8th Jecheon International Music & Film Festival Wrap-up

Part of MKC's coverage of the Jecheon Intl. Music & Film Festival.

It took me a while to gather my thoughts on the eight films I saw during my brief weekend at the 8th Jecheon International Music & Film Festival but now that I've really had the time to think about it, I can say that it was well worth my time. I saw some very good films and a few bad ones but most of all the event reminded me that I'm actually a huge music enthusiast. These days as I try to keep up with everything going on in the film world, it's very easy to forget that. I often go weeks at time without ever opening iTunes. So for that, as well as the great films I did see, I am grateful for the Jecheon film festival and I will gladly be returning for its 9th edition next year.

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JIMFF 2012: Punk's Not Dead (Pankot ne e mrtov, Macedonia) 2011

Part of MKC's coverage of the Jecheon Intl. Music & Film Festival.

Each of us loves different styles of music. Our tastes are informed by many factors: style, geography, language, instrumentation, tempo, etc. We fill our computers and smartphones with these (more ardent enthusiasts may still curate record collections). However, some people will go to extra lengths to associate themselves to a certain style. They may customize their appearance or ascribe to particular ideologies. Politics and social issues can come into it but other times the music might be a gateway to something else entirely: community. The need to belong is strong and for those of us that cannot or do not want to follow the status quo, there is always a danger of being marginalized. Luckily, in this day and age, we are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to pick and choose from many different lifestyles. Non-conformity no longer comes with the same stigma as it once did.

As the title suggests, Punk’s Not Dead is a film about one of the most abrasive genres of music to emerge in the modern era. However, very luck little punk music is actually featured in the film and that’s because the focus thing here is on the sense of community that is created around the music. The protagonists are lost: wandering aimlessly in the decrepit landscape of modern Macedonia. Pushing 40, they are looking a little rough around the edges: leather jackets cover their wearied shoulders; piercings and tattoos adorn their wrinkled skin. They have lived life but time has passed them by and new circumstances have rendered them redundant and mute: their protests are now a whimper of what they once were. Rather than living the punk lifestyle and reveling in anarchy, they merely cling to the scene as a pretext for their existence. It is a social outlet in a world where few are available to them, the booze and drugs are a respite from the bleak landscape there are immersed in.

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JIMFF 2012: Abba (阿爸, Taiwan) 2011

Part of MKC's coverage of the Jecheon Intl. Music & Film Festival.

Though not always convinced by the films, the Jecheon Intl. Music & Film Festival was definitely a period of musical discovery for me. It reawakened my love for Tropicalia and Serge Gainsbourg, made me wish I had more time to play my guitar (Jason Becker: I’m Not Dead Yet) and introduced me to flamenco singing (Morente). On the flipside I also discovered that I am not too keen on Thai country music (The Moon). The Taiwanese documentary Abba (which features a number of flashback scenes) led me to more uncharted territory as it immersed me in Taiwan's pop music scene.

This doc’s subject is Hong Yi-feng, the late King of Taiwanese Pop. Much of the proceedings involve the staging of a tribute concert being put on by his three sons (themselves successful artists) following his death. It’s a tribute film that commemorates his achievements as a pioneering musician in Taiwan but it is also a portrait of a deeply flawed man who was a strict father, an adulterer and ultimately an absentee family man. Most of the film is told from the viewpoint of his sons, all of whom are grown up with their own families.

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JIMFF 2012 - Gainsbourg By Gainsbourg: An Intimate Self-Portrait (Je suis venu vous dire..., France) 2012

Part of MKC's coverage of the Jecheon Intl. Music & Film Festival.

When I noticed this documentary among the many titles on offer at this year’s JIMFF, I quickly saved a spot for it in my schedule. It was my first time hearing of it but as I count myself one of Serge Gainsbourg’s many fans it was out of the question that I should miss it. However, following the thrill of seeing it in the schedule and my rising excitement as I recalled this great artist’s legacy, my initial enthusiasm soon turned to trepidation. Gainsbourg, of course, is no mere pop star (not that I mean to denigrate anyone associated with that label). He is one of the most complicated mainstream artists of the 20^th century. Following his death, the president of his native France declared him a national treasure, placing him in the same pantheon as Apollinaire and Baudelaire, two of the finest poets to ever put pen to paper.

My fear was that he is a towering figure, a versatile musician with an enigmatic persona: how does one adumbrate his life and work in a mere 100 minutes? There was no doubt in my mind that the music would be up to par (as it would be his) and that I could expect a number of interesting anecdotes coupled with footage and audio of the great man himself outside of his recorded oeuvre. What did nag at me was that I could scarcely imagine how the film could live up to the man.

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JIMFF 2012: The Moon (พุ่มพวง, Pumpuang, Thailand) 2011

Part of MKC's coverage of the Jecheon Intl. Music & Film Festival.

