EARSHOT JAZZ FILMS
October 28 – November 6
Each year Northwest Film Forum presents the film component of the Earshot Jazz Festival, illuminating the lives, music and creative collaborations of great jazz artists. This year’s program features the Seattle area premieres of new documentaries Electric Heart and Martino Unstrung as well as archival presentations of the classic documentary Mingus (1968), the rarely seen feature film A Man Called Adam (1966), and animated jazz shorts by John and Faith Hubley (1957-75).
OCTOBER 28 – 29, TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY AT 8PM
Mingus (Charlie Mingus 1968)
(Thomas Reichman, USA, 1968, 16mm, 58 min)
40th Anniversary Screening
Sponsored by KBCS 91.3 FM
This frank, tender and at times shocking cinéma verité portrait of the legendary jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus reveals the volatile dimensions of this protean creator in a particularly difficult period. On the eve of eviction from his Bowery loft, the hulking but gentle Mingus moves back and forth through physical and emotional clutter, speaking candidly with Reichman on topics ranging from music to sex to racism, interacting tenderly with his 5–year old daughter Carolyn, plunking on the piano and even hoisting a rifle. The film cuts intermittently between Mingus as defiant and depressed, and performance footage in which Mingus as bandleader is, as jazz critic Nat Hentoff has put it, “like Zeus hurling thunderbolts.” The feature will be preceded by rarely screened Mingus performance footage.
NOVEMBER 1 – 2, SATURDAY & SUNDAY AT 5PM
Jazz Animation From The Hubley Studio
(John and Faith Hubley, USA, 1957–75, 35mm, 70 min)
Beginning in the 1950s, the wonderfully imaginative and innovative films of independent animators John and Faith Hubley broke from traditional styles of animation and addressed important issues with intelligence, passion and humor. Their poetic sensibility and whimsical, impressionistic visual style (more reminiscent of painters Klee and Miro than Disney) lent itself perfectly to jazz music. "There’s something about jazz’s bending of time within a rigid format that also applies to animation," Faith Hubley once observed. "That’s why they work so well together. It’s a marriage made in heaven." This special program highlights the best of the Hubleys’ jazz films, featuring their collaborations with such musicians and composers as Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Quincy Jones, Benny Carter, and others. Appropriate for all ages.
NOVEMBER 1-3, SATURDAY-MONDAY AT 7 & 9PM
Electric Heart: Don Ellis
(John Vizzusi, USA, 2007, BetaSP, 100 min)
Innovative jazz composer, arranger, and musician Don Ellis continually ventured into new musical horizons. Often to the detriment of his career, Ellis experimented with unusual time signatures, electronics, and elements of rock, classical and world music. Even his instrument, a custom designed quarter–tone trumpet was a musical innovation. But despite his stellar Columbia recordings with legendary producer John Hammond, his “Tears Of Joy” band sharing the stage with rock groups such as The Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company, and his Grammy award winning score for the film The French Connection, Ellis remains largely forgotten today. Electric Heart re–discovers his music and story with rare performance footage unseen for 40 years and interviews with such musical giants as the late bandleader Maynard Ferguson, Pulitzer–winning composer Gunther Schuller, and pianist Milcho Leviev.
NOVEMBER 1-3, SATURDAY-MONDAY AT 7 & 9PM
Martino Unstrung
(Ian Knox, UK, 2007, digiBETA, 90min)
In 1980, the legendary jazz guitarist Pat Martino was brutally silenced by memory stripping brain surgery. Filmed over the past two years, Martino Unstrung is a fascinating tale of music and memory. The film chronicles Martino’s ascent from the depths of amnesia to the peak of artistry once more. Directed by award winning filmmaker Ian Knox, it is narrated by neuropsychologist and author Paul Broks. The film explores the nature of memory, creativity and the brain systems underlying personal identity as it tracks the struggles of this great jazz artist. Interviews with musicians Delmar Brown, Red Holloway, John Patitucci, Les Paul, Carlos Santana, Pete Townshend and others shed light on the impact of Martino’s music.
NOVEMBER 5–6, WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY AT 8PM
A Man Called Adam
(Leo Penn, 1966, USA, 16mm, 102 min)
This rarely seen 1966 independent film by blacklisted director Leo Penn (Sean Penn’s father) stars Sammy Davis Jr. as a troubled jazz musician (ghosted on trumpet by Nat Adderley) and Cicely Tyson in one of her first screen roles as a young civil rights activist. The film features music composed and arranged by Benny Carter (who also scored some of the short films in our Jazz Animation From The Hubley Studio program) and appearances by jazz greats Louis Armstrong and Mel Tormé. A Man Called Adam is notable for its bold attempt at addressing issues of race and identity. The film is very rarely screened and not available on dvd, so don’t miss these two special screenings of an archival film print.
