NXNE has announced new programming as part of the NXNE Film Festival, including six Canadian premieres and eight world premieres. NXNE Film will screen more than 40 movies from June 11-17, 2012 at the NFB Mediatheque, Royal Cinema, and Toronto Underground Cinema.
Check out the Schedulizer for all screening information.
TICKETS
Fans can attend NXNE Film screenings one of four ways:
- With a NXNE wristband (full-festival or 1-day)
- With a NXNE Priority, Duo or Mundo Combo Pass
- With a NXNE Film Festival-only wristband
- By paying a single-film admission charge at the door ($10 in nearly all cases)
Click here to buy all above passes or wristbands.
FILMS:
Addictions
Amos The Transparent – “Sure As The Weather”: Making A Music Video
Ages and Stages: The Story Of The Meligrove Band
The Ballad Of Danko Jones
The Ballad Of Hugh
Been Good To Know Yuh
Bring On The Mountain
Cassini Mission
“Come On” – Preacher’s Son
Dan’s Chelsea Guitars: A Neighborhood Music Store For The Whole World
“Dead Weight” – Famous Underground
Disposable Film Festival 2012 Competitive Shorts
Down: Indie Rock In The PRC
Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy
Embracing Voices: The Woman Behind The Music Of Jane Bunnett
Fugitives: Wax Live
Genius Within: The Inner Life Of Glenn Gould
Going Deaf For Nothing – The Story of A Rock N’ Roll Band
Ghostface Killah & Toronto’s Apollo Kids
Happily Dysfunctional: The Story of Transistor 66 Records
Hole In The World
Inside The Perfect Circle: The Odyssey Of Joel Thome
Jim Talks
Jobriath AD
KMS – Jewish Negroes
Letting Go
The Light That Died In My Arms
Master Plan
Memphis Psychosis
“Misguided” – Jennifer Castle
My Father And The Man In Black
My Hometown / I Met The Walrus
Nightingales In December
Once In A Lullaby: The PS22 Chorus Story
Persecution Blues: The Battle for The Tote
Polaroid Song
Randy Parsons: American Luthier
Rising Above The Blues
Så Jävla Metal – The History Of Swedish Hard Rock And Heavy Metal
Slaughter Nick For President
“Somebody That I Used To Know” – Animal Nation
Sudden Flashes of Light
“Wait For Amateur” – Chris Connelly
What Did You Expect? The Archers Of Loaf At Cat’s Cradle
INFO:
Addictions
D: Giovanni Bucci
2 mins
The video is about addictions, mainly to technology, but it’s open to various interpretations. Years ago the idea behind technology was to give people more free time from work and give us a better life. So nowadays, with the possibility for the majority of people to have access to electronics and hi tech, is it true that we have more spare time and a better quality of life? Or have we become addicted to the technology that surrounds us everyday and it has suck us into it? But humans get addicted really easily to a lot of things in life and this video is also a metaphor about addictions in general, about being manipulated without even realizing it or without reacting.
Amos The Transparent – “Sure As The Weather”: Making A Music Video
D: Gavin Michael Booth
14 mins
World Premiere
Gavin Michael Booth in attendance
This documentary offers audiences a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse into Ottawa band Amos The Transparent and their crew’s efforts to achieve a single-take music video.
Ages And Stages: The Story Of The Meligrove Band
D: Brendan McCarney
89 mins
Ages And Stages takes a raw but heartening look at the frustrations of The Meligrove Band, one of the best but most overlooked bands in Canada. Follow the band ‘s three core members, who have been together for fifteen years despite weathering all kinds of colossal bad luck, legal wrangling, being in the “wrong place at the wrong time” and the ever-present feeling that it might just be time to hang it up.
The Ballad Of Danko Jones
D: The Diamond Bros.
24 mins
The Diamond Bros. in attendance
Short film.
“In the high pressure world of Rock and Roll sometimes a wrong move can turn deadly. The boys have made a crucial error in their latest mission. They are left with no choice but to go on the run and start a chain of events that will have them fighting for their lives. They will stop at nothing to climb all the way to the top to destroy The Outfit and the employers they once served.”
