To any and all who caught the Tucson Film and Music Festival’s “Best of the Fest” screenings this past weekend, please post some comments on this blog, because I was sorely disappointed to miss the flicks. However, TFMF was kind enough to send me some screening DVDs of the original short film program “Desert Shorts,” the music video program “Music VideoRama” and the short music documentary program “Scene and Heard.” Thanks to Michael Toubassi and the rest of the TFMF staff for putting together another outstanding fest with the perfect Southwestern twang.
The Desert Shorts series was packed with impressive entries, many with ties to Southern Arizona. My favorite, the documentary “Bola de Oro,” was crafted by Tucson filmmakers Ari Palos and Eren McGinnis. The film sketches quick, rich portraits of native musicians in Oaxaca, Mexico. It evokes a culture where life and music are were intertwined long before music became a commodity. Several of the films tapped into the lore of the Western genre and were shot in the Tucson area, including “Four Minutes ‘Til Noon,” by Jonathan Taylor, a spoof of the classic fastdraw shootout, and “Al’s Beef,” by Dennis Hauck, a gorgeously photographed tale of bloody revenge in a small wild west town. Al’s Beef delivered some striking imagery, like the barefoot woman wearing spurs and a blood-spattered white dress, that will stay with me, although the story never quite grabbed me. And “The Line,” a border tale directed by Kent Bassett, offered some strong performances and excellent direction even though the story felt too predictable. All the films were polished and entertaining, so it was altogether a strong program.
Since the day when MTV actually played music videos has faded into fable, and the only time I see music videos anymore is on the web, it is a treat to sit down for a well-curated music video program. The combination of imagery and music can have a hypnotic effect, and the range of both visual technique and musical genre kept the video river flowing for a delightful journey. First I have to give shout-outs for the videos with Tucson connections. The Mission Creeps (a local favorite of mine, catch their next throw-down live show), had their video for “Creepy” in the mix, Jose Saavedra’s song “Final” rang true, and UA Media Arts student Mischa Cantu brought an enjoyably dark vision to the song “Slain Gecko” by the band Kill Box. Cantu used archival footage of US Army nuclear tests for her menacing yet optimistic imagery.
Many of the videos used animation, puppets, or stop-motion techniques, often combined with live-action footage. There were twenty-one entries in all. Among the standouts for me were the Dengue Fever video for their song “Seeing Hands,” comprised of spooky, melancholy on-the-road imagery. The Man on Earth video for their song “Hold Your Breath and Wait For the Crash,” showed the full band playing in public spaces all over NYC, clearly without a permit because they keep getting shut down by the authorities. The folky singer Leerone’s video for her song “Care for Some Whiskey?” combined the plaintive lyrics with strange stop-motion creatures in a fairytale landscape.
And the final video of the program, by Radiohead for their song “House of Cards,” was directed by James Frost with strange, heavily pixilated 3D imagery, an engrossing effect I’d never seen before. And that video was followed by a quick “making of” doc about the “House of Cards” video and how they used experimental 3D scanning technology that is not even available to mere mortals to create the images. All told, I’d be pleased to watch curated collections of artsy music videos like this more often, and it’s a swell way to discover new music.
And that brings us to the final program that I watched, the “Scene and Heard” short music documentaries. They all had their charms. The sweetest for me was “Musical Candy,” a doc about the Squirrel Nut Zippers directed by Clay Walker. Walker interviewed the band members individually at their homes, and he taps into both the personalities and the culture from which they sprang. “Vinyl Scrapyard,” an ode to the used record store era and the record collectors who prowled them, was directed by Tucson’s own Billups Allen. In the film, record buffs share many funny memories that will strike a chord with anyone who ever browsed the bins for the perfect record, a fitting epitaph for the golden age of used records. The ukulele documentary “New Uke City” about a ukulele cabaret in NYC that attracts an oddball cast of uke players also proved quite amusing. In sum, TFMF put together a program that celebrates the attitudes and variety of musicians from all over the country and from all walks of life. Well done. And a reminder for film and music fans to watch for next years TFMF lineup.
