DOC N ROLL FILM FESTIVAL 2024

THE WORLD’S FOREMOST MUSIC DOC’ FESTIVAL RUNS 24 OCTOBER – 9 NOVEMBER (LONDON). THEN SPREADS OUT ACROSS UK (& DUBLIN)

Jackie Shane’s mysterious life story is examined in Any Other Way, a doc that gets its UK premiere at this year’s Doc N Roll film festival.

Regular readers will recall how I recently slated the feature length documentary Harder Than The Rock, which focuses on minor British reggae band The Cimarons. There I stated my distaste for the copycat music doc formula so many now adhere to – get an overlooked (ie “minor”) artist, overcook their story via nerdy talking heads, let boil for far too long then finish with “happy reunion” concert footage… Honestly, sitting through such features is akin to watching paint dry – just as predictable if more misleading (or even dishonest: Searching For Sugarman – the big Oscar daddy of these docs – was jammed with false narratives).

Which surely suggests the last thing on my mind would be to nominate a film festival dedicated to music documentaries. Actually, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Does this suggest I’m a masochist? A sucker for punishment? Well, yes, being a music obsessive does involve elements of such: going to gigs that can turn out to be mediocre (being in the audience at a crap concert encourages thoughts of how my money/time might better have been spent on a book or an Apple TV sub’), purchasing records/CDs that aren’t essential but are somehow seductive and, yes, sitting through yet another music doc…

Yet the element of surprise, the natural high I get off the great musical experience, ensures I remain a pilgrim. And the finest music docs not only entertain and inform - sound and vision - but can open the viewer out: at the end of the doc you feel different (in a good way) to when it started. Knowledge, compassion, insight, wit, surprise (shock even, on occasion) - the best docs can contain elements of these (and more).

My tip for this year’s top music doc, a film celebrating the genius of Jerry “Swamp Dogg” Williams. Go see - its brilliantly unconventional (like Jerry).

And, over the past decade, Doc N Roll Film Festival have provided me with plenty of surprises and highs. Doc N Roll is run by Colm Forde and Vanessa Lobon Garcia, an Irish/Spanish couple whose dedication to curating an annual music documentary festival is exemplary. Anyone with a finished music documentary can approach them and, if making the grade, get at least a single London screening.

With the BBC now producing (and purchasing) far fewer music docs than it did a decade ago, this means its much more challenging to see the genuine gems. A few turn up on streaming services – but only a few: Netflix, Amazon and Apple want features that will attract vast numbers of eyeballs (thus endless docs on superstars/those who died young+famous). Which is where Doc N Roll’s importance rests: Colm and Vanessa seek out films that will often never receive another UK screening (and can be near impossible to find online).

https://www.docnrollfestival.com/ - this is the link to DNR 24

Study this year’s lineup – maybe we’ll bump into one another at a screening.

Over recent years I’ve seen some exemplary music docs at Doc N Roll, features both informative and imaginative, yet these then seemingly vanish, never to be heard of again. Considering the huge amount of hard work that goes into making any documentary – and music docs can involve all kinds of fees re licensing recordings/footage/photos - I often wonder what happens to them.

Here’s notes on a handful of superb docs that I’ve caught at previous DNR film festivals (and not seen them available elsewhere since) :

Time And Place – a feature length doc on Lee Moses, an obscure Atlanta soul singer of whom no footage and few photos exist, how could this work? I love Moses’ one album and the handful of 45s he cut but didn’t see how a doc could be made about an artist marked by absence. First time director Simon David demonstrates how, with a real gift for composition and narrative. Time And Place is far superior to many a doc packed with footage of the artist.

Such a good doc. And it was shot on an iPhone with no artist footage - watch it and wonder!

Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes – Roach was bebop’s fiery drummer, a radical composer and jazz’s angriest man. This fascinating feature began when Sam Pollard started filming Roach at home in the 1980s. At the same time Ben Shapiro was interviewing Roach for US public radio. Decades later the two men came together to develop what they had into a masterful portrait of the by now late Roach. This doc covers his music and relationships while allowing his now adult children to reflect on a father who bristled with barely suppressed fury. Rarely do music documentaries convey such depth.

Without Getting Killed Or Caught – focusing on a creative/love triangle involving three Texans - Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt and Susanna Clark (all of whom were songwriters, Susanna also a noted painter, the blokes sang) - this provides a fascinating insight into friendship and creativity, love and fragility. Guy and Townes are now icons of American roots music and Susanna loved them both, Van Zandt’s death sending her into a depressive spiral she would never recover from. Rarely has the creative process and its costs been so nakedly documented.

Want to see them? Good luck, hopefully you will find them on a streaming service or website. And, thinking about it, I could have nominated another ten excellent films that DNR have screened. Films on New Orleans brass bands and songwriter/producer Bert Berns and doomed jazz trumpet prodigy Roy Hargroves and Congolese rhumba music and James Booker and Willie DeVille and James Cotton and… Honestly, Colm and Vanessa seek out the good stuff.

Anyway, Doc N Roll 24 begins on October 24 (in London) and offers twenty features and several shorts. Through good fortune I’ve been able to preview a handful of this year’s docs. I’ll mention the best of these below. I’ll also detail other titles – DNR aims to cover many musical bases, so there are docs on the free rave party scene and Scottish female indie groups and biker rockers Steppenwolf and dead rappers and Broadway songwriters and 2-Tone icon Pauline Black and artists so left-field I’ve never heard of them!

