A Curtain Call for the New York Art Quartet: LFM Reviews The Breath Courses Through Us

Trailer – The Breath Courses Through Us (2013) from Asymmetric Pictures –FILMS on Vimeo.

By Joe Bendel. They were arguably the original super group of free jazz. They formed in 1964 and disbanded in 1965, yet they still had turnover on the bass. Eventually, Reggie Workman settled into the role and would return for their special anniversary tour. Despite the brevity of their tenure together, the New York Art Quartet remains enormously influential. Alan Roth documents their history and triumphant reunion in The Breath Courses Through Us, which has its American premiere today at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

It all started when Congolese-Danish alto-saxophonist John Tchicai met trombonist Roswell Rudd. Both musicians were exploring the creatively disruptive innovations of Cecil Taylor, recognizing each other as kindred spirits. The next piece of the puzzle was Milford Graves, a former Latin percussion specialist, who had reoriented his perspective on the drums after hearing Elvin Jones. As the New York Art Quartet, they recorded their instantly recognizable eponymous ESP release with Bernie Worrell on bass, bringing Workman on board for Mohawk the following year.

As is usually the case in jazz, the Quartet was short lived, precisely because it was just five minutes ahead of its time. At the time, they were consciously challenging traditional notions of melody, harmony, and rhythm, yet to contemporary ears they do not sound nearly as radical as much of the subsequent free music they blazed a trail for.

Sparingly using WKCR’s Ben Young as the expert commentator, Roth lucidly establishes the Quartet’s musical significance, placing them in the context of their era. We hear from all four musicians at length, all of whom are earnest and reflective about the music they made. However, there is no question Graves is a uniquely spirited and charismatic interview subject. His reminiscences are the sort of gift documentarians only dream of.

Of course, there is also plenty of straight-up music. Indeed, Roth has a nice editorial ear, selecting performances that illustrate the Quartet’s considerable technique. Watching Breath should dispel any uncharitable notions that they embraced freer forms because they could not adequately swing. After all, Rudd started off playing Dixieland and Workman recorded with just about everybody, including Art Blakey, Grant Green, and John Coltrane. At one point, Tchicai even played with a band inspired by Miles Davis’ electric period. The late controversial poet Amiri Baraka also joins the Quartet for some spoken word contributions. Roth wisely opts for his more benign pronouncements, but his interludes are still the only part of their reunion concert that sound dated.

To borrow terminology from Downbeat magazine, it is always great musicians get their overdue ovation. Breath should lead to greater appreciation of the New York Art Quartet, even among viewers not deeply steeped in the free jazz aesthetic. Recommended for open ears, The Breath Courses Through Us screens today (1/31) at the Library of Congress, with a New York premiere in the works.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on January 31st, 2014 at 1:54pm.

LFM Reviews Sepideh Reaching for the Stars @ The 2014 Sundance Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. In the provincial Iranian foothills, an astronomy club sets up a portable telescope outside a skeletal observatory, abandoned halfway through the construction process. Meanwhile, it is full speed ahead for Iran’s nuclear reactors. Such are the scientific priorities in today’s Iran. For a teenage girl harboring astronomical dreams, the cultural climate is even trickier. Documentary filmmaker Berit Madsen quietly observes her subject plugging away in Sepideh Reaching for the Stars, which screens during this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Star-gazing has profound personal significance for Sepideh Hooshyar. It is a form of meditation and a way to commune with the spirit of her beloved late father. As an intelligent student blessed with an independent streak, she has been tapped as a leader of her extracurricular astronomy club. Naturally, her patriarchal deadbeat uncles do not think very much of young women practicing astronomy. For reasons of greed and pettiness, they have jeopardized the financial position of Hooshyar’s mother. Still, the young woman is not inclined to kowtow to anybody.

While Hooshyar never directly addresses any political or ideological controversies, it would still be fair to describe her as a free-thinker. Throughout the film, she addresses her diary entries to her muse, Albert Einstein, and takes inspiration from her idol, Iranian American astronaut Anousheh Ansari (whom she erroneously considers the “first woman in space”).

From "Sepideh Reaching for the Stars."

Intellectually, most viewers understand Iran is far from a progressive society, but there are scenes of unabashed misogyny in Sepideh that will drop their jaws and boil their blood. Clearly, young Hooshyar is nearly always the smartest person in the room, but her government, society, and extended family all seem determined to squander her talents.

Given her fly-on-the-wall style, Madsen never offers any commentary or context, but it is transparently evident where these attitudes come from. The men and assorted female authority figures are all swimming in Islamist rhetoric. Filmed in a rather flat, colorless HD, Sepideh is not particularly cinematic looking, but there are real stakes to the drama that unfolds.

In many ways, Sepideh could be considered a fitting documentary companion to Haifaa Al Monsour’s narrative feature, Wadjda. It is a timely film, but also a deeply personal story. Highly recommended, Sepideh Reaching for the Stars screens again tomorrow (1/21), Thursday (1/23), and Friday (1/24) in Park City, as part of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on January 20th, 2014 at 9:22pm.

