Music & Cinema: The Montclair Film Fest

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Friday, 01 May 2015 13:50

Written by Brad Balfour

Mavis!

The Montclair Film Festival (May 1 - 10, 2015) brings together filmmakers from all over the world to Montclair New Jersey for a non-profit cinematic gathering. Not simply an anual festival, the MFF also helps organize film-related events throughout the year in New Jersey and nurturing aspiring filmmakers and educational programs.

One of the highlights of the festival, The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller, is a “live documentary” by Academy Award-nominated director Sam Green (The Weather Underground) featuring a live score by Hoboken’s own Yo La Tengo on May 7th at the Wellmont Theatre (5 Seymour St, Montclair, NJ 07042). The film traces the career of twentieth-century futurist, architect, engineer, inventor, and author R. Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983), a proponent of conservation and sustainability. This performance will feature Green narrating the film in person and cuing images from a laptop while Yo La Tengo perform their original score. The work features a unique combination of film clips and live music, as Green’s in person cinematic narration draws inspiration equally from old travelogues, the Benshi tradition, and TED talks.

Jessica Edward’s film Mavis!, which follows the life of gospel singer and activist Mavis Staples, as she sang delta-inflected gospel sound she helped pioneer in the 1950s, to the “message songs” of the civil rights era marching beside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to massive hits such as “I’ll Take You There” in the soul-filled Stax era, and her recent Grammy-winning work with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. After a screening of the documentary, Mavis Staple will do a Q&A session with Stephen Colbert on May 8th.

Director David Gordon Green, actor Dane Dehaan, and Montclair legend Olympia Dukakis will attend the festival to participate in Q&A sessions at festival screenings and conversations.  David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express, Prince Avalanche) will attend the festival on Saturday, May 9th to participate in a Q&A for his new film, Manglehorn, screening that day at the Bellevue Theater (260 Bellevue Ave, Montclair, NJ).

This is only a sampling of the films at the Montclair Film Festival, which is gearing up to be a stalwart cinematic event.

 To learn more, go to: http://montclairfilmfest.org/

Montclair Film Festival
May 1 - 10, 2015

Bellvue Theater
260 Bellevue Ave.
Montclair, NJ 07043

Wellmont Theatre
5 Seymour St.
Montclair, NJ 07042

And various locations throughout Montclair NJ

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