I was invited to assist and talk a bit about the Inedit-Nescafé of this year, and these are the films that I saw. Take a look at the gallery and tell me what other musical documentaries and films have you seen this year and what did you think of them.
The Punk Singer (2013)
Band, Artist or Music Genre Represented: Kathleen Hannah.
Kathleen is a force of unstoppable punk power and it's too great of a subject for her to be subjected to one documentary. That's what happens, it's a very very conventional film about a non-conventional person, and I think if that enormous force that she had and still has in her life to continue doing what she likes and wants to say the things she wants to say, this documentary is not enough, but at least it instructed me into who she was, what Bikini Kill and Le Tigre was, and while I think I would much prefer the earlier installment of her music as well as her solo album, I remember seeing many friends liking Le Tigre, and myself listening and finding it pretty meh. Still, even the watered down Kathleen is better than this documentary, that while informative, doesn't achieve much else than a biography and a way of explanining why she left the stages a few years ago.
Narco Cultura (2013)
Band, Artist or Music Genre Represented: Narco Corridos.
This documentary knows exactly what it's doing, where it's going and what it needs to address. With a particularly conventional point of view, it nevertheless manages to create some amazing questions about how this documentary was made, the access and the things that were filmed. There are two stories, or at least perspectives flowing here, there's the events in the city of Juarez, a city I don't know how it stands up nowadays, how it even manages to be alive and survive, much like the people who get killed left and right by the people of the drug cartels. And then there's a band based in the USA that sings "Narco Corrido" a song sometimes commisioned or in tribute of the bands or specific people from the narco mobs, glorifying their killings and the deaths that they use to achieve it. It's incredible to see that juxtaposition of euforia with ultimate sadness, it gives you a lot to think about, a lot.
Los Rockers: Rebelde Rock and Roll (2012)
Band, Artist or Music Genre Represented: Los Rockers.
Los Rockers is the first rockabilly band of Chile, or so they say when you ask them. After many years of singing and playing their music they think they've had it, they finally have the chance to gather some money and visit Mexico, where they think that they'll find the success and fame that they deserve. Though a bit strange to see a documentary directed by who was the drummer of the band, it still manages to be harsh and direct towards what it's about, about the desintegration of the friendship of the people who form it, how the compromises made were broken and why the power and the illusion of fame is so important for such a small and poor band. It has some issues in the visual sense, it's filmed with less rigurosity than most of the documentaries shown in the festival, though it did win last year's festival in the Chilean competition. This was shown again as part of the 10th anniversary celebration.
En busca del piano perdido (2012)
Band, Artist or Music Genre Represented: Enrique Soro
Another film of the Chilean competition, this time of this year, and I'm just wondering why was this film chosen, and maybe it's because there's not much else being produced in Chile in terms of films based around musicians of this country. This is based around Enrique Soro, an unknown composer of classic music that died in the 50's, and whose partitures have been uncovered just recently, as well as concerts made around him. While really interesting as a subject of discovery and reappraisal, the film avoids anything interesting and just tries to show the music, and that's where it fails, it's edited with scissors and glue, using showy After Effects special effects to show the text and the way that the images open and change, it's edited by someone who's clearly never seen Tv, film or anything of the like, it couldn't have possibly been worse edited and worsely filmed. It's a shame for a subject that could've been interesting to be put to shame simply because the filmmaker wasn't... you know, a filmmaker.
No hay revolución sin canción (2013)
Band, Artist or Music Genre Represented: The New Brave Song of Chile.
Violeta Parra and Víctor Jara are among the most famous singers of Chile and they were part of a movement that was ended when the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet started, that's when a new song appeared, a song that was made in secret, a music that came from Chileans overseas who tried to influence the people inside the dictatorship to fight and confront the powers. This documentary gathers a bunch of singers and composers of that era to try to come up with a reason for music to exist, and it's a great treat for the people who like that kind of music, me included though I didn't live the dictatorship (thank God), as with the audience I found myself singing some of the most popular songs of that time, specially "El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido" that has become the anthem of the Communist Party in many parts of the world, specially those who speak spanish. The documentary is good for that, but it's also quite slow when it comes to actually show what happened in Chile.
20 Feet From Stardom (2013)
Band, Artist or Music Genre Represented: Back up singers.
Well, I'm not sure now. Why is this documentary any different from every other well made documentary about music? I mean, it's not bad, it's actually really inspiring, it has some incredible interview subjects, it has Velvet Underground as the first song, yeah, it's a winner, but it's also an interview documentary like about another couple of thousands that get made every year, and while I'm not allergic to the genre, I am quickly going the Mike D'Angelo way and finding them less and less original every time. Here though they do come forward with some interesting elements, like the songs and the music and how they sing for the documentary at times, as well as how the whole thing is edited in an interesting enough manner for it to be kinda compelling. It does make you want to be a singer, and that's sad for me, because my voice sucks.
Variaciones espectrales (2013)
Band, Artist or Music Genre Represented: José Vicente Asuar
Starting almost like an experimental short, this documentary then evolves (or devolves) into a standard discovery documentary about José Vicente Asuar, the first experimental musician from Chile, who made in the 60's the first "songs" using electronic apparatus, as well as computers and other elements to create electronic sounds, he is like the grandfather of Latinamerican electronic music, he still lives, disappointed that he didn't manage to make a revolution in the way of how to create new sounds and compositions, even though he hand crafted a computer in the 70's made exclusively to compose music with beeps and boops and spectral sounds, just as he described them. This documentary won the Chilean competition and deserved it, it's the best of the bunch that was nominated for the prize, and it's the one that carries the most visual interest as well as have the most incredible stories.
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Band, Artist or Music Genre Represented: Folk Music
Incredible and probably in my top 3 or 5 favorite Coen Bros films, just because it's so tonally perfect in almost every sense of the film, the cinematography, the soundtrack and the acting were all in synchrony, and while the ultimate object of certain elements of the film are rather obscure and open for interpretation, the fact that they are there don't come in negatively to the enjoyment of the final film. There are moments of pure illumination and darkness in the moments of the life of Llewyn Davis that we see, as well as moments of simple emotional explosion in the audience. Personally, I couldn't stop laughing after Llewyn yelled "WHY NOT?!", it was so unexpected, so funny and at the same time filled with a sense of dread and negativity that was amazing to experience in the midst of the laughs.