived as a youth and created in her own backyard in rural New Zealand. Comparing what she discovers with what she had imagined, Sand Mountain is a strange homecoming of sorts. TRAILER
6Ft Hick: Notes From the Underground -Director: Marty Monihan – A behind-the-scenes music doc that reveals the messy, all-too-human face of the low-budget music scene of Australia in strak contrast to the perceived glamour of an internationally touring rock band. TRAILER
Below New York A unique and stylized look at some of New York City’s finest subway performers, musicians and artists. Through a series of polished vignettes, the film draws the audience into the amazing lives these local performers lead, and how their quest for a venue and sustenance adds a truly wonderful aesthetic to one of the greatest cities in the world. TRAILER
Blaze Foley: Duct Tape Messiah – Director: Kevin Triplett – A documentary about the doomed poet whose life was a country song. Born in a tree house, killed in a friend’s living room and 86’d from his own funeral, Blaze Foley is now a bona fide Texas legend. His heartfelt, funny and political songs are covered by Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, John Prine, Lyle Lovett, Joe Nichols and in concert by the Kings of Leon. This new documentary from Austin, 12 years in the making, offers the intimate portrait of an artist who struggled for recognition and died defending an elderly friend. TRAILER
Buskers - Director: Andrew Ponton – Old acquaintances meet as competing street musicians, but can they settle their differences for auld lang syne?
Disposable Film Festival – Director: Various *Canadian Premiere The Disposable Film Festival supports and celebrates the democratization of cinema made possible by new, inexpensive video technology, offering a legitimate forum in which the work of zero-budget and non-traditional filmmakers is taken seriously. They will showcase the best of the best at NXNE! TRAILER
Dive & Diminution – Director: Kyle Maguire *World Premiere A look into the problem within Toronto’s ailing punk scene. Will it flourish like it once did or will the lack of venues and attendance force it to make a drastic change?
Dreaming of The Past – Director: Sabine Golz – A Russian-American early music expert goes to Ukraine to teach early music performance. He finds out that there is no such music there – but discovers the country’s folk songs and vocal liturgy, not well known anywhere else.
Elvis Pelvis – Director: Kevin Aduaka – A story told in two parts; “THE SUIT” tells of Ten-year-old Elvis who lives under the tyranny of his father —a stern policeman who is obsessed with the legacy of Elvis Presley. “THE MESSIAH” takes place 17 years later and tells of Derek, a disturbed recluse who also loves Hendrix, and pretends to be the long-lost son of a dying patriarch. TRAILER
Frozen Music – Director: Jamie Way *World Premiere A Toronto based composer discovers a historic treasure and pays homage to Goethe’s famous quote ‘Architecture is frozen music’. This intriguing exploration of a monument that houses the largest pipe organ in Canada and the oldest carillon in North America, shows us that Toronto is much more than the Wall Street of Canada. TRAILER
High on Hope - Director: Piers Sanderson – Set against Britain’s economic decline it re-defined crowd policing tactics, prompted the governments revision of The Criminal Justice Act and gave birth to a soundtrack that would irrevocably changed the face of dance music. TRAILER
Hip Hop Mum – Director: Mina Shum – When two alpha supermoms dispute over a parking spot, they quickly reveal their secret identities and it’s a hip hop mom dance battle royal! An irreverent ode to moms everywhere—complete with slow motion punches and fancy footwork!
If I’m Not Home: Ron Cooper, A Jazz Life – Director: Dustin Grove - Ron Cooper, Chicago jazz vocalist, pianist, drummer and songwriter, almost succeeded in burying his own legend. A peerless scat-singer who performed in clubs including the venerable Green Mill, he struggled with alcoholism and homelessness in his final years. The film includes some remarkable late career performances in the course of telling Cooper’s story, as well as interviews with a range of Chicago jazz insiders. TRAILER
Ivory Tower - Director: Adam Traynor - An existentialist sports comedy about chess and success starring Chilly Gonzales, the amateur actor, brilliantly flanked by a charmingly villainous Tiga (as his brother), and the inimitable Peaches as their love interest. TRAILER
Jandek on Corwood – Director: Chad Freidrichs – A documentary about veteran reclusive folk/blues artist Jandek. TRAILER
Journey of a Dream – Director: Shenpenn Khymsar – A feature length documentary that takes audiences on an epic, global journey into heavy metal music, exile, Buddhism and Tibetan roots. TRAILER
Made In Birmingham: Reggae Punk Bhangra - Director: Deborah Aston – Exploring the social, political and cultural issues that gave rise to music emanating from the city using rare archive footage and interviews to shed new insight into the city and its music.
