MOFFOM Remix at the American Center February 26-28, 2008

Malá Strana may have lost its last cinema years ago, but MOFFOM will finally have its own winter “echoes”screening series. The co-organizer of the project MOFFOM Remix at the American Center, Marek Svoboda is eager to attract music film fans for three nights of free film screenings. “After the success of last year’s special MOFFOM screenings and especially the exhibit of Mississippi photographs of William Ferris (MOFFOM special guest 2006) we wanted to develop the echoes program to be large enough to cover diverse subjects, while remaining focused”. A total of six documentary films, mainly from the 2007 program will be shown on three consecutive nights in late February. Each night will have a theme and 2 films will be shown with only a brief intermission between each film. The first night is presented in honor of Black History month in the US. The second night will follow the theme of Americans Abroad. The final night will present films about New York City. Although the subject and the venue are American, 3 of the films are by non-American directors and show interesting angles on the music and culture of the United States.

The cultural center is located just 50 meters down the street from the American Embassy. All screenings are with Czech Subtitles and free to the public.

American center, Tržiště 13, Malá Strana. More at http://www.usembassy.cz/american_center.html

Tuesday February 26th Black History

18:30 Music Inn

2007 | U.S.A. | English | 97 min.

Director: Ben Barenholtz

Producers: Naomi Bombardi-Wilson, George Schuller, Ben Barenholtz

Editor: Tamino Castro

Narration: Benjamin Barber

During the 1950s, a small country inn a few hours’ drive from New York attained an exalted status in jazz circles. Visionary and politically-active couple Stephanie and Philip Barber launched the Music Inn in 1950 as a summer haven for jazz and folk music in the Berkshires. They pioneered the presentation of jazz in concert rather than club settings, and organised jazz workshops and roundtable discussions of music history. This evolved into the first setting for the study of America’s indigenous art music. Legendary independent film producer Ben Barenholz presents the story through vintage photographs and archive footage, live recordings from the Inn, and interviews with the survivors, following the Inn through a politically divisive decade.

More @ www.praguemonitor.com/en/194/cinema_in_prague/13506

20:15 Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story

2007 | U.S.A. | English | 114 min.

Director: Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville

Producers: Morgan Neville, Robert Gordon, Mark Crosby

Dir. of Photography: David Leonard

Screenplay: Morgan Neville, Robert Gordon, Mark Crosby

Editor: Alexis Spraic, John Green

Music: STAX

In the early 1960s, Stax Records established itself as a community-oriented and multiracial enterprise in the heart of segregated Memphis. Within a few years, Stax had become one of the leading independent record labels in the world, with house band Booker T.& the MG‘s and rising star Otis Redding topping the charts internationally. In 1968, disaster struck as the company lost its main artist and the ownership of their productions, while Memphis itself was devastated in the wake of Martin Luther King‘s assassination.However, Stax re-invented itself in the mold of black powerand funk with the 1972 Wattstax Festival and the success of IsaacHayes. A comprehensive survey featuring unseen home movies,rehearsal outtakes and lost perfomances.

Wednesday February 27th Americans Abroad

18:30 The Red Elvis

2007 | Germany | German, English, Spanish | 90 min.

Director: Leopold Gruen

Producer: Thomas Janze

Editor: Dirk Uhlig

Music: MONOMANGO

Sound: Ralf Herrmann

Dir. of Photography: Thomas Janze

Red Elvis is a complex examination of the phenomenon of Dean Reed, an expatriate American performer who was cowboy and dogmatic leftist in equal measure. After converting to radicalism in the turbulent South America of the 1960s, Reed abandoned theUS for the socialist camp and managed to rise to unprecedented superstar status in the East Block during the 1970s. This absorbing documentary portrait examines his admittedly mixed legacy today, and how he is perceived two decades after his mysterious death. Treating Reed as a symbolic figure within a larger international context, the filmmakers trace his steps from his hometown in Colorado to his adopted home of Berlin, searching out fans and memories from as far afield as Russia and Chile.

20:15 Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback

2006 | Germany, U.S.A., Spain | English, German | 100 min.

Director: Dietmar Post, Lucia Palacios

Producer: Dietmar Post

Dir. of Photography: Dietmar Post, Lucia Palacios

Editor: Dieter Jaufmann

Sound: Dietmar Post, Lucia Palacios

Music: The Monks

The Monks were five American soldiers based in Cold War-era Germany, who billed themselves as the “anti-Beatles”. Their sound combined trance-like drones, feedback and electric banjo. Under the tutelage of their German art-school managers, they styled themselves as medieval monks and began to approach performance art and “happenings”. While mocking the Vietnam war they also rocked far harder than any of their counterparts, anticipating the sounds of industrial, punk and techno years before their time. The film not only illustrates the phenomenon of 1960s German popmusic in its full political, social and cultural context, but also reveals the Monks’ project as being the first to attempt a marriage between art and pop music, well before Warhol or Jirous.

More @ www.praguemonitor.com/en/194/cinema_in_prague/13575

Thursday February 28th New York City

18:30 The True Legend of Tony Vilar

2006 | Italy | Italian | 93 min.

Director: Giuseppe Gagliardi

Co-Producer: Avocado Pictures

Dir. of Photography: Giuseppe Gagliardi

Screenplay: Giuseppe Gagliardi, Peppe Voltarelli

Editor: Gianluca Stuard

Music: Peppe Voltarelli, Tony Vilar

Sound: Sergio Senatori

A stylish, noirish and very entertaining feature film from upcoming director Giuseppe Gagliardi, in which the offbeat musician Peppe Voltarelli (frontman of high energy Calabrian folk-rockers Il Parto della Nuvole Pesanti) searches the Italian neighborhoods of North and South America for the current whereabouts of disappeared 1960s pop idol Tony Vilar. Mixing halfparodic elements of the suspense thriller, the gangster film and the fake documentary with stylized musical numbers and a wry and candid look at the eccentricities of a highly entertaining ethnic diaspora, the film follows the mysterious footsteps of the Italian Elvis (or Argentine Celentano) from Rome to Buenos Aires, and on to Brooklyn and the Bronx.

20:15 Godfather of Disco

2007 | U.S.A. | English | 84 min.

Director: Gene Graham

Producers: Gene Graham, Francis Legge

Dir. of Photography: Francis Legge

Editor: Gene Graham

Sound: Francis Legge

Adapted by: Gene Graham based on the autobiography, “Keep On Dancin‘ / My Life and the Paradise Garage” by Mel Cheren

A look at the the rise and fall of 1970s dance music culture, as seen through the compelling story of Mel Cheren: a music industry executive who became enthralled by the burgeoning gay club scene in New York and became the first to issue instrumental B-sides and 12 inch dance mixes. Featuring testimony from several notable veterans

of the dance music community, the film uses Mel’s life story as a vehicle to examine the musical and social currents that gave birth to the disco phenomenon, specifically the groundbreaking West End Records and the legendary club Paradise Garage. It alsotakes in the onslaught of HIV/Aids and its impact on the cultural life of New York City. Pioneer, activist and survivor, Mel Cheren is The Godfather of Disco.

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