Christian Rock Doc Can't Find Funding
'Bleed Into One,' a documentary on Christian rock, falls short of its fiscal goal
Last month, we noted that filmmaker Tim Hudson was hoping to secure funding to move forward with Bleed into One, his documentary on the history of Christian rock.
Unfortunately, the project is looking less like it's going to happen. Hudson had hoped to raise $60,000 on Kickstarter to finish the project, but fell far short of that goal, raising less than $5,000. Bummer, because it looks like Hudson had done a lot of good research on the project. Here's hoping that someday this film does see the light of day.
February 3, 2012Dobermans Are People Too!
Scorsese's scorn earns Hugo's snubbed guard dog a nod for the Golden Collar Awards
Uggie is going to be facing some stiff competition after all.
Nominated for two Golden Collar Awards by Dog News Daily, the cute Jack Russell Terrier starred in both The Artist and Water for Elephants. Others nominated for Best Dog in a Theatrical Film included Arthur (who played Cosmo in Beginners), Denver (Skeletor in 50/50), and Hummer (Dolce in Young Adult).
Conspicuously missing from the list was Blackie, who played the Doberman guard dog in Martin Scorsese's Hugo -- and that was one oversight that the veteran director would not tolerate. In a Wednesday op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, Scorsese, who noted that he was grateful for the movie's 11 Oscar nominations, said "we've been severely slighted" with Blackie's omission from the Golden Collar Awards. "How could she not be nominated?" Scorsese wondered.
"Jack Russell terriers are small and cute," Scorsese continued, praising Uggie's nominations. "Dobermans are enormous and — handsome. More tellingly, Uggie plays a nice little mascot who does tricks and saves his master's life in one of the films, while Blackie gives an uncompromising performance as a ferocious guard dog who terrorizes children. I'm sure you can see what I'm driving at. We all have fond memories of Rin Tin Tin and Lassie, the big stars, the heroes, but what about the antiheroes? We have learned to accept the human antihero, but when it comes to dogs, I guess we still have a long way to go." Scorsese tongue-in-cheek accused the Dog News Daily folks of "prejudice" against Dobermans and Blackie.
Golden Collar Awards director Alan Siskind agreed to add Blackie to the list of nominees if he received more than 500 write-in votes on Facebook. Blackie reached that milestone in no time flat, and is now a sixth candidate for the award. Winners will be announced Feb. 13.
Justice served! Dobermans everywhere are reportedly quite pleased. So is Scorsese.
But not everyone is happy. Antonio Banderas says there's another kind of prejudice going on with the Golden Collar Awards: Why is it all dogs? Where are the feline nominations?
Writing his own op-ed yesterday for the Huffington Post, Banderas, who voices the title character in Puss in Boots, notes that "cats wear collars too."
Banderas argues that Puss brought "wit, adventure, dance, and soul to the big screen" and that "his name should become legend. Yes, the dogs have done well this year, but dogs will do anything for a sausage treat, cats do everything out of love." He concludes that "cats have feelings too. Please overcome this anti-feline-ism, Hollywood, and give my dear friend the recognition he deserves. Don't make the cat angry!"
Here's the announcement for the Golden Collar Awards -- prior to Blackie's later addition:
February 2, 2012Look Who's Making a Comeback!
Eight years after calling it quits -- well, sort of -- Five Iron Frenzy is back from the dead
Back when ska was red-hot, Five Iron Frenzy was too, not just for their style of music, but for their energy (awesome live shows!), creativity, intelligence, and humor. So when they called it quits in 2003, fans everywhere moaned and groaned. Well, good news: They're coming back. They raised an astonishing $200,000-plus on Kickstarter to record a new album, they've already released a new single (free on NoiseTrade), and they're playing a number of shows this spring and summer.
Read all about it on their website, and hear frontman Reese Roper talk about the comeback in the video below -- where you can also watch him eat a handful of mayonnaise. If you want.
January 27, 2012Derek Webb's Feedback Film: What Just Happened?