LFM Reviews Elliot @ The 2014 Slamdance Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. Did the recent death of Tom Laughlin leave a vacancy for Elliot “White Lightning” Scott to become the next white, working class martial arts star? No, absolutely not. Although he aspires to be the Nova Scotian Chuck Norris, Scott’s barely-there career is only headed in one direction—due south. Viewers will understand why after watching Jaret Belliveau & Matthew Bauckman’s documentary Elliot, which premiered yesterday at the 2014 Slamdance Film Festival.

With two scruffy DIY martial arts flicks under his belt, Scott is trying to complete his most ambitious project to date, a beatdown entitled Blood Fight. Unfortunately, the production has been plagued by problems that initially do seem to be entirely his fault. Nevertheless, Linda Lum, his increasingly impatient girlfriend-slash-producer is clearly starting to have doubts about his action movie dreams and pretty much every other aspect of their relationship.

Frankly, Barney Fife had better moves than Scott, but for a while viewers will try to see him as noble dreamer, like an Ed Wood or Mark Borchardt, whose ambitions exceed their talents. However, this is not American Movie. While in China with his acupuncture class, Scott lets his yellow fever run rampant. Aspects of his not so carefully constructed backstory then start to unravel. In fact, by the time the documentary enters the third act, Belliveau and Bauckman have pretty clearly turned against their subject, which becomes quite a sight to behold.

From "Elliot."

Things get so in-your-face uncomfortable, you have to wonder if it is all an extended meta-joke in the tradition of I’m Still Here. Either way, it is dramatic stuff and a not inconsiderable feat of filmmaking, shot on location in both Nova Scotia and China. There is also a lot of humor in the film, mostly derived from Scott’s sheer brazenness and lack of self awareness.

Scott’s martial arts might be laughably amateurish (an underwhelmed Shaolin monk is obviously tempted to beat him like a drum and we sort of wish he would), but Belliveau & Bauckman practice a decidedly nimble form of cinematic jujitsu. Not exactly a film for martial art purists, Elliot is sort of like Kung Fu reality programming. Right now, the late legendary Sir Run Run Shaw is probably looking down on Scott and thinking “kid, you stink.” Yet, it is all undeniably compelling. Although it screens as part of Slamdance’s Doc Features section, it could be comfortably programmed elsewhere as a midnight movie. Recommended for anyone open to a bit of Canadian bizarreness, Elliot screens again this Monday (1/20) as part of this year’s Slamdance in Park City.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on January 18th, 2014 at 5:41pm.

LFM Reviews Frontline’s Secret State of North Korea; Available Now for Free Viewing

By Joe Bendel. Has Kim Jong-un lost the mandate of North Korea’s secular Marxist Heaven? Some speculate this might be the case, but everyone agrees the young Communist tyrant will not hesitate to kill as many people as it takes to maintain his grip on absolute power. A portrait of widespread misery mixed with a little hope emerges in writer-director-producer James Jones’ Secret State of North Korea, which aired on most PBS stations this week as part of the current season of Frontline and is now available for free viewing on the PBS website.

According to satellite images, the total area devoted North Korea’s political prison camp system has measurably increased under Kim Jong-un. To put things in perspective, former CIA analyst Sue Mi Terry explains some camps are actually larger than the city of Washington, DC. When it is estimated one out every one hundred North Koreans is a political prisoner, it is hard to find grounds for optimism.

Yet, Jones introduces viewers to a brave group of activists, who it seems are growing in number. Through his network of contacts, Asia Media’s Jiro Ishimaru smuggles out unvarnished video footage of the shocking day-to-day conditions endured by North Koreans. Jones draws extensively from his underground journalism throughout his expose. While there are encouraging episodes of defiance, the images of emaciated street orphans are heartbreaking in the extreme.

From "Secret State of North Korea."

Jones also profiles North Korean defectors who try to infiltrate the truth back into the DPRK, either as contraband DVDs and flash drives or as radio and television broadcasts originating in the South but intended for Northern audiences (like the teen-centric On My Way to Meet You). In fact, the simple proliferation of cell phones represents a significant challenge to the royal heir’s authority. Yet, any hopefulness Jones’ talking heads might have is tempered by the ruthless and erratic behavior Kim has demonstrated thus far.

Secret State will also not inspire much confidence in the CIA’s information gathering, but that is an old story by now. Frankly, for foreign policy decision makers, time spent watching Jones’ report would probably be reasonably productive. It is inspiring when documenting the heroic work done by defectors, but rather scary when analyzing Kim’s mental state. Clearly, nobody interviewed on-camera blithely dismisses his provocations as mere “saber-rattling.” One of the best installments of Frontline in years, Secret State of North Korea is recommended for all viewers concerned about human rights and potential nuclear aggression.  It premiered on most PBS outlets this past week.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted January 18th, 2013th at 12:23pm.

