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The Music Scene series happens every Thursday evening and features an eclectic mix of music documentaries about specific artists, labels or movements, but sometimes stretches to include cult films with a musical bent. The programming is a mix of premieres and obscure repertory titles that cover the gamut of psychedelic, soul, garage, swamp fuzz, gospel, hip hop, metal, country, novelty, bubblegum, punk, and whatever else we can think of! In all cases doors open early to give everyone a chance to enjoy some tunes before the film and the party sometimes goes on afterwards too!

BLUE SUNSHINE was also recently the inheritor of the Berlin-based HANDCLAPS archive, meaning that we've now got on hand several hundred rare music films that can make their way into our programming. Special thanks to curator Tim Tetzner for trusting us with his years of research. We'll be using Handclaps as the starting point for an ever-growing database of music films that we hope to eventually make available to other programmers through this website. Stay tuned for development on that project!

Heard of a new music film you'd like to see? Drop us a line at bigsmashproductions@gmail.com and we'll see what we can do!

UPCOMING SCREENINGS:

LIFE OF PRYOR: THE RICHARD PRYOR STORY!

2012-02-09

Richard Pryor was probably the funniest man who ever walked this planet. He left a mark on every comedian who followed in his wake, presenting the truth as he saw it in a hyperkinetic, expletive-laced, free-form style, ripping through life on the streets, the drug culture, sex, and race relations, while spearing his personal problems - seven tumultuous marriages, setting himself on fire while freebasing cocaine, you name it. This BBC documentary uses clips from Pryor's shows and TV appearances as well as interviews with family, friends and comedian fans to trace his amazing life and career.

BEAT THIS! A HIP HOP HISTORY

2012-02-16

This outstanding 1984 BBC doc traces the rise of rapping, scratching, breaking, and graffiti born from the gang culture of New York’s South Bronx. The great DJ/producer/electro-funk pioneer Afrika Bambaata is the main through line, arriving from outer space to wax nostalgia over old gang turf, while ‘Renegades of Funk’ is recorded in studio. Other highlights include: hip hop forefather DJ Kool Herc - inventor of the breakbeat – cruising in a convertible with HUGE speakers, and Malcolm McLaren describing his first mind-melting exposure to hip hop culture.

SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSSSS SONG: "Rated X by an All-White Jury" - 16mm Print!

2012-02-23

Raw, jagged, and explosively angry, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is a landmark in American independent cinema. Melvin Van Peebles directed, wrote, produced, edited, scored, and stars as Sweetback, a passive bouncer raised in a brothel, who becomes the target of a manhunt for killing two cops who beat up a young black activist. Shot guerilla style, edited with Godard-style jump cuts and set to a funky score performed by Earth, Wind & Fire, Sweetback essentially spawned the blaxploitation genre.

Joe Swanberg's SILVER BULLETS

2012-03-01

Joe Swanberg’s highly reflexive “werewolf movie” - definitely a genre film inasmuch as it stars indie director Ti West (The House of the Devil, The Innkeepers), Larry Fessenden (briefly), and is about the process of making films and the impact it can have on one’s relationships - poetically uses various formats (most notably 8mm and a VHS tape playing on a television), uncharacteristic non-diegetic music, and is entirely improvised. A moving self-“horror” effort that definitely invites self-examination - culminating in the stunningly ironic artificiality of the film’s final frame.

I WAS A TEENAGE QUINCY PUNK!

2012-03-08

If you’re old enough to remember punk rock, then you certainly remember Quincy. And if you care to remember punk rock, then you’ve never forgotten the Quincy Punk Rock episode, "Next Stop Nowhere". The term “Quincy Punk” became part of the vernacular almost overnight - join us as we celebrate the bastardization of punk rock by clueless TV executives, with a dazzling array of clips from the CHiPS punk episode, the Afterschool special ‘The Day My Kid Went Punk’, Degrassi, Square Pegs, CPO Sharkey, Sledge Hammer - and the legendary Quincy episode that started it all, in its entirety.

Craig Baldwin's SONIC OUTLAWS

2012-03-15

Within days of Negativland’s U2 EP release, Island Records descended upon the band with a battery of lawyers intent on erasing the piece from the history of rock music. Sonic Outlaws explores the pre-internet artist culture of appropriating images, culture jamming and defying copyright, meshing brilliantly with director Craig Baldwin’s cut-and-paste collage-essay style. / Sonic Outlaws explore le mouvement artistique pré-internet de réappropriation des images, de « culture jamming » et des entorses au droit d’auteur, un sujet tout à fait en accord avec le style de collage expérimental du réalisateur Craig Baldwin.

SO WRONG, THEY'RE RIGHT - The 8-Track Documentary!

2012-03-22

From the editor of fanzine ‘8-Track Mind’, So Wrong They’re Right chronicles a 10,000 mile journey around the U.S. in search of “trackers” – fanatical collectors of 8-Track tapes, those funky clunky pre-recorded plastic cartridges from the 70s. Russ Forster and Dan Sutherland capture over 20 interviews, brimming with reminiscences, rants, political diatribes, fantasies, fix-it tips, sales pitches, and everything else that defines the skeptical yet inquisitive mind of the 8-Track enthusiast.

Boone County Chaos! THE WILD WORLD OF HASIL ADKINS + Jesco White in THE DANCING OUTLAW!

2012-03-29

Two docs on the madmen of Boone County! THE DANCING OUTLAW is the original PBS special that propelled Appalachian weirdo Jesco White to cult stardom (later the subject of The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia and bio-pic White Lightning)! Meanwhile, the original one-man-band maniac from Boone County, West Virginia gets his own documentary, THE WILD WORLD OF HASIL ADKINS - featuring rockabilly, mobile homes, redneck bars, and a fantastic cat-fight scene by the local "ladies" while Hasil's on stage performing!

Music Scene Event Archives