'Self-Sabotage,' a short film based on Webb's EP and the Lord's Prayer, is, um, unique
First things first: Derek Webb is one of my favorite artists, one of the most creative folks I know. I've long been a fan of his music, his honesty, his commitment to justice, and his willingness to challenge the rest of us in sometimes unexpected ways. He and I have had some good conversations over the years, and he always makes me think -- often about things I'd never considered before, or at least in ways I'd never done before.
When Derek released his Feedback album last spring -- an instrumental meditation on the Lord's Prayer -- I really liked it. Still do. It's terrific music, and while I can't cleanly "connect" every note to a corresponding phrase in the prayer, I was fine with that. It's good music to contemplate, as are Christ's words.
Webb wanted the work of art to extend beyond the music, so he first commissioned painter Scott Erickson for a series of paintings as a companion to the project. I've seen the art, and it's very good.
Then Webb wanted to extend the project to the medium of film, and worked with director Scott Brignac to come up with a "cycle of short films" called Self-Sabotage, described as "an exploration of the Lord's Prayer based on and inspired by Derek Webb's Feedback. It follows six characters in a narrative with no words, only the music to parallel the stories. Their lives, like moving icons, open windows into the great mystery of communion through self-dethroning sabotage."
OK, I mostly get that. But frankly, the film itself lost me. I enjoyed the images, and the way they're wedded to the soundtrack. I thought I picked up something about a Father's relentless love for his child, but I might've been wrong about that. I also thought a lot of it was about some nut-job stalking a young woman.
Apparently I'm not alone in my head-scratching. When the film premiered in Houston, Andrew Causey, who moderated a panel discussion afterward, said he had these questions: "Why was that girl dancing in the streets? Who was that guy in the woods? Did one guy just punch himself in the face? Does the girl jump? What does this have to do with the Lord’s Prayer? Did the running guy commit a crime? If so, what was it? Why does the creepy guy keep following the sad girl? Why doesn’t she spray him with mace?"
Causey was apparently more haunted by the film than I was, because he kept thinking about it, determined to find more meaning behind the abstraction. And, Lord bless him, he has come up with some pretty good insights and ideas here. Perhaps if I gave it repeated viewings, I would come up with some of the same observations -- or completely different ones.
I'm no literalist, and I generally don't mind abstractions and ambiguity in art. But Self-Sabotage, though interesting to look at, was just a bit too abstract for me. I just didn't get it.
Check it out below (and/or buy it here). What about you? Do you "get" it?
SELF-SABOTAGE from Scott Brignac on Vimeo.
January 27, 2012
Spielberg Goes to the Mountaintop
Long circulated rumors now almost etched in stone: He'll direct a biopic about Moses.
Rumors have circulated for months that Steven Spielberg might direct a biopic about Moses. Those rumors are a lot closer to the truth now, according to an exclusive report from Deadline.com, which says the famed director is "near commitment" to helm the project for Warner Brothers.
Deadline.com also notes that Gods and Men is "the second high-profile film Warner Bros is developing on a seminal Jewish hero. Mel Gibson and Joe Eszterhas are collaborating on their pitch to tell the story of Jewish warrior Judah Maccabee. . . . Gibson has the first option to direct, and he will produce the film through his Icon Productions banner."
January 27, 201243,000 Voices for 27 Million Voiceless
Redman's '27 Million' live video, recorded at Passion 2012, benefits anti-trafficking campaign
The Atlanta Falcons are no longer the only ones shouting “Rise Up!” in the Georgia Dome. Before a crowd of over 43,000 college students at Passion 2012, held Jan. 2-5, Matt Redman recorded the music video to his new single “27 Million.”
The song tells the gripping true story of an Eastern European girl, trafficked into the London sex trade. He wrote “27 Million” in an effort to bring global awareness to the issue of human trafficking. The song title reflects the estimated 27 million individuals trapped in modern slavery. Redman will release the mainstream single worldwide on February 27, with the accompanying music video recorded live at Passion. (Here's an amateur video of the performance.)
The powerful lyrics and catchy chorus caught on immediately among the young crowd. “We’ve got to rise up, open our eyes up! / Be her voice, be her freedom, come on stand up!” The crowd not only stood, but jumped up and down as they sang this freedom song.
