Event
Series Pass: Earshot Jazz Film Festival
Once again Northwest Film Forum partners with Earshot Jazz to present some of the finest Jazz films in recent memory. This year's program offers a French chanteuse, Cuban animated music, a tribute to Thelonious Monk and the teachings of legendary Lawrence D. 'Butch' Morris.
OCTOBER 28NOVEMBER 3, FRIDAYTHURSDAY AT 7, 9PM
Seattle Premiere!
Ne Change Rien
(Pedro Costa, 2009, Portugal/France, 35mm, 100 min)
Pedro Costa's ninth film is a bit of a change of pace for the director, who traditionally concentrates on the marginalized and underserved communities of Lisbon. Retaining the distinctive low-light visual style of his previous films, he turns his camera on French chanteuse-actress Jeanne Balibar, in a dreamlike meditation on the process of creating music. Costa situates Balibar and her band, including the great guitar virtuoso Rudolphe Burger, in often-cramped isolation against receding darkness as they work their way through calmly sad melodies. Balibar herself appears as one compelled, repeating melodic fragments for minutes at a stretch, encapsulating her experience and memories through song. Less a documentary than an experiment in pure-cinema aesthetics, Ne Change Rien takes the time to make space for reflection on what it means to create.
"An original, truly contemporary take on the music genre." Senses of Cinema
OCTOBER 2830, FRIDAYSUNDAY AT 7 PM
And I Ride, And I Ride
(Frank Vialle, France, 2009, DigiBeta, 105 min)
A snapshot of virtuoso guitarist Rodolphe Burger and his native Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines valley. And I Ride, And I Ride is a profile in mirrors as seen through the attitude of music. No ordinary documentary, it provides no voiceover, interviews, or testimony from relatives or stars. Taking on a Jazz-like structure, freewheeling and improvisational, this film offers a poetic reverie on the nature of the musician and the musician in nature.
NOVEMBER 1, TUESDAY AT 7 & 9PM
Seattle Premiere!
In My Mind
(Gary Hawkins, USA, 2010, DigiBeta,100min)
In My Mind compares and contrasts two great concerts separated by half a century but united by the power of jazz. In 2009, award-winning pianist Jason Moran paid tribute to one of his own heroes, Thelonious Monk. The occasion was the 50th anniversary of Monk's historic 1959 Town Hall Concert, his first with a large ensemble. Playing in the same venue, Moran and his Big Bandwagonwhich includes Monk's original French horn player, Robert "Brother Ah" Northernoffer a contemporary spin on Monk's iconoclastic sound, abetted by collaborating visual artists Glenn Ligon and David Dempewolf. Hawkins' film includes photographer and audiophile Eugene Smith's newly unearthed images and recordings of Monk's rehearsals from the Jazz Loft in New York.
NOVEMBER 2, WEDNESDAY AT 7 & 8:30PM
Seattle Premiere!
Director In Attendance!
Black February
(Vipal Monga, 2010, USA, DigiBeta, 59 min)
Black February chronicles an unprecedented series of concerts performed in New York City by legendary jazz composer and conductor Lawrence D. 'Butch' Morris. Butch put on the series in February 2005 to celebrate 20 years of Conduction, his revolutionary technique for leading live improvisations. More than a simple portrait of those 28 days or a biography of an enigmatic and complex legend of the avant-garde, Black February is a film about how music is made and what it means. It's about the struggle of artists trying to distill the purest essence of themselves into their work, and the scope of a musical theory that could redefine what it means to make music.
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LocationNorthwest Film Forum
1515 12th Avenue
Seattle, WA 98122
United States
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