This superbly curated festival is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year and returns to Dukes at Komedia and the Duke of York’s from 27th to 29th October. Sadly, due to a funding cut, the film selection is a little smaller this year but, as ever, contains some of the best pre-release music documentaries from around the globe with director Q&As following most screenings.
See below for the full listings.
LOST ANGEL: THE GENIUS OF JUDEE SILL
Dukes at Komedia, Friday 27th October, 6:30pm
Dirs. Brian Lindstrom, Andy Brown, US, 2023, 90 min
The film charts the vertiginous arc of Judee’s life from a deeply troubled adolescence of abuse, addiction and prison through her meteoric rise in the music world. She went from living in a car with four others sleeping in shifts to appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone in four years. Yet, for Judee, success and happiness were fleeting. While her singular sound was critically adored, her albums did not sell. Although she continued to write and record, Judee was injured in an auto accident which put her in constant pain and forced her to rely again on narcotics. She died of an overdose in 1979.
At its core, this film is an intimate portrait of a musical artist, largely, told by Judee herself. Through recorded interviews, concert intros and entries in her personal journal the film provides deep access to the source of her unique musical creativity and to the darker recesses of her struggles with addiction. Additional interviews with friends and contemporaries, including Graham Nash, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne and David Geffen give a first-hand experience of Judee’s personality, talents and struggles. Ultimately, it is a story of redemption. While not finding a large audience in her lifetime, Judee’s music has been rediscovered inspiring some top musicians today. Here the film features Adrienne Lenker (Big Thief), Natalie Mering (Weyes Blood) and Shawn Colvin to help bring to life Judee’s core belief that you could “save someone through music”.
BLUES RUN THE GAME: THE STRANGE TALE OF JACKSON C. FRANK + Q&A
Dukes at Komedia, Saturday 28th October, 4pm
Dir. Damien Aimé Dupont, US, 2023, 84 min
Amidst Soho’s flourishing folk scene of the mid-60s, Jackson C. Frank released a masterpiece album, produced by fellow American expat Paul Simon. Jackson was close to Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel and was a vital musical influence for so many, like Bert Jansch, Nick Drake, Counting Crows, Graham Coxon, John Mayer and Laura Marling. However, after the release of his album, he disappeared without a trace. With physical disabilities and severe PTSD as a result of a childhood tragedy, his mental health deteriorated. While absent, his musical influence greatly increased over the years. That’s when a young music fan decided to seek him out. This film follows in Frank’s footsteps to unknot the threads of a unique artist with a dire fate.
FREE PARTY: A FOLK HISTORY + Q&
Duke of York’s, Saturday 28th October, 6:30pm (free aftershow at the Rose Hill)
Dir. Aaron Trinder, UK, 2023, 107 mins
A DIY indie film that follows the birth of the free party movement in the late 80s and early 90s UK and the social, political and cultural impact it’s had on our present times. For Tories, the movement’s DIY anti-consumerist lifestyles, prophetic environmental, radical direct action anti-road protest and animal welfare beliefs threatened the foundations of the state. The film explores the inception of the movement, a meeting between urban ravers and the new age travellers during Thatcher’s last days in power, and the explosive years that followed, leading up to the infamous Castlemorton free festival in 1992 – the largest ever illegal rave, which provoked the drastic change of the laws of trespass with the notorious introduction of the Criminal Justice Act in 1994. Eschewing tired formulaic film-making styles and tokenistic big name DJ soundbites, this exhilarating modern day folktale is told exclusively by those who were in the thick of it and features interviews with members of Spiral Tribe, DiY Sound System, Bedlam and many others.
TLC FOREVER
Dukes at Komedia, Saturday 28th October, 8pm
Dir. Matt Kay, UK,2023, 90 mins
In 1991 Tionne ‘T-Boz’ Watkins, Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes, and Rozonda ‘Chilli’ Thomas form legendary TLC; a music group that has experienced more highs and lows than most. From bankruptcy and fallouts to illness and death, heartbreak and controversy have followed TLC’s
career just as much as the momentous successes. What starts out as a manufactured group, picked by ex-manager-turned-nemesis Pebbles, quickly flourishes into a sisterhood. A blend of funk, hip hop and r’n’b, their sound and identity have evolved but they’ve always maintained
their political edge. Now, nearly thirty years on, the group still strives to reach new heights. Through archive, verite and interview we dive into TLC’s world, both their past and present, seeing all the twists and turns thus far and exploring the legacy they continue to build.
LET THE CANARY SING: CYNDI LAUPER
Dukes at Komedia, Sunday 29th October, 2pm
Dir. Alison Ellwood, UK, 2023, 96 min
Follow Cyndi as she fearlessly blazes her own trail after achieving chart-topping success in her 30s and continuing to create, innovate, and champion her beliefs four decades later. With exclusive never-before-seen footage, candid interviews, and untold stories, the movie also shines a light on her activism, highlighting her unrelenting support for women’s and LGBTQ rights. The film features interviews with some of Cyndi’s closest friends and family members, including Boy George, Billy Porter, and Patti LaBelle. Director Alison Ellwood leaves the audience in awe of this groundbreaking artist’s unparalleled impact on the music industry.
EVEN HELL HAS ITS HEROES: EARTH
Dukes at Komedia, Sunday 29th October, 4:30pm
Dir. Clyde Petersen. US, 2023, 110 mins
Since 1989, the slowest metal band on Earth has made for some of music’s most striking tectonic changes. Not only did the band Earth create a glacially paced subgenre of metal and play a pivotal role in the popularisation of grunge, but visionary leader Dylan Carlson also
did it while battling small-town boredom, heroin addiction, and the tragic death of his roommate and best friend, Kurt Cobain. Despite the high volume of the band’s beloved and beautiful drone metal, Earth have rarely spoken out. For the first time, in a moving saga that respects the music as much as the ragtag cast of working-class eccentrics and surreal Pacific Northwest majesty that shaped it, Clyde Petersen gets to the core of the could-have-been-tragic triumph of Earth, the slow band that changed everything it touched.
Tickets are on sale now from Dukes at Komedia.
Remaining tickets for FREE PARTY: A FOLK HISTORY at Duke of York’s are available at the box office or here.