LFM Reviews Amy Winehouse – The Day She Came to Dingle @ The 2014 New York Jewish Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. Tragically, Amy Winehouse passed away only two and a half short years ago. Could she already be due for a critical reassessment? A case could be made based on the stripped down and surprisingly soulful set recorded live for the Irish music television series, Other Voices. Indeed, the intimate setting suited her sensibilities, judging from Maurice Linnane’s Amy Winehouse—the Day She Came to Dingle, which screens during the 2014 New York Jewish Film Festival.

Produced in a small Anglican church in the remote Irish coastal city of Dingle, Other Voices has become an unlikely launching pad for many top UK performers. Saint James is a small space, with a maximum capacity of eighty. There is no avoiding the audience, but the right performer can feed off their energy. Winehouse seemed to get that. In 2006, when still in the process of breaking through internationally, she performed a set of what are now her greatest hits, with only guitarist Robin Banerjee and bassist Dale Davis backing her.

In between the six full numbers, Day cuts to excerpts from the no gossip-all music interview John Kelly conducted with Winehouse that might surprise many people. When asked about her influences, Winehouse primarily discusses jazz artists, such as Thelonius Monk and Sarah Vaughan (who is also seen in a vintage performance of “I Got It Bad,” as a pleasant bonus). She is also clearly knowledgeable about the UK jazz scene, singling out Soweto Kinch as a current favorite, so give her credit for that too. Evidently she started in jazz and even still played private duo gigs with a piano accompanist as late as 2006.

From "Amy Winehouse - The Day She Came to Dingle."

When watching Day, one gets the sense Winehouse might have been happier playing smaller, upscale jazz clubs than arenas and massive festivals like Glastonbury. While her Dingle repertoire is arguably more closely akin to 1960’s soul and girl groups, “Love is a Losing Game” has a bit of jazz rhythm to it, making it one of the highlights of the set. However, the stark arrangement of “Back to Black” is a defining standout and rather spooky sounding in retrospect.

At one point, Winehouse helpfully reminds viewers of her Russian Jewish heritage, thereby explaining why Day is a selection of this year’s NYJFF. It is a bit of a curve ball, but receptive viewers might find the manageable one hour program boosts their appreciation of Winehouse. After all, nobody from Dingle has a critical word to say about her, including Saint James’ Rev. Mairt Hanley and the old fellow who picked her up at the airport.

An entirely positive addition to her recorded legacy, Amy Winehouse—the Day She Came to Dingle is recommended for Winehouse fans and those who follow British pop music in general. While it is surely destined to be released on some format here in America, it has its New York premiere this coming Tuesday (1/14) and Wednesday (1/15), screening with the short film First Lesson in Love at the Walter Reade Theater.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on January 9th, 2014 at 9:02pm.

LFM Reviews Lonely Planet @ The 2014 New York Jewish Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. It is easy to see why banishment to Siberia was a favorite method of punishment under the old Communist regime. It still seems like a cold, isolated, economically depressed region, at least judging from the footage shot by an Israeli film crew. Ostensibly, they are looking for Mishka Zilberstein, who as young Jewish boy reportedly took refuge from the National Socialists with the wolves in the Belarus forest. Oddly enough, Zilberstein’s urban legend might be the only thing that is true in Edan Zeira’s docu-drama hybrid, Lonely Planet, which screens during the 2014 New York Jewish Film Festival.

Zeira and his Israeli-French crew are determined to find the mythical Mishka, but each lead turns out to be a dead-end. Supposedly, the real life Zilberstein eventually settled in a remote corner of Siberia. Everyone seems to know his story, but the locals are not exactly welcoming. At least all the trouble Zeira and his colleagues got into was presumably fictional, unless Zeira really did agree to a shotgun wedding to a provincial police chief’s pretty daughter, in which case, Mazel tov.

From "Lonely Planet."

This is a very strange film, for obvious reasons. Yet, despite its postmodern gamesmanship, it is worth listening-up when the real Zilberstein finally enters the picture. Indeed, Zilberstein is a fairly well documented historical figure and viewers have no reason to doubt it is really him consenting to tell his story (aside from all the meta-meta business that came before). It is a powerful tale, involving torture at the hands of both the National Socialists and the Soviets. Essentially, Zilberstein was reduced to an animal state, at a time when animals were more humane than humans.

Zeira illustrates Zilberstein’s story with highly stylized black-and-white re-enactments. Clearly, they had a terrific handler for the wolves. While his (presumed) humor is sometimes questionable, it always comes at his own expense. Some might understandably take issue with his mash-up approach in a film that directly addresses the Jewish experience during WWII, but Zeira is unfailingly respectful in his treatment of Zilberstein. Fans of Guy Maddin will probably enjoy his deconstructive and surreal inclinations, whereas general audiences will appreciate Zilberstein’s testimony. Recommended for the somewhat adventurous, Lonely Planet screens twice this coming Thursday (1/9) at the Walter Reade Theater, as part of this year’s NYJFF.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted on January 6th, 2014 at 11:08pm.