Generally speaking I’m not a huge fan of music biopics. As the Jecheon film festival has proven (or not in some instances), musicians tend to make better documentary subjects. With the latter format you can improvise and approach their life and work from a variety of angles. By staging a full blown narrative feature, you’re assuming that the musician has a life that is worth the film treatment. Very often this is not the case. While musicians lead very interesting lives, these rarely amount to a good feature-length narrative.

The Moon is about Pumpuang Duangjang, the queen of Thai country (luktung) music. Born in poverty, Pumpuang worked hard to get herself taken in as an apprentice by an established musician in Bangkok and quickly made a name for herself with her powerful voice among a male-dominated scene. The film chronicles her steady rise and later her battle with illness, all the while exploring her marriage as she grows more famous and distant.

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JIMFF 2012: Morente (Morente, flamenco y Picasso, Spain) 2011

Part of MKC's coverage of the Jecheon Intl. Music & Film Festival.

I’m very glad I saw the Spanish documentary Morente, as it introduced me to a wonderful style of music that I was not very familiar beforehand but particularly because it brought the formidable artist Enrique Morente to my attention: a man with a beautiful voice who sings with heartrending passion. However, aside from its resplendent, larger-than-life protagonist, I have to chalk this documentary up as a failure. It is poorly made and worse it comes off as indulgent.

Enrique Morente was a flamenco singer who had reached the pinnacle of his art. At the time of the making of this film, which incidentally were his last days (he passed away shortly after the project wrapped), he is attempting to breathe his art into the words of Picasso, Spain’s most revered artist.

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JIMFF 2012: Tropicalia (Brazil) 2012

Part of MKC's coverage of the Jecheon Intl. Music & Film Festival.

Ah nostalgia, what a curious beast it is. This documentary whisked me back to my college days when I was an avid music collector with a rather eclectic set of tastes. One of my favorite discoveries was Brazilian music from the late 1960s and early 70s, particularly the genre known as Tropicalia. All my favorite artists of that period, including Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Os Mutantes and Tom Ze, feature prominently in this new documentary, which explores their revolutionary music and the impact it had on contemporaneous Brazilian society.

Making a music documentary is no simple task. In one sense as a music documentarian you are very fortunate to have an array of stellar songs at your fingertips. However, the danger is that the strength of your soundtrack can overwhelm the film. Tropicalia features a stunning soundtrack and though knowledgeable of this music scene I discovered many new gems as I watched it, this was a plus. Director Marcelo Marchedo does two things with his approach to his documentary. He tries to create a modern, flowing historical document and also attempts to match the liveliness and passion of the Tropicalia scene through the pace of his feature and his panache in the editing suite. His bag of montage tricks seems bottomless.

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JIMFF 2012: The Last Elvis (El Ultimo Elvis, Argentina) 2012

Part of MKC's coverage of the Jecheon Intl. Music & Film Festival.

Whether it be gods, sovereigns, athletes or rock stars, idolatry is something that has pervaded human society at the very least since our civilization’s records began. What leads to the fanatical worship that we are almost all guilty of? Among other things, jealousy could be to blame. Be we lacking in riches or power, we often look to others who have acquired them. We may hate these people but just as easily our ire could turn to love, perhaps even devotion. However, this love is akin to self-love as we begin to live vicariously through other people’s achievements.

So where does this jealousy come from? We could throw out a few reasons but I think the main culprits are dissatisfaction and disillusionment. The sad fact is that the majority of us may never feel that we have accomplished what we set out to do in our lives. Even those that have achieved what we desire seem to be dissatisfied with their lot. This is an eternal human predicament: we’re never happy with what we have. The grass is always greener so to speak. A bold generalization to be sure and while I won’t say that it affects us all (though it may very well), the majority of us feel this to some extent.

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JIMFF 2012 - Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet (USA, 2012)

Part of MKC's coverage of the Jecheon Intl. Music & Film Festival.

When director Jesse Vile presented his film ahead of its screening he asked how many people were already familiar with legendary guitarist Jason Becker. I was part of the majority that was not and as a longtime axeman myself I am little ashamed of this fact. However, I’m very glad that I now know who he is.

Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet follows the life of a young guitarist, a progeny who took the guitar world by storm in the early 1990s but only for the briefest of times. Following his huge break, when he landed the vacant lead guitar spot on the David Lee Roth band following Steve Vai’s exit, which was the most coveted guitar gig in the world at that time, he was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. He was forced to pull out of the outfit just before his first tour and moved back in with his parents in Richmond, California as he rapidly lost the use of most of his muscles.

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8th Jecheon International Music & Film Festival Preview

Part of MKC's coverage of the Jecheon Intl. Music & Film Festival.

Following last month’s wonderful PiFan I begin August with what will be the first in of a series of film festivals. I made my way to Jecheon, which is a small town about 2 hours East of Seoul, at the crack of dawn to make the most of my brief weekend at the Jecheon International Music and Film Festival.

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