The Films of IndieCon 2007: Documentaries by local and national fimmakers that one way or another reflect how music affects our lives. See the IndieCon home page for showtimes.
http://www.rebeccapadula.com
Director: Rebecca Padula
Run Time: 97 minutesIn March 2007, about a year after her death, friends organized two tribute concerts for Vermont's best known and most accomplished folksinger and song collector, Margaret MacArthur. Proceeds from the concerts went to help preserve Margaret's collection at the Vermont Folklife Center Archive in Middlebury, Vermont. The collection consists of open reel audiotapes of traditional songs and singer interviews recorded by Margaret primarily in southwestern Vermont from 1963 through 1968; recordings made by Margaret and her family; and related papers, photographs and ephemera.
'Margaret's Waltz' documents the concerts in Marleboro and Middlebury, VT with performances by Margaret's family, The Boys of the Lough, Gordon Bok, Deb Flanders, Pete and Karen Sutherland, Tony Barrand, Susan Trump, Skip Gorman and more as well as interviews with family members, VT folklife archivists and even rare footage of MacArthur herself. 'Margaret's Waltz' has just won an award for Best Documentary from the Northeast Alliance For Community Media
http://www.nikolaifox.com
Director: Nikolai Fox
Run Time: 65 minutesNOTE: INTRODUCTION AND Q&A BY FILMMAKER NIKOLAI FOX
'Music for the Sky' is a documentary about a small community of revivalist old-time musicians living in Vermont and Massachusetts. First-time filmmaker Nikolai Fox created this cinematic collage over three years, traveling from Philadelphia and Maine to the mountains of Vermont and Massachusetts.
Ahmet Baycu, George Ainley, Jim Burns, Michael Donahue, Bob Naess and John Specker have all been playing old-time and cajun fiddle in Vermont for thirty years. 'Music for the Sky' presents their little-heard music and stories. The film also features Zac Johnson and Anthony Pasquarosa, young musicians with the same musical interests. As we're introduced to them, Zac is living in a three-walled cabin where he fiddles and makes moonshine; Tony is in his last year as an art major at University of Massachusetts.
The musicians in 'Music for the Sky' are a part of a revivalist movement. They play a traditional music that was born through a mixing of cultures over the last five centuries in the southern United States. These musicians do not live in a region of this country where the music they play is in its native environment - which complicates the fact that they have such an unusual and authentic sound.
http://www.towncraftmovie.com
Matson Films
Run Time: 90 minutesNOTE: INTRODUCTION AND Q&A BY FILMMAKER RICHARD MATSON
In the late 80s and early 90s a vibrant underground music scene emerged in Little Rock. Unlike other towns, Little Rock's scene was composed almost entirely of kids. 14-18 year-olds were booking their own shows, starting record labels, opening record stores and playing with large national acts. In the process they would build a tight-knit, flourishing underground community that existed completely outside of the High School norm and was all their own. The film focuses on the roots of the Little Rock scene, how it changed the lives of those involved, the enormous DIY ethos that has shaped the scene for the past 20 years and how the scene continues to thrive as its pioneers hit their mid-30s.
"The story is like your older brother's band's ... but way cooler." CMJ
"A rich and personal documentation of the universal elements that are at the heart of DIY scenes that happen worldwide." SYNC Magazine
"An amazing film and thrilling soundtrack" Dry Ink Magazine
http://www.flightfromdeath.com
Producers: Patrick Shen & Greg Bennick
Run Time: 85 minutesNarrated by Gabriel Byrne (Usual Suspects, Vanity Fair, Miller's Crossing), this seven-time Best Documentary award-winning film (Silver Lake Film Festival, Beverly Hills Film Festival) is the most comprehensive and mind-blowing investigation of humankind's relationship with death ever captured on film. Hailed by many viewers as a "life-transformational film," 'Flight from Death' uncovers death anxiety as a possible root cause of many of our behaviors on a psychological, spiritual, and cultural level.
Following the work of the late cultural anthropologist, Ernest Becker, and his Pulitzer Prize-winning book 'Denial of Death', this documentary explores the ongoing research of a group of social psychologists that may forever change the way we look at ourselves and the world. Over the last twenty-five years, this team of researchers has conducted over 300 laboratory studies, which substantiate Becker's claim that death anxiety is a primary motivator of human behavior, specifically aggression and violence.
'Flight from Death' features an all-star cast of scholars, authors, philosophers, and researchers including Sam Keen, Robert Jay Lifton, Irvin Yalom, and Sheldon Solomon culminating in a film that is "not only thought-provoking but also entertaining and put together with a lot of class" (Eric Campos, Film Threat). Three years in the making and beautifully photographed in eight different countries, 'Flight from Death' is "a stimulating, ultimately life-affirming film, filled with big ideas and revelatory footage" (Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times).
"If you see it alone, you'll be thinking about it for days. If you see it with a friend, you'll be talking about it for weeks." - Gerry Krochak, Leader-Post
"[Flight from Death] is a beautifully conceived documentary, sharp, accessible and timely. The skillful examination of violence in our world intended for a widespread audience, without diluting its power, is an excellent example of what can be done by artists driven to create, even in the obscenely constrained and costly world of American film." - Inside Front
Photo: Empire State Building, NYC This still from the film illustrates one way in which humankind combats the idea that we are transient creatures. All around the world humankind is making their mark on the world; constructing something permanent that will remain standing after we've gone.
