DocFilmMusic, a new competition, allowing music documentaries of over 30 minutes duration, is included in the Krakow Film Festiwal programme for the first time. This new section has evolved from previous out-of-competition shows ‘Sound of Music’, which became very popular among the audience. The winner in this category can expect a Grand Prix Golden Heynal, as well as 20 000 PLN prize. Another novelty is the Warsaw edition of this contest, which was made possible thanks to the cooperation with the Polish Filmmakers Association – the shows will take place at the Kultura cinema.
Ten films have been qualified for DocFilmMusic, including: three documentaries from The United States, two from Switzerland, one film each from Poland, Great Britain, Canada and Spain, as well as an international co-production. Four films in this competition have been made by women. What is common for all films shortlisted is the characters’ passion for music, but they are also very different, both when it comes to their biography dynamics and the music genres they represent.
- Some of the characters’ names in our competition films will sound familiar to the audience says Krzysztof Gierat, the director of the Festival, who has personally nurtured the films selection. – Others may be recognized by the names of their maternal bands, but about some of them the audience will hear for the first time. That is good. This competition is aimed both to discover and broaden our music horizons, as well as to enjoy the music we already know and love.
For the opening the Festival, the organizers have prepared a Swiss documentary ‘Harry Dean Stanton: Party Fiction’, directed by Sophie Huber, which doesn’t follow a story of a musician, but a music making actor – Harry Dean Stanton. The portrayal of this American actor, who’s played in over 250 films, but never in a leading role, includes fragments of films he played in, statements of his friends and family, such as David Lynch or Wim Wenders and… Stanton’s songs, who regularly performs with his band.
The next film in this competition also has a significant anti-star touch. For eight years, director Bobbi Jo Hart has followed the life of Marika Bournaki, a talented Canadian pianist, who began her career as a twelve-year-old. The documentary ‘I Am Not a Rock Star’ has been planned as a story of a star being born, but turned out to be a record of growing up, rebelling and searching for her own way in life. It is worth mentioning, that both ladies, the director of the film and the protagonist, will be the guests of the 53rd Krakow Film Festival.
Although Marika Bournaki was spotted by the press and the audience at the age of twelve, the next artist had to wait 60 years to be noticed. ‘Charles Bradley: Soul of America’ is an unbelievable biography of a 65-year-old soul and R&B singer, who made his debut with an original album ‘No Time For Dreaming’. The album has made it to the ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine list of the 50 best albums of the year, bringing Bradley, up to this time specializing in copying James Brown, right to the red carpet.
The two next competition films tell stories of rebellious artists. The first is Ginger Baker, ‘world’s best drummer’ and a ‘rock monster’, who created, hand in hand with Eric Clapton, a group called ‘Cream’, and whose checkered biography, filled with illegal substances and rock music, is the base of the film ‘Beware of Mr. Baker!’ by Jay Bulger. The second artist is David Serva, or actually Jones, American, guitar virtuoso, who can feel the flamenco rhythm better than a native Andalusian. His temper showed its face not only in his music, resulting in five wives and five children living across the world, most of which didn’t have the chance to spend time with their father. In ‘Gypsy Davy’ Rachel Leah Jones tells a story of her father, finding the abandoned women and giving them their voice. Rachel is also asking her ‘prodigal’ father some uncomfortable questions.
Another daughter, Stéphanie Argerich, is going to point her camera at her famous parent, world-wide known pianist Martha Argerich, in a Swiss documentary called ‘Bloody Daughter’. This film gives the audience a unique opportunity to see the ‘piano goddess’ eating breakfast or in her pyjamas, behind the curtain of her concert tour across Poland, Italy and Japan, as well as to meet her three daughters from three different relationships.
From the Olimp mountain of classical music the selectioners of the Krakow Film Festival will take the audience to a much different area. Julien Temple’s ‘Glastopia’ and ‘Zuolak’ by Fermin Muguruza are dipped in the anarchistic sounds of rock and punk-rock music. Temple is looking at the phenomenon of Glastonbury, one of the most important music festivals, particularly at its surroundings, where a political debate considering the most urgent problems of today takes place, and the young audience has the opportunity to express their alternative beliefs. On the other hand, Muguruza combines a documentary with fiction, this way showing the process of creating the group called ‘Zoulak’, which in Basque means… ‘holes’. The band members are rapacious, sexy, they highlight their ethnical minority background and they make hard punk rock with a radical and anarchistic message.
Paul Simon, whose name makes every moviemaniac instinctively hum ‘Mrs. Robinson’, has made another, controversial at the time, decision to make an album with the local musicians in the apartheid-driven South African Republic. Today, 25 years after the release of a famous album ‘Graceland’, Simon explains his motives in the documentary ‘Under African Skies’, analyzing the connections between art and grand politics. This film also grants the appearance of such people as Harry Belafonte, David Byrne, Peter Gabriel, Philip Glass, Whoopi Goldberg or Quincy Jones.
Last but not least, the possible dark horse of this competition, Polish ‘Love’ by Filip Dzierżawski documents the phenomenon of a jass group from Tri-City, consisting of such distinguished and different musical personalities as Tymon Tymański, Mikołaj Trzaska, Leszek Możdżer, Jacek Olter or Maciej Sikała. Dzierżawski points his camera at these musicians at the moment of trying to bring the group ‘Love’ back to life, with that discovering the tension between them and the moments of ‘toxic balance’, which allowed them to leave the audience with impressive work, despite their differences.
The list of documentaries qualified to the DocFilmMusic competition:
‘Zuolak’ (‘Holes’), dir. Fermin Muguruza, SpainHiszpania, 99’
‘Charles Bradley: Soul of America’, dir. Poull Brien, USA, 75’
‘Glastopia’, dir. Julien Temple, Great Britain, 75’
‘Gypsy Davy’, dir. Rachel Leah Jones, Israel/ Spain/ USA, 96’
‘Miłość’ (‘Love’), dir. Fillip Dzierżawski, Poland, 92’
‘I Am Not a Rock Star’, dir. Bobbi Jo Hart, Canada, 86’
‘Under African Skies’, dir. Joe Berlinger, USA, 101’
‘Harry Dean Stanton: Party Fiction’, dir. Sophie Huber, Switzerland, 77’
‘Beware of Mr. Baker!’, dir. Jay Bulger , USA, 92’
‘Bloody Daughter’, dir. Stephanie Argerich, Switzerland, 95’
