Film for Django in June

andoatagn

Hi Folks:
I didn't know where to post this and I figured 'Chtop's corner was as good as any. Here's the deal...

There is a local cinema here in the Northampton/Amherst area that would like to be involved with Django in June by showing a Django-related film with us supplying some live music as part of the evening. Last year they showed Swing (featuring Tchavolo) and we sent over Aurelien Bouly with Josh Assad and Jack Soref for the live piece. The place was almost sold out and everyone seemed to enjoy it a lot.

I'm looking for suggestions on this year's program...especially on films. Anybody seen Jon and Jimmy? Care to make another recommendation? We've got a strong violin contingent coming this year, so a more Grappelli oriented offering might work.

For the moment, I'm steering clear of documentaries. We can provide the talking (and playing) heads. I'm more interested in feature films.

Thanks for any suggestions...

~Andrew
Django in June

wayne nakamura

Liberte is Tony Gatlif's latest film and is an interesting film to watch.

Music plays a central roll in the film.

sockeye

The Grappelli "A life in jazz music" documentary is outstanding.

TimmyHawken

This is not a documentary

sfishman59

What about a study/film/piece on the growth of the gypsy jazz genre in America? I've never seen any comprehensive media on the growth of the music/press/industry anywhere. Hell, even this forum is a product of the growth of the genre in America. I'm sure a lot of the players will be American at the festival since it's in MA, so you'd have plenty of primary sources to offer. I understand it's not a feature film but might serve some sort of purpose somewhere down the line.

adrian

Is "Sweet and Lowdown" too mainstream/cliche?

Also, "The Red Violin" is fantastic.

Adrian

andoatagn

Thanks for everyone's suggestions so far. I'll take a closer look at the new Tony Gatliff film (we did one of his last year, so that might work as a follow-up). And Adrian, I always have S&L in my back pocket as an option. With so few films to choose from I'm sure I'll need to use it one of these years!

As for the Grappelli documentary, I agree...it's very well done and may need to resort to it at some point, but the cinema's director has a clear preference for feature films. Same goes, I guess, for the other documentary of Jimmy Rosenberg that was recommended...though I had heard elsewhere that that film is better than Jon and Jimmy. I'm not sure I can find Father and Son in a format that the cinema will be able to play.

Anyway...thanks again to all. Keep those suggestions coming if there's anything else out there!

~Andrew

Cuimean

I haven't seen Lacombe, Lucien, but I have the soundtrack on vinyl and it's all Django stuff.

An animated Django puts in a cameo in The Triplets of Belleville.

Old French music is pretty central to the story of Sous les toits de Paris. In fact, several scenes take place inside a bal musette.

djangology

Probably not the best suggestion by any stretch, but I love the Documentary "Les Paul - Chasing Sound". Also, it contains almost a minute of footage of one of Djangos guitars...

Stackabones

adrian wrote:

Is "Sweet and Lowdown" too mainstream/cliche?

Nah -- I bet it'd be sold out. Especially if it became like Rocky Horror Picture Show and folks started shouting out stuff at the screen. Or they started jamming at the right spots.

djangology

I used to run my college movie theatre and we brought all kinds of foreign films and some domestic films into the theatre and usually booked the room about 10% but whenever we brought a cartoon (like Aladdin) the theatre sold out solid. Kinda funny how that worked.