Screening Date: Sat. Nov. 11, 2023
Time: 6:00pm
Venue: Bryant Lake Bowl
Cost: $15
Premiere Status: MN
Run Time/Year/Country: 91min, 2022, USA
Director: Yvan Iturriaga and Francisco Nuñez Capriles
Co-presented by KFAI Radio, Moxy Uptown MPLS, Bryant Lake Bowl
Beyond the bombastic stage persona of Fantastic Negrito lies a 51-year-old survivor, hustler, and self-described ‘recovering narcissist’ named Xavier Dphrepaulezz. After his improbable midlife transformation from busking bluesman to back-to-back Grammy winner, Xavier is now ready to face his demons. Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? follows Xavier in his Oakland studio as he creates his newest album of the same title, laying bare his extraordinary journey and the "many hallucinations" he has experienced along the way.
Following the structure of an album tracklist and featuring intimate and often hilarious interviews with philosopher-poet Xavier and his brilliant band of collaborators and close friends, the film traces his journey from early isolation as a Black Muslim kid in rural Massachusetts to Bay Area star with a global fanbase. Along the way, the story of a singular musician unfolds as Xavier evolves from misfit, to homeless teenager, drug dealer, struggling L.A. pop hopeful, underground punk innovator, and urban farmer.
A pivotal event in his thirties led to a dramatic rebirth that allowed him to finally embrace his own identity — both on stage and off. Through all these chapters, a map of Xavier’s life takes shape alongside Oakland and America's fissures of race, class, and culture that inform his unique, infectious blend of the blues.
Mixing self-reflection with his own wry charm, Xavier opens up about his relationship with his emotionally brutal father; harrowing brushes with gun violence; the perils of Hollywood; and the painful art of self-reinvention. From tragedy to triumph to tragedy and back again, this is a rollercoaster story of life and creation after destruction.
PRECEDED BY
Film Title: The Last Train
Director: Lodi Paul Inga
Run Time/Year/Country: 10min, 2023, South Africa
Premiere Status: N/A
Synopsis: A musician who had come from an uninspiring performance in an empty pub found himself late one evening on the last train to get to his home. His hopes of a peaceful late train ride after a long day are suddenly threatened by a passenger who asks him to play his guitar so he can accompany him with his mbira for an impromptu duet. At the stranger's insistence, the musician is forced to give in by playing his guitar composition, hoping to discourage the stranger with an unknown tune. To his surprise, the stranger began to accompany him on the spot, thus turning an improvised duet into a coherent instrumental song. However, the remainder of the passengers on the late train meet this magical moment with indifference, except for one young passenger who liked the music so much that she began to dance to the melody. What the musician initially saw as a means to silence the overly insistent stranger became a lifelong lesson on using one's talent to bring positivity to one person at a time.