Collaborative Music Blogging Project
Filmmaking duo Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth have a track record of breaking the music doc mould. Their 2014 Nick Cave film 20,000 Days on Earth remains the high watermark for music films. Like that film, Broken English has clearly been made with a deep love of knowledge of a complex and often misunderstood artist.…
Continue reading [Film Review] LFF 2025: Broken English
A film about the life of Pauline Black seems long overdue. The spotlight of the 2-Tone scene is often pointed at her male contemporaries like The Specials or The Beat, so now it’s time for Black to tell the story in her own words. Part biography, and part road documentary of her musical second act,…
Continue reading [Film review] LFF2024: Pauline Black: A 2-Tone Story
In typically acerbic form, Stephen Malkmus said: “Has there ever been a good movie made about a rock band?” – that question pops up early in Alex Ross Perry’s latest film Pavements. As a film, it’s harder to pin down than the most obscure of Pavement ‘B’ sides. On paper, everything about it shouldn’t work.…
Continue reading [Film review] LFF2024: Pavements
Mogwai’s signature, largely instrumental post-rock sound has lent itself to the medium of film for a long time, including the score for football doc Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait. So it seems fitting that in If the Stars Had a Sound, filmmaker (and long time Mogwai collaborator) Antony Crook has finally turned the camera on…
Continue reading [Film review] Mogwai: If the Stars had a Sound
Most films about bands aren’t made by its own members. But there again, Sound For The Future isn’t your average music film or documentary. Much like artist/photographer/filmmaker and performer Matt Hulse himself – it’s a hybrid. Or, as Matt recently put it, “A part animated, kaleidoscopic, queer, musical docu-drama that takes its name from the…
Continue reading Sound For The Future: a chat with filmmaker Matt Hulse
Director Sarah Price’s crowdfunded L7 documentary is a “rags to riches to rags” tale of the LA Grunge band from 1985-2001 and subsequent reformation in 2015. L7: Pretend We’re Dead is a fairly standard chronological rock-doc made up of talking heads, tour footage and backstage antics. Price had over 100 hours of footage to go…
Continue reading [Film Review] L7: Pretend We’re Dead – UK Premiere at Doc ‘n Roll Film Festival
The fourth edition of Doc’ n Roll Film Festival, the UK’s Music Documentary Festival will take place in London from 2nd-19th November. The programme kicks off with A Winding Road: A Ramble with Richard Thompson at Picturehouse Central, featuring a Q&A with Thompson and director Edmond Deraedt. The rest of the line up includes the London Premiere…
Continue reading Doc’ n Roll Film Festival returns to London in November
Guest post by Zara Woodward. Just days before Christmas, a GoFundMe campaign was launched for singer Greg Gilbert after it was revealed that he had been diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer, which has spread to his lungs, and that the NHS were limited in what they could do for him. The initial target of…
Continue reading [News]Call to Delays fans – last push to get the song ‘Valentine’ back in the charts for Valentine’s Day, download the song before midnight tonight (9th February).
The last few years have seen a shake-up of the music documentary format, having moved on from the traditional talking heads and (arguably navel-gazey studio tours). While this one doesn’t attempt to reinvent any wheels, it does present a frank (pun fully intended) and entertaining account of a complex artist and composer. Full disclosure, I’m…
Continue reading Eat That Question – Frank Zappa in His Own Words: UK Premiere @ Doc ‘n’ Roll Film Festival
The UK Music documentary film festival returns to London for a 3rd year at various venues across the city, including the BFI Southbank, Hackney Picturehouse, Picturehouse Central, the ICA, Moth Club, The Social and Rich Mix.This year’s line includes documentaries about Parliament/Funkadelic, The Orb, The Melvins, Frank Zappa, Sid and Nancy, Bonnie Prince Billy, Bad…
Continue reading Doc ‘n’ Roll Festival returns to London November 2nd-13th