Matatu Express – Director: Colm Hogan *World Premiere Matatu Express is an independent documentary film about the everyday struggles of next generation slum dwellers in Kibera; one of Africa’s largest slums in Nairobi, Kenya. TRAILER
MTL Punk: The First Wave – Director: Erik Cimon & Alain Cliche - When the punk movement reached Montreal in 1977, it ignited the passions of young people who were forever changed by it. Thirty years later, some of the players from this momentous time give a surprisingly frank account of their experiences at this key period in their lives—the music and the drugs, as well as a burning need to do things differently. TRAILER
Mutual Appreciation - Director: Andrew Bujalski - Alan (Justin Rice), a musician whose band has just broken up, shows up in New York to support his burgeoning rock and roll career. He starts by searching for a drummer for a show he’s already lined up and otherwise goes about the mechanics of self-promotion. TRAILER
My House Stood in Sulukule – Director: Astrid Heubrandtner - The film depicts Sulukule, a run-down district in Istanbul and the home of nearly 40 entertainment houses which were popular with Turks and tourists until the 90s, as an example for the numerous urban renewal and gentrification projects world-wide and their social consequences.
Noise and Resistance: Voices From the DIY Underground – Director: Julia Ostertag and Francesca Araiza Andrade - Noise and Resistance is an inspiring journey through Europe’s contemporary utopia, to subcultural places of desire where unity derives from autonomy along with the best punk sound heard for years. TRAILER
Notes From The Kuerti Keyboard - Director: David Eng and Katarina Soukup *Toronto Premiere Legendary Canadian pianist Anton Kuerti ‘performs’ the Scherzo from Beethoven’s Piano Sonata no. 18 on an antique Underwood.
Paul Quarrington: Life In Music – Director: Bert Kish – A cinematic essay featuring Paul Quarrington, a renaissance artist whose works spanned many arts disciplines, as he comes to terms with a sudden development in his real life, all through the power of music. Along the way to these answers, he – and we – make discoveries about the human spirit. TRAILER
Protect The Nation – Director: CR Reisser - When faced with the unexpected kindness of a stranger, a young boy begins to question himself. Does he have the courage to do what’s right?
Rainman Goes To Rockwiz -Director: Russell Kilbey - Mark Borebach has Asperger’s Syndrome and people with Asperger’s Syndrome are specialists. Mark’s specialty is instantaneously recalling 70s and 80s music charts. Ask him what the Top 5 was on the 16th April 1982…Mark will tell you in an instant. Mark appears on “Rockwiz”, a rollicking rock’n’roll quiz show that airs on SBS television. Does he blitz the show? TRAILER
Red Shirley – Director: Lou Reed - On the eve of her 100th birthday, rock musician Lou Reed interviewed his cousin Shirley Novick—immigrant garment worker, labour activist, and participant in the 1963 March on Washington. Shot by photographer Ralph Gibson and featuring an original soundtrack composed by Reed, Red Shirley is a loving tribute to this living embodiment of the 20th century. TRAILER
Shlemiel – Director: Chad Derrick - A group of Orthodox Jews form a rock band and hit the Toronto club scene, including the NXNE Discovery Series at the SIlver Dollar – with a cameo by local legend Dan Burke.
Stephen Faulkner: I Ain’t Gonna Leave - Director: Sarah Fortin – Faulkner decides to tour again with a young group. On the road between Quebec City and Montreal, through rehearsals and shows, Faulkner lets us know that against all odds, he’s back. TRAILER
The Rise and Fall and Rise of Sensational – Director: Elizabeth A. Moore *North American Premiere The film chronicles the life and music of Colin Julius Bobb, aka Sensational. Described as part rapper, part genius, and part extraterrestrial, this consummate artist lives completely in his own reality. He’s also one of the most bizarre, paradoxical, and creative names in hip-hop, a true character whose self-destructive tendencies and unique worldview come to the fore in this comical yet moving documentary. TRAILER
Upside Down: The Creation Records Story – Director: Danny O’Conner - The story of the legendary Creation Records label as told by the people who were there. Featuring all the big names as well as nearly everyone else who made Creation Records into the last great British Rock and Roll label. TRAILER
Violent Days – Director: Lucile Chaufour - A group of friends living in Paris, 1950s French rock ‘n roll and rockabilly, too much beer, and the inevitable violence. TRAILER
William S Burroughs: A Man Within – Director: Yony Leyser - The film features never before seen footage of William S. Burroughs, as well as exclusive interviews with his closest friends and colleagues including John Waters, Genesis P-Orridge, Laurie Anderson, Peter Weller, David Cronenberg, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Gus Van Sant, Sonic Youth, Anne Waldman, Hal Willner, James Grauerholz, Amiri Baraka, Jello Biafra, V. Vale, Diane DiPrima, with narration by actor Peter Weller and soundtrack by Patti Smith and Sonic Youth. TRAILER
Fans can attend NXNE Film screenings one of four ways:
- with an NXNE Priority Pass
- with an NXNE wristband (5-day or 1-day)
- with an NXNE Film Festival-only wristband
- buy paying single-film admission charge at the door ($10 in nearly all cases)
Click here to buy passes or wristbands.
