Good News!
"Festival Express" will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival
(Sept 4-13). The film has been confirmed, but no show date has as yet been.
Here's the link to the 8/13/03 Press Release followed by the applicable
paragraph.
http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2003/mediacentre/release.asp?id=151
The gritty, glorious, sometimes licentious world of rock music is the
premise for three films. THE MAYOR OF SUNSET STRIP, a Canadian premiere
from George Hickenlooper (THE MAN FROM ELYSIAN FIELDS), profiles Rodney
Bingenheimer, the world famous L.A. disc jockey and impresario credited as
being the first DJ in America to play music by and interview artists such
as The Ramones, Blondie, The Sex Pistols, Nirvana, and Coldplay. In the
summer of 1970, music legends Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, The Band,
and Buddy Guy, among others, piled into a train with their instruments and
left Toronto for a five-day music festival tour. Bob Smeaton's FESTIVAL
EXPRESS (U.K.), a world premiere, chronicles the journey and captures all
the raunch and debauchery of this cross-Canada rock odyssey. TOM DOWD AND
THE LANGUAGE OF MUSIC, a Canadian premiere from Mark Moormann, illuminates
the life of unsung music legend, record producer, and sound engineer Tom
Dowd. Having worked with music icons such as Ray Charles, Eric Clapton,
Aretha Franklin, and Otis Redding Dowd's history is, in part, the history
of American pop music.
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The other two music related docs to be shown are great too.
Bingenheimer is now sometimes the butt of jokes, but he was part of the
Sunset Strip scene, at the CAFF riots, and doing club shows for bands like
the Sons of Adam and the Seeds as far back as 1966. Among others he
promoted on his radio show in late '70s, early '80s were the Clash, the
original Black Flag, X, and Joy Division. On weekends you can still find
him late night at Cantor's with a bevy of young women.
Tom Dowd was easily the most influential sound engineer of the 2nd half of
the 20th Century. As "the" sound guy (actually teacher) for Jerry Wexler
and Arif Mardin at Atlantic, he not only created the sound but developed
the machines used to record it. Used 8 tracks when others used 4, 16 when
others had 8, etc... Among his vast amount of work as engineer and
producer: Charles Mingus (Pithecanthropus Erectus); Ornette Coleman (Art of
the Improvisers, Free Jazz); John Coltrane (Giant Steps, My Favorite
Things); Drifters (On Broadway, Under the Boardwalk); Ben E. King (Stand By
Me); Aretha (all her '67-'68 stuff: I Never Loved a Man, Respect, Chain of
Fools...), Wilson Pickett (Land of a 1000 Dances, Mustang Sally, Funky
Broadway...); Cream (Disraeli Gears, Wheels of Fire...); The Rascals (Good
Lovin' and all their hits); Dusty Springfield (Dusty in Memphis); Derek &
the Dominoes (Layla); Allman Brothers (1st lp, Fillmore East, Eat a Peach);
plus hundreds of others. Sorry, I could go on forever -- but on top of
this he was one of the nicest and most unassuming guys you'd ever want to
meet.
If anyone makes it up to Toronto, go see all three films. Post a review of
"Festival Express" here, and maybe email me with your thoughts on the other
two films.
Eric
