The NW Film Center Presents
The 19th Annual Film Series

Reel Music

January 4th thru February 7th

Programs of Interest to Blues Fans

Eleven years after his death in 1991, legendary trumpeter Miles Davis remains the best known and most influential jazz musician of the last 50 years.  To mark what would have been his 75th anniversary, British television's Channel 4 commissioned this engrossing portrait which explores the evolution of the man and his music from his East St. Louis roots to rocklike international stardom. Interweaving rare interviews and brilliant performances from over 40 years with the memories of friends, family, ex-girlfriends and stellar musical associates, Dibb reveals a singular creative odyssey fractured by racism, illness, drug addiction and brushes with the law. (124 mins.)

Jimi Hendrix's performance at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970, just 18 days before his death, has only been available in truncated and heavily edited fashion.  Following up on his MESSAGE TO LOVE (1997), which, a la WOODSTOCK, presented an overview of the whole event, Murray Lerner has gone back to his original footage, re-mastered the sound and has presented the real deal: Hendrix and his power trio (Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell) as they were in a classic performance.  If you can't guess, it's a soaring, sonic, daring affair and "its as much fun to watch Jimi in the choice offstage moments ...as it is to watch him gun and strum." - Elvis Mitchell, NY Times.  (102 mins)

Born in Chicago, Athens based director Triandfyllidis' childhood fascination with the wildly enigmatic Screamin' Jay Hawkins led to a chance meeting in 1998 and the opportunity to make a documentary. Immortalized in the 1950s for his classic, "I Put A Spell On You", and wild, creative stage antics, Hawkins was largely known only to R&B devotees until his music and persona reemerged as a cult sensation in Jim Jarmusch's STRANGER THAN PARADISE in 1984.  Centered on two concerts in Athens just two months before Hawkins death in Paris in 2000, the film weaves new and old footage with interviews and a range of people who knew and worked with Hawkins, Bo Diddley, Jarmusch, later-day bandleader, Rudi Protrudi, Eric Burden, and many others, to paint an indelible portrait.  Probably, wisely, none of Hawkins 50+ children weigh in. (101 mins.)

In the late 50s and early 60s, a number of soon-to-be-famous songwriters-Bobbv Darin, Bart Bacharach, Carole King, Neil Sedaka, and Paul Simon, among them, got their first break in New York's Brill Building, a bastion of creativity that became synonymous with the unique sounds of the era. These upstart "teen" pan alley tunesmiths--mostly young Jewish kids from Brooklyn - held near monopoly on the pop charts with a steady stream of hits recorded by The Drifters, The Crystals, The Shangri-Las, Ben E. King, The Righteous Brothers and numerous others. Morgan Neville (SAM PHILLIPS: THE MAN WHO INVENTED ROCK AND ROLL) pulls together rare demos and never-before-seen footage to celebrate the halcyon days of pop music. (90 mins)

Words & Music By Leiber & Stoller
US, 2001

A companion piece to HITMAKERS, Neville's slick tribute to Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller charts the career of the greatest songwriting team in the history of rock 'n' roll and mentors to the Brill Building writers. They wrote, arranged and produced for Elvis (Hound Dog, Jailhouse Rock), The Coasters (Charlie Brow), Ben E. King (Stand By Me), and the Drifters (There Goes My Baby), and dozens of others; some of their key hits showcased in the long-running Broadway musical SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE. (44 mins.)

Documenting the life and career of legendary music producer, Jerry Wexler, Thurman's labor of love primarily focuses on Wexler's work in the '60s at Stax Records in Memphis and at the Atlantic Records studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.  Narrated by Kris Kristofferson and loaded with rare clips, the film features commentary from key musicians such as Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Wilson Pickett, Willie Nelson, Doug Sahm, Steve Cropper, Al Bell, Dr. John, John Prine, as well as music industry giants such as Ahmet Ertegun, Arif Mardin, Sam Phillips, and Wexler himself.  Sweet soul music. (75 mins.)

The Last Angel Of History
Britain, 1995
Director: John Akomfra

Akomfrah's film jets from the Blues to the future. What do George Clinton's funkadelic Mothership, Sun Ra's jazz Arkestra and reggae-man Lee Scratch Perry's Black Ark have in common?  In three different places, three visionary musicians arrived at the same independent conclusion: space is the place.  Weaving an impressive mix of interviews, analysis and music, Akomfrah develops a startling thesis that there is an alternate path in black culture, one that looks to a future in science and the stars rather than the pain of the past.