FanFare

[TRAILER] Daniel Johnston, manic-depressive genius singer/songwriter/artist is revealed in this portrait of madness, creativity and love. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Aug 7, 2023 - 1 comment

[TRAILER] At 14, best friends Robb Reiner and Lips made a pact to rock together forever. Their band, Anvil, hailed as the "demi-gods of Canadian metal" influenced a musical generation that includes Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax. Following a calamitous European tour, Lips and Robb, now in their fifties, set off to record their 13th album in one last attempt to fulfill their boyhood dreams. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Aug 7, 2023 - 8 comments

[TRAILER] The story of the Black queer origins of rock n' roll. It explodes the whitewashed canon of American pop music to reveal the innovator - the originator - Richard Penniman. Through a wealth of archive and performance that brings us into Richard's complicated inner world, the film unspools the icon's life story with all its switchbacks and contradictions. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Aug 7, 2023 - 1 comment

[TRAILER] A look at the life of activist, musician, and cultural icon Kathleen Hanna, who formed the punk band Bikini Kill and pioneered the "riot grrrl" movement of the 1990s. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Aug 7, 2023 - 3 comments

Two South Africans set out to discover what happened to their unlikely musical hero, the mysterious 1970s rock n roller, Rodriguez. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Aug 7, 2023 - 7 comments

A documentary on the once promising American rock bands The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. The friendship between respective founders, Anton Newcombe and Courtney Taylor, escalated into bitter rivalry as the Dandy Warhols garnered major international success while the Brian Jonestown Massacre imploded in a haze of drugs. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Aug 7, 2023 - 8 comments

[TRAILER] Follows jazz legend Billie Holiday (Andra Day) during her career as she is targeted by the Federal Department of Narcotics with an undercover sting operation led by black Federal Agent Jimmy Fletcher, with whom she has a tumultuous affair. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Aug 7, 2023 - 2 comments

[TRAILER] Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) and Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning), two rebellious teenagers from Southern California, become the frontwomen for the Runaways -- the now-legendary group that paved the way for future generations of female rockers. Under the Svengalilike influence of impresario Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon), the band becomes a huge success, with Joan as the band's hard-rocking heart, and Cherie as the sex kitten. However, the teens' stormy relationship threatens the band's future. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Aug 7, 2023 - 6 comments

[TRAILER] Director Clint Eastwood, a noted jazz aficionado, directs this heartfelt study of pioneering bop saxophonist Charlie Parker (Forest Whitaker). Moving forward and backward through Parker's brief life before his death of a heroin overdose at age 34, the film foregrounds the saxophonist's difficult relationship with his wife, Chan Parker (Diane Venora), but also features lengthy scenes of Parker improvising on stage, lit with the neon and cigarette smoke of vintage jazz clubs. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Aug 7, 2023 - 2 comments

The final 17 years of American singer and musician Karen Carpenter, performed almost entirely by modified Barbie dolls. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Aug 7, 2023 - 5 comments

A biography of Huddie Ledbetter (Roger E. Mosley), this drama follows the life of the highly influential African-American blues singer and guitarist, who was better known as "Leadbelly." The trouble-prone musician frequently ended up working on chain gangs, and, when not incarcerated, he sometimes traveled around with fellow renowned blues man Blind Lemon Jefferson (Art Evans). The film shows how Leadbelly dealt with the racism of his era and found some degree of peace in his music. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Aug 7, 2023 - 1 comment

[TRAILER] In 1970s England, troubled musician Ian Curtis (Sam Riley) rises to fame as lead singer of the band Joy Division. A husband and father, Curtis begins to feel the strain of his band's growing fortune, his crumbling marriage to wife Deborah (Samantha Morton) and his worsening epilepsy. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Aug 7, 2023 - 1 comment