FALL 2006
BORDERLESS SOUNDS
SEPTEMBER 22-28
Sponsored by: KBCS 91.3, PR Helvetia, Swiss Films and Easy Street Records.
Special thanks to Ralph McKay and Pro Helvetia in cooperation with Swissfilms.
This fall, NWFF presents BORDERLESS SOUNDS, an ethnographic musical journey from Madagascar to Manhattan, klezmer to classical. Travel the globe with noted musician Fred Frith, who explores the integral link between all forms of music by connecting with primal rock music, traditional Japanese percussion, North African pop, techno music and beyond, all while showing his genuine love for all things musical. Take a ride with classical musician Irene Schwèizer, who has referred to the piano as her companion for over 40 years. Join the semi-retired Epstein Brothers in an affectionate portrait of Polish-Jewish immigrants long popular on the klezmer circuit, now suddenly concert-hall favorites in their old age. Follow seven Malagasy legends as they back up their protest songs with action. These films showcase exceptional musicians who carve new trails and introduce nonconformists whose thoughts and actions ignore borders, transcend convention and subvert the rules of society.
Attend all the films in BORDERLESS SOUNDS with the Series Pass: $25/$35 NWFF members.
SEPT 22 Fri at 7, 9pm
SEATTLE PREMIERE!
ACCORDION TRIBE
(Stefan Schwietert, Austria/Switzerland, 2004, 35mm, 90 min.)
The squeezebox receives a long overdo overture! Five highly individual musicians from different countries form the ACCORDION TRIBE and achieve the seemingly impossible: returning their long disregarded instrument to the worldwide recognition it once enjoyed. As their tour bus journeys through a Europe resplendent with rich musical heritage, the unlikely ensemble embraces the past and searches for new beginnings. Accompanied by an exciting aural landscape of trancelike intensity, ACCORDION TRIBE is both an enjoyable road movie and a magnificent showcase for the transforming power of music. In English and German with English subtitles.
SEPT 23 Sat at 7, 9pm
SEATTLE PREMIERE!
DAS ALPHORN
(Stefan Schwietert, Germany/Switzerland, 2003, BetaSP, 76 min.)
The alphorn is often misused as a symbol in advertising for Alpine tourism. Stefan Schwietert’s film explores the diversity of music produced by a singular instrument, from the wild “Büchelsätzli” of central Switzerland to jazz musician Hans Kennel performing the modern sound collages of minimalist composer Moondog, from the beautiful traditional alphorn melodies by the contemporary composer Hans-Jürg Sommer to the bombastic towers of tone performed by groups called “hornroh” in train stations and expressway underpasses. In Swiss-German with English subtitles.
SEPT 24 Sun at 7, 9pm
A TICKLE IN THE HEART
(Stefan Schwietert, Germany/Switzerland, 1996, 35mm, 90 min.)
Shot in beautiful black and white, A TICKLE IN THE HEART is a stunning, cinematic documentary depicting the semi–retired lives of The Epstein Brothers, the "Kings of Klezmer Music." For more than 60 years, the brothers played their joyous, sentimental songs at Jewish immigrant celebrations in Brooklyn. Today, they live and continue to play their memory-laden melodies in America’s retirement paradise, Florida. In English and Yiddish with English subtitles.
SEPT 25 Mon at 7, 9pm
OMBRES
(Edna Politti, Switzerland, 1997, 35mm, 107 min.)
A moving meditation on artistic process and performance, OMBRES recounts the development of a violin concerto by the maestro Heinz Holliger in homage to the little-known Swiss painter Louis Soutter. Director Edna Politi juxtaposes the work of these radically different creators in her unique project. The film alternates scenes featuring the refinement of Holliger’s musical composition—highlighted in rehearsal sessions by the impassioned violinist Thomas Zehetmair—with select reproductions from Soutter’s underappreciated oeuvre. The account of Soutter’s tragic life lends OMBRES a somber weight, but the rousing rendition of Holliger’s concerto supplies the film with a hopeful and affirmative finale. In French and German with English subtitles.
SEPT 26 Tues at 7, 9pm
SEATTLE PREMIERE!
IRÈNE SCHWEIZER
(Gitta Gsell, Switzerland, 2005, 35mm, 75 min.)
Swiss pianist Irène Schweizer is a pioneer. For the past 40 years, she has been a fixture of the European free jazz scene, even if she is not as well known as some of her male colleagues. This film offers fascinating insight into the life of a great artist, a life where friendships and relationships always take second place to the music. In Swiss-German, German and English with English subtitles.
SEPT 27 Wed at 7, 9pm
SEATTLE PREMIERE!
NAMIBIA CROSSINGS
(Peter Liechti, Switzerland, 2004, 35mm, 92 min.)
NAMIBIA CROSSINGS chronicles a gathering of the Hambana Sound Company, a troupe comprised of twelve musicians from Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola and Switzerland. The musicians meet with local Namibian villagers to locate the origins of music. Their search triggers feelings ranging from euphoria to sorrow. Liechti creates a polyphonic emotional landscape from each individual’s highs and lows. In Afrikaans, English and German with English subtitles.
SEPT 28 Thurs at 7, 9pm
STEP ACROSS THE BORDER
(Nicholas Humbert & Werner Penzel, Germany/Switzerland, 1990, 35mm, 90 min.)
British composer, instrumentalist, improviser and performer Fred Frith is an irrepressible and unpredictable pillar of the gray area where rock meets contemporary avant-garde music. From the late sixties, when he formed his first "dada" blues band, through collaborations with John Zorn and The Residents, Frith has dazzled audiences with his playful audacity and inventiveness. Nicholas Humbert and Werner Penzel's globe-trotting documentary offers a startling and poetic fusion of Frith's life that lays bare the spirit and tenacity of his creative process. Humbert and Penzel fuse film and music to create what they call "a film about the symphonic relationship between express trains, storms and electric guitars, which brings together two kindred forms of artistic expression—improvised music and cinema direct." In English and German with English subtitles
