Blog Archives

APRIL 11th: MN Premiere of “THE WANTEDS” (Tommy Harrington doc) with Director Stephanie Smith present!

March 14 Monthly Screening: I Want My Name Back (The Sugarhill Gang documentary)

SYNOPSIS:

I Want My Name Back (dir. Roger Paradiso, USA, 2011, 93 min., BD)

“I Want My Name Back” highlights the rise and fall of former original members of the Sugarhill Gang, Master Gee and Wonder Mike. As original writers and rappers, Master Gee and Wonder Mike were the creative leaders of the Sugarhill Gang who recorded the biggest selling Hip-Hop single of all time called “Rapper’s Delight”. The album with that distinctive cover went platinum. The Sugarhill Gang is widely credited with introducing the world to Hip-Hop music in 1979. We go back in time with Master Gee and Wonder Mike as they recreate the beginning of commercial Hip-Hop. We follow their story as they tour the world for five years and follow up with songs like “Apache”, “8th Wonder” and “Living in the Fast Lane”.

However, in one of the biggest swindles in music history (which is saying something), the platinum-selling group not only had their profits and publishing rights stolen from them by their mob-financed label Sugar Hill Records, but their names as well: the label took founding members Wonder Mike and Master Gee’s names off of recordings that they wrote and performed, and even trademarked the group name—and Mike and Gee’s own stage names—by providing false documents. Featuring testimony from fellow artists, music-industry insiders, fans, music journalists and the original Sugarhill Gang members themselves, “I Want My Name Back” chronicles Mike and Gee’s thirty-year battle with Sugar Hill Records to reclaim their rights and recognition as hip hop pioneers. (Synopsis provided by Game Seven Productions.)

Presented by: 89.3 the Current

Feb. 8: Sound Unseen presents Twin Cities Premiere of “BOMBAY BEACH”

Sound Unseen continues its monthly film series Wednesday, February 8, 2012 with the Midwest/MN premiere of 2012 Independent Spirit Award nominee and Tribeca Film Festival winner for Best World Documentary, “Bombay Beach” featuring music by Bob Dylan and Beirut.  The film will screen at the Trylon microcinema in Minneapolis.  This is an intimate venue and a limited number of tickets available.  Thanks to 89.3 the Current for their continued support and co-sponsorship with Sound Unseen.

Date: Weds. February 8, 2012
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Trylon microcinema, 3258 Minnehaha Ave. S., Mpls. 55406
Tickets: $8.00
BUY TICKETS 

Bombay Beach (dir. Alma Har’el, Israel/USA, 2011, 80 min., BD)

The rusting relic of a failed 1960s development boom, the Salton Sea is a barren Californian landscape often seen as a symbol of the failure of the American Dream. First-time director Alma Har’el revisits this poetically fruitful terrain in her distinctive documentary “Bombay Beach”, and finds there a motley cast including a bipolar seven-year-old, a lovelorn high school football star, and an octogenarian poet-prophet. Together they make up a triptych of American manhood in its decisive moments, populating the Salton Sea’s land of thwarted opportunity.

True to her roots as a photographer, video artist, and music video director, Har’el crafts here an adamantly atypical and artistically innovative film—a dreamlike poem that sets the personal stories of these distinctive yet familiar characters to a stylized amalgam of observational documentary and choreographed dance, with music by Beirut and Bob Dylan, all cast against the atmospheric scenery of the titular ghost town. The result is a moving and surreal documentary experience—an evocative, symbolic portrait of rural America and its inhabitants. –Tribeca Film Festival

TERRY GILLIAM “A beautiful, quirky, and ultimately very moving film about the American Dream as it teeters on the edge of a desert sea.”

FILMMAKER MAGAZINE “Alma Har’el! Stunningly shot, formally audacious, Bob Dylan and Beirut scored! “Bombay Beach” won the grand prize in the international documentary competition. Recalling the work of Harmony Korine, Larry Clark, Lynne Ramsay, David Gordon Green, Charles Burnettand, Gus Van Sant (just to name a few), it announces a major new directorial talent in Har’el!”

Jan. 11th Monthly Screening: NORWEGIAN WOOD with film score by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood – SOLD OUT!

**This screening is now SOLD OUT**

Please join us on January 11th for our monthly screening series at the Trylon microcinema with our Twin Cities premiere of “Norwegian Wood” by director Tran Anh Hung and based off Haruki Murakami’s bestselling novel. This is an intimate venue with a limited number of tickets available so we recommend purchasing your tickets in advance. Thank you to our sponsors at 89.3 The Current.