The Ballad Of Hugh
D: Marco DiFelice
63 mins
World Premiere
Poet, musician, novelist and sculptor Hugh Oliver may be an octogenarian, but he dreams the dreams of an 18-year-old. This is the story of a complete unknown trying to make it in the youth-obsessed entertainment biz, along with the rest of the up-and-comers out there. Centering on a golden day of recording at Canterbury Studios, where some of Toronto’s top musicians help to bring Hugh’s songs to life, the film is interwoven with interviews, animation, and music videos. Through his stories and lyrics, and with an incredible amount of candour and charm, Hugh teaches us that any age is a good age to dream, to play, to write, to learn. A tale of friendship and artistic endeavor, The Ballad of Hugh is a heart-warming, inspirational documentary that sheds a hopeful, lyrical light on the realities of ageing.
Bring On The Mountain
D: The Diamond Bros.
92 mins
The Diamond Bros. in attendance
A documentary on Danko Jones:
“It’s a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll. Prophetic words that some may dismiss as merely lyrics. Danko Jones take this mantra to heart and live them like a word delivered from the rock and roll temple mount. This is a tale of hard fought success, European domination and even some bloodletting. If you ever wanted to know how to do it right this is your handbook.”
Been Good To Know Yuh
D: Corey Brandenstein
24 mins
Canadian Premiere
Plagued by a degenerative neurological disease and facing his own mortality, America’s Father of Folk Music, Woody Guthrie, relives a handful of life shaping occurrences while waiting for his closest friend, Cisco Houston, to show up for one last drink.
Cassini Mission
D: Chris Abbas
2 mins
The imagery captured by the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft is re-imagined in this ode to man’s boundless curiosity and unyielding desire to explore the great unknown.
“Come On” – Preacher’s Son
D: Vittoria Colonna Di Stigliano
3 mins
Canadian Premiere
A gorgeous renegade bride hits a notorious Dublin inner city pub. The band play with a frenzy, the punters stare in disbelieve as she proceeds to misbehave, provoking, teasing and goading both men and woman, shocking them all and causing havoc. Her newly wed husband eventually catches up with her and even butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.
“Dead Weight” – Famous Underground
D: Nick Walsh
5 mins
Nick Walsh in attendance
“Dead Weight” is the new music video from Toronto metal warriors Famous Underground. Led by Nick Walsh the band provide four minutes of straight-out rock which will perfectly set the stage for the full length “Sa Javier Metal – The History Of Swedish Hard Rock and Heavy Metal”. Is there a connection? Of course. In his former band Slik Toxik Nick Walsh once opened for Yngwie Malmsteen who is featured in “Sa Javier”.
Dan’s Chelsea Guitars: A Neighborhood Music Store For The Whole World
D: Daniel Ferry
30 mins
Daniel Ferry in attendance
World Premiere
Dan’s Chelsea Guitars explores a unique small business in a changing city. The small shop, located on 23rd street in Manhattan, hosts a variety of interesting people; while some are there to shop for guitars, others just stop in, “say crazy things, and leave.” Chelsea Guitars is a shop that faces losing its great location in a neighborhood where rents are increasingly expensive, a reality for many small businesses across New York City.
Disposable Film Festival 2012 Competitive Shorts
D: Carlton Evans
Approx. 90 mins
Selected by MovieMaker Magazine as one the world’s “coolest film festivals,” the Disposable Film Festival supports and celebrates the democratization of cinema made possible by new, inexpensive video technology. Disposable offers a legitimate forum in which the work of zero-budget and non-traditional filmmakers is taken seriously and exhibited in theaters around the United States and internationally. Through workshops, competitions, panels, and other events intended to educate and inspire, the Disposable Film Festival promotes experimentation and innovation and helps build the track record needed for a new generation of filmmakers to enter and change the industry.
