'Monterey Pop' Screening at the Piazza Maggiore
A beautiful timelapse taken the evening of the screening of the newly remastered 'Monterey Pop' at Il Cinema Ritrovato in the amazing Piazza Maggiore.
Credit to Grant Delin
100 years ago, the BalIet Russes company debuted Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring," and it created a furor that nearly sparked a riot. It also left a profound influence on modern music, creating what one historian called "an explosion that so scattered the elements of musical language that they could never again be put together as before."
Our friend and longtime collaborator Ricky Leacock made one of his best films when he and Rolf Liebermann filmed him in 1965. Hailed as "the most natural presentation of Stravinsky as musician and man that is ever likely to be made," here's a scene from "A Stravinsky Portrait" where he discusses his masterpiece, 52 years after it premiered.
The Guardian has also published an appreciation by distinguished composer George Benjamin and a video interview with jazz musician Julian Joseph that dissects one of the same passages analyzed by Stravinsky in Ricky's film: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/may/29/stravinsky-rite-of-spring
Ricky's reminiscence about making the film:
http://richardleacock.com/A-Stravinsky-Portrait
and NPR's insightful piece on the impact "The Rite of Spring" has had on jazz music: http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2013/05/26/186486269/why-jazz-musicians-love-the-rite-of-spring
Scott McKenzie performing "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" at the Monterey Pop Festival
The War Room trailer
The 1992 presidential election was a triumph not only for Bill Clinton but also for the new breed of strategists who guided him to the White House—and changed the face of politics in the process. For this thrilling, behind-closed-doors account of that campaign, renowned cinema verité filmmakers Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker captured the brainstorming and bull sessions of Clinton’s crack team of consultants—especially James Carville and George Stephanopoulos, who became media stars in their own right as they injected a savvy, youthful spirit and spontaneity into the process of campaigning. Fleet-footed and entertaining, The War Room is a vivid document of a political moment whose truths (“It’s the economy, stupid!”) still ring in our ears.
http://www.criterion.com/films/28029-the-war-room
AL FRANKEN: GOD SPOKE trailer
A cinema verite pursuit of Al Franken, shot over the course of two years, the film follows the former SNL writer turned political attack dog from his highly publicized (and well-timed) feud with Bill O’Reilly over Franken’s best selling book, “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them” to his tireless campaign against George Bush in the 2004 Presidential election.
http://phfilms.com/index.php/phf/film/alfranken/