Admittedly, some of the subjects don’t appeal to me – I’ll actively avoid films on Genesis P. Orridge and Gogol Bordello – no matter: there is a lot on offer at D&R. After London screenings some of the films will be shown in other UK cities (and Dublin), while I believe they’re extending the festival to the US. Well done, guys.

The 9 Lives Of Barbara Dane

You don’t know who Barbara Dane is? Admittedly, most people don’t – even though the 97-year old folk singer and activist has been making music since the early 1950s. Dane’s a remarkable talent, an artist who shared the stage with Louis Armstrong and Bob Dylan, sang blues-jazz-folk and even cut a Northern Soul classic, all the while fighting for racial equality and against US imperialism. Director Maureen Gosling made a super doc, Aint No Mouse Music, about the late Chris Strachwitz (of Arhoolie Records) and edited many of Les Blanc’s celebrated docs. She knows how to capture American mavericks and I highly recommend this film. Gosling will undertake a Q&A after the film’s screening on October 27.

Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted

I mentioned this doc as exemplary when dismissing Harder Than The Rock because it stands in contention with that turd: fascinating and funny (really funny!) and offbeat (those adjectives also describing its subject well!). Swamp Dogg is Jerry Williams, an African American singer/songwriter/producer who has been active almost as long as Barbara Dane. Williams’ talent as a songwriter can be heard on many recordings by others (Doris Duke’s magnificent I’m A Loser album is Jerry’s songs+production) – alongside his own often awry albums (1970’s Total Destruction Of Your Mind is a good one to start with: imagine a Zappa/LSD infused Southern soul singer) – and this film gives an insight into his life and methods. I’ve met Jerry – he’s droll, gruff and funny as fuck! – and this brilliant film goes way beyond the usual music/interview. An eye opener, in every sense. November 7 screening.

Devo

I was wearing short pants when Devo’s debut album dropped in 1978 and, boy, were we fascinated by this odd band from Ohio. They appeared perfectly “new wave” – little did we know the band and their concept of “devolution” had existed since 1970 and began as a conceptual art project. Witty, quirky, unpredictable – Devo were a fascinating pop culture band at the end of the 1970s. Inevitably, the commercial demands of the music industry wore the band down. Recently they reformed. I’ve not seen this film so am looking forward to it. 25 October & 8 November screenings.

Garland Jeffreys – The King Of In-Between

OK, I’ve watched this doc’ and I also know Garland: I’ve seen him sing in London several times over the years – he’s a stunning performer - interviewed him and even visited his tiny apartment in Manhattan. This doc is made by his wife, Claire Jeffreys, and its a portrait of a man she not only knows very well but one now suffering from early onset dementia. In this sense its a moving tribute to a musician who has been silenced by a disease one rarely considers (I believe Brian Wilson also now suffers from similar). Garland’s mixed bloodlines ensured he mixed musical genres (effortlessly blending rock/soul/reggae/introspective songwriting) and often wrote on race in the USA – his 1977 album Ghost Writer is an underrated gem (Lou Reed was a vocal champion of Jeffreys, as is Bruce Springsteen – who appears here). His music wasn’t easily categorisable, this ensured he never won stardom, but what a singer and performer: once, watching him at London’s Jazz Cafe, a man in the audience shouted out “I love ya Garland even if I can’t fuckin’ see ya!” “Why can’t you see me?” enquired the surprised singer. “Cos I’m fuckin’ blind,” came the answer (he was). Garland then leapt off stage and embraced the man. Moments like this are why I keep going to gigs. October 27 screening. I believe Claire will host a Q&A after the film’s screening.

Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story

I’ve not seen this film and aren’t even that familiar with the late Jackie Shane’s music, but I’m very interested in this doc. Shane was an African American R&B vocalist who, while born male, determined they were female at a young age (so sang as a woman). Shane was both celebrated and shunned in the 1960s and became something of a recluse, dying in 2019 just as her old recordings were reissued to much acclaim. Screening 2 November.

That’s my top 5 features for DNR 24 and, yes, all are focused on US artists: if there is a major flaw in this year’s selection its that none of the docs are on artists from Africa, Asia or Latin America. I know, DNR isn’t BFI funded and has to sell tickets but, surely, there’s one non-first world (or even non-Anglo) music film out there that would attract eyeballs? And do we really need so many rock docs? Rock’s so last century… Also: screening Barbara Dane, Garland Jeffreys and Annie DeFranco docs all on the same afternoon is very poor programming - these 3 artists appeal to a folk/roots music fans, this clash limiting audiences for each screening. If they clashed with the P.Orridge or Ol’ Dirty Bastard films, well, DNR would not be losing any ticket sales there.

Even with qualms I’ve grateful to Colm and Vanessa for organising such. Nobody does it better? Actually, no one else in the UK does it! Be thankful they bother. Check what’s on and go and see a film or two. Remember, beyond the Pauline Black doc’, its unlikely you will easily get to see most of these docs again.

Steppenwolf soundtracked Easy Rider. What happened to the band after this? Head along to DNR to see Born To Be Wild on November 2 and learn!