Down: Indie Rock In The PRC
Dr: Andrew Field and Jud Willmont
50 mins
Canadian Premiere
Andrew Field & Chinese rock expert Jon Cambell in attendance
From underground clubs to outdoor concerts and festivals, Down documents the indie rock music scene in China today and features some of the hottest bands in the PRC. Filmed and narrated by Andrew David Field, it includes interviews with band members, music promoters, and club owners, who are deeply invested in building up China’s indie rock music scene. Set in the context of modern China, the film highlights the disenchantment of youths resisting mainstream society. It touches on universal themes of youthful alienation and freedom of expression, while also highlighting the power of music to bring people together.
Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy
D: Rob Heydon
105 mins
Writer Irvine Welsh will be in attendance
Ecstasy is a dark romantic comedy based on the controversial book (a bestseller in over 20 countries) by Irvine Welsh. The film combines Welsh’s provocative characters and superb storytelling with shocking thrills and dark comedy, taking us on a journey into a crafty, drug-fuelled contemporary satire on modern culture. Shot in Sault Ste. Marie and Toronto, as well as Scotland and Amsterdam, the film follows a romance between Lloyd and Heather against a background of clubbing and drug dealing. Lloyd’s emotional experience is at the heart of this film; every step he takes leads him deeper into the secret world of his faith and love, forcing him to confront himself and his own beliefs and prejudices. Using hand-held cameras, mixing up drama and real life, shooting fast to capture performance and the ever-changing light, the film reflects the hypnotic essence of life that young people face today.
Embracing Voices: The Woman Behind The Music Of Jane Bunnett
D: Elisa Paloschi
68 mins
Elisa Paloschi and Jane Bunnett in attendance
World Premiere
Multiple Juno Award winner, Grammy nominee, recipient of the Order of Canada, jazz luminary Jane Bunnett came back from the brink after facing depression and the fear that she would never be able to make music again. The film follows Jane’s personal and musical journey from Ontario to Cuba and then to the Canadian Rocky Mountains in Banff, as she produces her most ambitious CD to date. Yet, the final Juno winning recording is more than just a jazz album. It is a re-evaluation and reflection on her life and a tribute to the people that enable her to reconnect with her music. This is the story of a musician who contemplates her relationships, her career, and growing old, both as an artist and as a woman, while asking the universal question: what does it all mean?
Fugitives: Wax Live
D: Shawn Thomsen
31 mins
World Premiere
On August 20, 2010, Def Jam rapper Wax (still unsigned at the time) arrived in Toronto to play a series of shows, only to be turned away at the border. Fugitives: Wax Live recounts the story of those who literally smuggled the star into the country, the live performances he belted out on that day, and the legal repercussions suffered by all – simply to throw one most badass hip hop concert.
Genius Within: The Inner Life Of Glenn Gould
D: Peter Raymont
117 mins
Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould weaves together an unprecedented array of never before seen footage of Gould, photographs and excerpts from his private home recordings and diaries plus personal interview’s with Gould’s most intimate friends and lovers, some who have never spoken about him publicly before, to reconstruct his thoughts on music, art, society, love, and life.
Going Deaf For Nothing – The Story of A Rock N’ Roll Band
D: Susana Halfon
48 mins
World Premiere
For years, Sacramento’s Magnolia Thunderfinger were a mainstay of the Sacramento music scene. There are a million stories: motorcycles ridden through clubs, instruments and bars aflame, altercations and fistfights. It’s the stuff of rock ’n’ roll legend, really. And like all legend, within lies a grain of truth. This is the story of the music business as seen through the life of a real band, a primer on Music 101 and a must see for anyone interested in music, rock ‘n’ roll, and 25-year-old piss.
Ghostface Killah & Toronto’s Apollo Kids
D: Jeffrey “Vargas” Vallejo
Approx. 80 mins
Jeffrey “Vargas” Vallejo
A chronicle of Ghostface Killah’s first time touring Canada in almost a decade. The Wu-Tang veteran takes to the stage while sharing his story with local Toronto youth from Parkdale.
TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UlFkNK3ErQ
Happily Dysfunctional: The Story of Transistor 66 Records
D: Steve Ward
26 mins
Happily Dysfunctional is the story of one of Canada’s best kept secrets: a Winnipeg, Manitoba-based record label with a roster full of genre-defying artists and a renegade owner who refuses to acknowledge trends, fashions or market considerations. This is the story of Art MacIntyre and the happily dysfunctional family that comprises Transistor 66 Records. It’s a candid, intimate portrayal of an uncompromising soul, a person accustomed to fighting for others in their pursuit of artistic purity.
Hole In The World
D: George Metaxas
3 mins
The end of the world has elapsed, and few humans remain. A group of survivors in Sydney, Australia gather for a jam session in the ruins of the world. However dark the time, there is always creativity looming in the shadows
Inside The Perfect Circle: The Odyssey Of Joel Thome
D: Chris Pepino
60 mins
World Premiere
Chris Pepino, Martha Mooke (founder of Scorchio) & Joel Thome in attendance
A documentary about Grammy Award winner and Pulitzer Prize nominated composer and conductor Joel Thome, who collaborated extensively with rock icon Frank Zappa, and also composed for Steve Vai and For Pablo Picasso’s only play. With performance by The Scorchio Quartet, and animated mandala artwork by abstract painter Harry C. Doolittle, Inside The Perfect Circle: The Odyssey Of Joel Thome is a feast for the senses.
Jim Talks
D: Jackson Fishauf
4 mins
World Premiere
Venerable Toronto-based fine art photographer Jim Allen reflects on his early rise to prominence in New York as a young photographer, his artistic beliefs and how being bi-polar shaped him as an artist and an individual. Jim Talks presents the life and art of Jim Allen in striking Super 16mm black and white film, capturing a living portrait of the artist at 67. Jim acknowledges his constant struggle but continues doing what he does best: making great art.
Jobriath AD
D: Kieran Turner
103 mins
‘The American Bowie,’ ‘The True Fairy of Rock & Roll,’ ‘Hype of the Year.’ Known as the first openly gay rock star, Jobriath’s legacy delves deeper than the labels hung upon him. His reign was brief-two albums in two years. Sabotaged by a publicity machine run amok, shunned by the gay community and dismissed by critics, Jobriath was excommunicated from the music business and became an early casualty of AIDS. Now new generations of fans have discovered him and acts like Pet Shop Boys, Joe Elliott of Def Leppard, Siouxsie Sioux and Morrissey all cite Jobriath as a groundbreaking influence. Through interviews, archival material, animation and new music performances, we’ll tell the heartbreaking, unbelievable story of the one, the only…Jobriath.
KMS – Jewish Negroes
D: Moran Ifergan
48 mins
Canadian Premiere
Rappers KMS are black Israelis, Ethopian Jews whose families came to the promised land expecting “a land of milk and honey.” As with immigrants in many lands, they encounter an almost casual daily racism, which they counter with their own aggression, which is reflected in their music. They live in the large ghetto of central Israel. The film observes their daily life and catches the reality of black generation trying to find their identity in “white Israel.”
Letting Go
D: Cameron MacKenzie
8 mins
Cameron MacKenzie in attendance
Short film about a tough-minded girl who goes through different stages of grief after the death of someone very close and important to her until she discovers it is OK to go on as the land around will goes on. After the old farmer dies, the girl goes through shock and denial, pain and anger, trying to bargain with God, feeling lonely and lost, until she finally reaches a place of acceptance about the event. Watching the animals roam the farmstead and seeing the sun come up every day eventually led the girl to be able to let the old man go. The journey through the stages of grief carried the young girl into the beginnings of becoming a young woman.
The Light That Died In My Arms
D: Alan Foreman
2 mins
Canadian Premiere
New York is a thousand miles of wire away.
Master Plan
D: Tolga H. Yuceil
33 mins
Canadian Premiere
Tolga H. Yuceil, Kaan M. Yuceil in attendance
The man tries to kill himself. Every time he tries it, an angel keeps him from doing, by showing him the simple pleasures in life. Little does he know that he has a purpose in life.
Memphis Psychosis
D: Kristine Hipps
9 mins
Canadian Premiere
Mick Farren’s story of a trip to Graceland gone hellishly and hilariously wrong due to a handful of pills purchased in the restroom of a Denny’s.