Date: Weds. January 11th, 2011
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Trylon microcinema, 3258 Minnehaha Ave. S., Mpls. 55406
Tickets: $8.00

FILM SYNOPSIS (2010, Tran Anh Hung, HD, 133 min.)
Published in 1987 and since translated into 33 languages, Haruki Murakami’s bestselling novel, “Norwegian Wood”, finally gets the big screen treatment from Academy Award nominated director, Tran Anh Hung, “The Scent of Green Papaya” and features an original musical score by Radiohead guitarist, Jonny Greenwood, (“There Will Be Blood” and the upcoming, “We Need to Talk About Kevin”) and stars Oscar nominee Rinko Kikuchi (“Babel”, “The Brothers Bloom”),  Japanese rising star Kenichi Matsuyama (“Death Note”, “Detroit Metal City”) and newcomer, Kiko Mizuhara.

“Norwegian Wood” is a story of loss and heartbreak in a time of global instability. Tokyo, the late 1960s…Students around the world is uniting to overthrow the establishment and Toru Watanabe’s (Matsuyama) personal life is similarly in tumult.  At heart, he is deeply devoted to his first love, Naoko (Kikuchi), a beautiful and introspective young woman.  But their complex bond has been forged by the tragic death of their best friend years before.  Watanabe lives with the influence of death everywhere.  That is, until Midori (Mizuhara), a girl who is everything that Naoko is not – outgoing, vivacious, supremely self-confident – marches into his life and Watanabe must choose between his past and his future.  (Synopsis provided by Red Flag Releasing.)

December 14th Monthly Screening: “HAPPY LIFE” Director Michael M. Blandic & Producer/MN Native Spencer Kiernan in attendance!

Please join us on December 14th for our monthly screening series at the Trylon Microcinema with our Twin Cities premiere of “HAPPY LIFE” by director Michel M. Bilandic. This is an intimate venue with a limited number of tickets available so we recommend purchasing your tickets in advance. Thank you to our sponsors at 89.3 The Current. Writer/Director Michael M. Bilandic and Producer/MN Native Spencer Kiernan will be present for this Midwest/MN premiere screening.

Date: Weds. December 14th, 2011
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Trylon Microcineam, 3258 Minnehaha Ave. S., Mpls. 55406
Tickets: $8.00
BUY TICKETS

FILM SYNOPSIS (2011, Michael M. Bilandic, HD, 73 min.)
Writer/director Michael M. Bilandic’s, ”Happy Life” is a dark culture-shock comedy set in the waning world of techno world. Comedic actor Tom McCaffrey (“Onion News Network,” VH1′s “Best Week Ever”) stars as Keith, an aging trance DJ who has been recently fired from his residency spinning at an upscale tapas restaurant. His life has taken a further downward turn as his East Village specialty record store is in danger of going under. In a final effort to save both his shop and reputation, he decides to throw an “old school” rave, but contemporary NYC sure can be a cutthroat city. Faced with hipster gatekeepers, an aggressive landlord, a crack-smoking headlining act, and a community that couldn’t care less about his party, Keith must face the fact that the ’90s rave is long over.  Executive produced by Abel Ferrara (director of “Bad Lieutenant” and “King of New York”) and features appearances by Matt Pinfield (MTV’s “120 Minutes”), Alex Ross Perry (“The Color Wheel”), Kate Lyn Sheil (“Green”), and cinematography by Sean Price Williams (“Frownland”).

Nov. 9th Monthly Screening: The Ballad of Mott the Hoople

Please join us on November 9th for our monthly screening series at the Trylon Microcinema with our Twin Cities premiere of “The Ballad of Mott the Hoople” by directors Mike Kerry & Chris Hall. This is an intimate venue with a limited number of tickets available so we recommend purchasing your tickets in advance. Thank you to our sponsors at 89.3 The Current.

Date: Weds. November 9th, 2011
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Trylon Microcineam, 3258 Minnehaha Ave. S., Mpls. 55406
Tickets: $8.00
BUY TICKETS

FILM SYNOPSIS (2010, Mike Kerry & Chris Hall, DVD, 103 min.)
Storming out of Hereford, England in the late Sixties, Mott the Hoople became one of British rock’s most popular live acts. Yet, their records failed to reach audiences, and the band was on the verge of breaking up when one of their fans, a certain David Bowie, wrote “All the Young Dudes” for them; reborn, they zoomed to the top of the charts—and that’s really when the trouble started. A record of the rise, fall, rise and eventual disintegration of one of the era’s iconic bands, The Ballad of Mott the Hoople also recounts the story of Guy Stevens, the band’s explosively brilliant manager. Accurate, insightful and full of never-before seen interviews and concert footage, Mike Kerry and Chris Hall’s terrific film is simply rock history at its best. (Synopsis provided by NYFF)