Music as a way to explain our stories, to search for our identity and to protect ourselves from the times in which we have lived. This would be the summary of what will be eleven days of music documentaries at the Mooby Aribau cinemas in Barcelona. The XXII edition of In-Edit, Barcelona International Musical Documentary Film Festivalwill begin this Wednesday with an inaugural gala where Bad Gyal will present The Joydirected by David Camarero.
Among the parallel and training activities, the prestigious English director of musical documentaries stands outJulien Templewhich will make a masterclass on editing footage. From Publicwe have made a selection of ten documentaries, which we believe you cannot miss.
1.’Any other way: the Jackie Shane story’ Michael Mabbott, Lucah Rosenberg-Lee 2024 | Canada | 98 min
Opening a path and going against it is never easy. But if you have to be one of the first black trans singers in the southern US in the 1950s, it’s another level. Neither his birthplace, Nashville (Tennessee), nor being born in the wrong body, prevented the prodigious voice of Jackie Shane He left everyone who listened to him with their mouths open to the rhythm of soul and R&B. The mystery would haunt her when her career was soaring, filling theaters and opening for artists like Etta James or The Temptations, disappearing without a trace. This documentary attempts to provide answers to his disappearance, while also telling us about the need for any person to feel appreciated, and not judged, for who they are. Isn’t that what we all fly?
2. ‘1‒800‒on‒her‒own’ Dana Flor 2024 | United States | 77 min
The 90s saw the explosion of what was called grungewith groups, of course, basically made up of straight white men. Sorry Kurt, but that’s how it was. In the middle of that panorama, Ani Di Franco It was a blast of fresh air. For his music and how he attacked his acoustic guitar with that energy, but above all for his anti-capitalist speech, against machismo, for the LGTBIQ rightsand in favor of the DIY ethic. The documentary explores precisely that time, and despite failing to give a broader vision of the artist, it shows us her contradictions and the eternal struggle between remaining independent from the monster of the music industry and selling your art to pay the bills. Inspiring an entire generation of musicians and maintaining your integrity came with an unexpected cost.
3. ‘The flamenco guitar of Yerai Cortés’ Antón Álvarez 2024 | Spain | 95 min
Antón Álvarez, better known as C. Tanganacan say that he is the only artist, if I’m not mistaken, who one year presents a documentary as the protagonist and in the next edition of the festival, presents another as a director. This time, Álvarez’s camera follows the guitarist and flamenco musicianYerai Cortes offering us a complex x-ray and a secret to discover about your family history. Thus, what first seems like a documentary about the artist and his work, ends up being a musical and visual reflectionabout deep wounds, art, identity, family relationships and racism towards the gypsy community. An impressive film about the importance of art as a means to find our identity and explain our history.
4. ‘Omar And Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird’ Nicolas Jack Davies 2023 | United States| 126 min
From the age of seven, Omar Rodríguez-López recorded everything that happened in his life. This alone would make for a good documentary. If you have also been part of bands like At The Drive In, Mars Volta or De facto, along with the other protagonist, Cedric Bixler Cevala, you can imagine the rest. From its beginnings in the incipient Paso punk scene Texas, where they took refuge from racism due to their Puerto Rican origin, until the formation of At The Drive In and the recording of Relationship of Command that took them to world fame, the film explores the intense relationship between Omar and Cedric and how it mutates over time, at the same time as his music and his bands did.
An interesting documentary, despite its length, that tells us about friendship and its not always pleasant paths, about how to face the loss of loved ones , of the healing power of music and the value of doing things for yourself, leaving the margins that the music industry imposes on you, questioning what success is and if it is worth paying the price to get it.
5. ‘Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenbeg’ Alexis Bloom, Svetlana Zill 2023 | United States | 110 min
The story of the Italian-German model and actress Anita Pallenberg It has always been in the background. Having been the partner of Brian Jones, a textbook abuser, or characters as possessive and jealous as Cliff Richards, is one more obstacle for someone to listen to what you have to say. Despite everything, through a redemptive and enigmatic portrait, accompanied by the voice-over of Scarlett Johanssonand Pallenberg’s never-published autobiography, the documentary tries, and sometimes succeeds – sometimes not so much.
His toxic relationship with Rolling Stonesand drugs, occupies a large part of the film, but this should not prevent us from seeing the bravery of Anita Pallenbeg, a woman who had to face with all her strength gender roles and misogyny that predominated in the culture of the 60s and 70s.
6. ‘This Is A Film About The Black Keys’ Jeff Dupre 2024 | United States | 90 min
If you like a band, it’s always curious to see where those songs that you can’t stop listening to come from. What are the processes to get there? In fact, I guess that’s why we all love a festival like In-Edit so much. This documentary about The Black Keys is a good summary of why we like to go to the movie theater to enjoy and have a good story explained to us. And in this case, a story that, despite being typical, is no longer less interesting.
The way the group started, the problems of sudden world fame orthe fights between the two members who were not even friends, perhaps it is that of many other bands, but with someone like the Black Keys, just like their music, everything takes a different path, which without knowing exactly why, grabs you and does not let you go.
7. ‘Blackcelona: a story of satanic metal’ Diego de Walpurgis 2024 | Spain | 96 min
Learning the musical history of our city or our territory is one of the reasons why we go to In-Edit every year. Leaving our musical comfort zone is another. Therefore, documentaries like this will x-ray thehistory of Black Metal in Barcelonaand Catalonia, are not only essential to understand the city where we live, but they are also a gift for those who excite us about music and its stories. A genre surrounded by darkness and controversy, but in Barcelona it found fertile land to grow.
8. ‘Bad Like Brooklyn Dancehall’ Ben Digiacomo, Dutty Vannier 2023 | United States, Jamaica | 93 min
Preserving your own history and culture is just as important as creating it. And both one thing and another, the Jamaican and Caribbean diaspora has always been concerned. This is the chronicle of how dancehall reached the streets of Brooklyn,New Yorksince thesound systems from Jamaica, until merging with pop and hip hop. Without forgetting, of course, the importance of the DJ during basement parties and how these evolved in rap. The film captures the kinetic energy of thedancehall,from dance floors to street parties, and explains how the success of dancehall, beyond music, is being a powerful tool for the expression of cultural identity.
9. ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’ Johan Grimonprez 2024 | Belgium, France, Netherlands | 150 min
Miriam Makeba, Patrice Lumumba, Malcom If we add to this, through a jazz concert, explaining a story as complex as the assassination of the Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba or what led to theindependence of many African countries in 60the film becomes a unique and original piece, as well as a shocking and unknown history lesson.
10. ‘Uncropped’ DW Young 2023 | United States | 111 min
Finding the invisible order within the disorder. This is what the legendary Village Voice and Harper’s Bazaar photographer’s images did,James Hamilton. An addictive film about one of the great cultural photojournalists of our time and the quintessential black and white chronicler of New York.
James Brown, Patti Smith, BB King, Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Run DMC, Janis Joplin, Madonna, Sun Ra, The Kinks, Stevie Wonder, Alfred Hitchcock, Jack Nicholson or Jean-Luc Godard. Each of them explains ahistory when they pass through Hamilton’s gaze. Images so impressive that you want to stop the movie and look at them a little longer.
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