“Misguided” – Jennifer Castle
D: Ilse Kramer
2 mins
World premiere
Ilse Kramer in attendance
Two hands move together and apart in an expression of lyrics by Jennifer Castle from her album Castlemusic.
My Father And The Man In Black
D: Jonathan Holiff
89 mins
Canadian Premiere
Jonathan Holiff in attendance
A new documentary featuring Johnny Cash promises to be unlike anything you’ve seen before. Written and directed by Jonathan Holiff, the son of Johnny’s former manager, Saul Holiff , the movie features huge amounts of unseen material. Father and son had been estranged for 20 years when Holiff committed suicide in 2005. Six months later, Jonathan discovered a storage locker his father had kept for 30 years. It contained audiotapes of phone calls his father had made with Cash, hundreds of letters and other personal mementos. Brought together from more than 60 hours of audio described as “eyewitness contemporaneous accounts” of what happened to Johnny and Saul, this film will likely rewrite much of the history books.
My Hometown / I Met The Walrus
D: Jerry Levitan, Terry Tompkins / D: Josh Raskin
7 mins / 5 mins
Canadian Public Premiere (My Hometown)
The seven minutes of My Hometown are written and narrated by Yoko Ono, produced and directed by Jerry Levitan and Emmy-winning Terry Tompkins of Eggplant, and features animation direction by Sharmil Haladeen and illustrations by Jerry’s daughter, Rebecca Levitan. The five-minute I Met The Walrus is the 2008 Academy Award-nominated animated short produced by Jerry Levitan. In 1969 the 14-year-old Jerry snuck in to a hotel room in Toronto and, armed with a reel-to-reel tape recorder, interviewed John Lennon and Yoko.
WEB (My Hometown)
WEB (I Met The Walrus)
Nightingales In December
D: Theodore Ushev
3 mins
This metaphorical surrealist tale is an allusion. Nightingales In December is a trip into the memories, and the fields of the current realities. What if the nightingales were working, instead of singing and going south? Is the innocence the only saviour of birds songs? There are no nightingales in December. What is left is only the history of our beginning, and our end.
Once In A Lullaby: The PS22 Chorus Story
D: Jonathan Kalafer
85 mins
Canadian Premiere
The PS22 chorus from Staten Island became world famous after their YouTube videos went viral. In December of 2010, Hollywood star Anne Hathaway visited PS 22 as a surprise guest during the choir’s Annual Winter Concert and announced to the choir that they were not only invited to the Academy Awards – but would be singing there, too. With only five weeks before their big performance, the group rehearsed relentlessly. And – their performance closed the 2011 Oscar’s with a rendition of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” – it paid off. This feel-good documentary follows them to their big performance as the closing act at the 2011 Academy Awards ceremony, where creative differences, lost voices, and homesickness threaten their performance. Can these 5th graders entertain the entertainment elite?
Persecution Blues: The Battle for The Tote
D: Natalie van den Dungen
57 mins
Canadian Premiere
In 2010, the iconic Tote Hotel – last bastion of Melbourne’s vibrant music counterculture – was forced to close by unfair laws. Filmed over 7 years, Persecution Blues depicts the struggle of more than 20 000 fans – and the bands who inspire them – to preserve their history and protect their future, and puts the audience on the front line of an epic-scale culture war.
Polaroid Song
D: Alphonse Giorgi
19 mins
Canadian Premiere
In 1991, Lise is 18. Gulf War ends, USSR collapses, Nirvana gives birth in a pool and three girls create the rock band Periodink. Their first concert will be for Lise the time to get out the age of adolescence.
Randy Parsons: American Luthier
D: David Peckhammer
8 mins
Canadian premiere
American Luthier focuses on Randy Parsons’ transformation from aspiring musician to guitar-maker. The guitar had been Parsons’ identity since he was a child, but after studying classical and jazz guitar in college, he realized that he would never make a living as a musician. So he gave it up — he didn’t even own a guitar in his mid-twenties — and then one day he had a vision of how the guitar would come back into his life. Now he’s creating instruments that are highly sought after works of art for clients like Jack White, Jimmy Page and Joe Perry. This is a film is about someone who gave up their passion for playing guitars and discovered that they had a passion for making guitars. Parsons’ success is a testament to doing what we love in life and work, even if it requires taking a second look at your dreams, and finding a different way to be a rockstar.
Rising Above The Blues
D: Yoon-ha Chang
89 mins
Canadian Premiere
Ralf Kemper (Producer), Yoon-ha Chang (Director) & Donna Hall (Co-producer) in attendance
In Rising above the Blues, we meet 85-year-old singer Jimmy Scott, an artist who has had profound influence on the world of jazz and pop, but was never recognized by a wider audience. The document takes us on a musical journey through Scott’s moving life story, in which international artists like Joe Pesci, Quincy Jones, and James Moody come along for the ride. This is a moving film about an unknown icon of music history – a man who never gave up hoping and dreaming.
Så Jävla Metal – The History Of Swedish Hard Rock And Heavy Metal
D: Yasin Hillborg
109 mins
Canadian Premiere
Yasin Hillborg in attendance
How has a small country like Sweden gone from being an underdeveloped country, as far as metal goes, to have become one of the largest and most influential countries within the genre? In Så Jävla Metal! we get to know the personalities who’ve made the Swedish hard rock and metal scene to what it is today. We take part in the touching, humorous and true story of how Sweden became a world force in one of the strongest and biggest pop-cultural movements ever. Join in on a journey on the long and winding road that the Swedish hard rockers have been wandering for the last 40 odd years.
Animal Nation “Somebody That I Used To Know”
D: Garnet Clare
6 mins
Garnet Clare & Mike Armitage in attendance
Animal Nation’s Somebody That I Used To Know was written, directed, shot, and edited by Garnet Clare throughout seven months of the 2011 spring and summer. The music for the film, also created by Clare, doubles as the first single from his solo debut album, “Animal Nation presents… ‘Every Day In The Life’” (URBNET). The beautifully shot short film has Clare making house in a run-down ex-mining village “ghost town”, and losing nearly 70 LBS throughout the course of the 6 minute film in an attempt to capture the essence of what it is to feel completely empty and alone.
Slaughter Nick For President
D: Rob Stewart, Liza Vespi & Marc Vespi
72 mins
World Premiere
Rob Stewart, Liza Vespi & Marc Vespi in attendance
This film examines how actor Rob Stewart inexplicably became a symbol of freedom through the long-forgotten TV role of Nick Slaughter in Tropical Heat (aka Sweating Bullets), during the Serbian protests which led to the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic.
Sudden Flashes Of Light
D: Santiago Ruiz
8 mins
Sudden Flashes Of Light is an action film on the piano that features Serhiy Salov’s virtuous performance and interpretations of Fetes from Nocturnes by Claude Debussy. The film focuses on the mechanical relationship between Salov and the piano, evoking an emotional state in the performance and suggesting an atmosphere akin to the impressionist movement.
“Wait For Amateur” – Chris Connelly
D: Shayna Connelly
2 mins
This is the first collaboration between musician Chris Connelly and his wife, director Shayna Connelly. Chris was inspired by the bright colors, fast pace AND happy-go-lucky attitudes of modern commercials for his new single, “Wait For Amateur.” Shayna added the pop-art ennui of a disinterested game show hostess posing for an unseen audience. Note the nod to Chris’ musical past in the model’s WaxTrax! Retrospectacle tshirt!
What Did You Expect? The Archers Of Loaf At Cat’s Cradle
D: Gorman Bechard
89 mins
World premiere
Gorman Bechard in attendance
Indie rock icons the Archers of Loaf reunited in 2011, and during the course of their reunion tour played two legendary concerts at Cat’s Cradle in Chapel Hill, NC. Combining in-your-face concert footage along with rare interviews of the band, this film by director Gorman Bechard documents those concerts, and captures the excitement and explosive energy of what its like to see this extraordinary band perform live.