The song opens with the voice of Christine Cain, founder of the A21 slavery prevention organization: “It astounds me, that not only does human trafficking exist on the earth today, there are actually more slaves than there ever have been in the history of humanity. It’s almost incomprehensible.”
Cain’s quote inspired Redman and wife Beth to write this anthem for abolition. They asked British hip-hop singers Lindz and Lucy West to join them in recording the song. Lindz adds an urban flavor with his rap interludes. “Not someone’s commodity / a precious being like you and me / a daughter a sister, a somebody . . . / No voice, she’s a slave to the night.”
The release of their single coincides with their February “27 Million” tour around the UK to support Cain’s A21 campaign. Here's a video about the making of the song:
Continue reading 43,000 Voices for 27 Million Voiceless...
January 24, 2012'I Loved You and I Hated You'
Ana Egge's haunting CD captures the feelings of those who have a mentally ill loved one
Your picture's fallin' like a figurine
Breaking branches in our family tree . . .
I loved you and I hated you
I prayed for you and stayed away from you
So sings Ana Egge on the title cut of her latest album, Bad Blood. Many of the songs were written about coping with mentally ill family members, and I, for one, can certainly relate to the lyrics above.
Our 20-year-old son has bipolar disorder and Asperger syndrome, and his family members have certainly felt all of those things and more. It really can be a love-hate relationship -- intense love for the person, but intense hatred for the illness and the ugly, often hurtful, ways it manifests itself. Kudos to Egge for capturing many of those feelings.
A press release says that the album "conveys compassion and hope for redemption," and while that's certainly true, Egge also noted in one interview that it also captures her raw emotions. "There is some anger on this record," she confesses. "When you have family members suffering, I'm not angry at them. I have had a lot of anger at the illness, wanting it to stop, go away. A lot of the writing freed up for me when I started writing about the illness itself as a character."
Like many of us who love someone with a mental illness, Egge is trying to find that balance between loving the person but loathing the condition. These lines from "Hole in Your Halo" kind of capture that vibe:
Your flowers are growin' wild in the west
They may be pretty but they're poisonous
Behind the bars you're falling apart
It's not the first time you went too far
There's a hole in your halo
Where the darkness don't shine
In the darkness I know
It's a thin line
Egge's country-fied folk tunes, produced by Steve Earle, sound more upbeat than the subject matter they're addressing, but the lyrics are spot on. Watch the music video for "Hole in Your Halo" here:
January 23, 2012'Between Notes' Strikes the Right Chords
Indie film sort of a cross between 'Once' and '500 Days of Summer,' with lots of great music
A filmmaker named Christopher Grissom contacted me recently, saying he wanted us to check out his new movie. He said he was a Christian, and . . . Well, let's just say that we get a LOT of e-mails that start out like that, and the films themselves are often quite forgettable. But I asked him to send it along anyway.
I'm glad I did.
Between Notes, now available at Amazon.com, was a delightful surprise. Grissom accurately describes it as a "modern-day musical about two musicians who develop a relationship and have to decide whether they are falling in love with a person or an idea."
It's done reasonably well for an obviously very low-budget film. The lead actors, David Ramirez and Brandi Price, won't win any Oscars, but they bring enough life to their characters to make them interesting. But the biggest draw is the music itself. Ramirez is a professional musician whom Paste magazine calls "the best damn songwriter you don't know yet," and that's just the beginning. The terrific indie score is supplemented by great songs from Summer Ames and Becky Middleton.
The end result is something like a cross between Once (mainly for the music) and 500 Days of Summer (for the quirky romance). Grissom told me he wants to make films that are "not overtly Christian, but that point the direction to Christ." Mission accomplished.
Here's the trailer:
January 19, 2012Tea Party Jesus: 'Blessed Are the Mean'
Scathing video depicts 'Sermon on the Mall' as if Christ were speaking for Tea Party
So, there's a new animated video online, picturing Jesus giving a speech to thousands in Washington, D.C., as if he had based his teachings on the sayings of the Tea Party.
In what the creators are calling the "Sermon on the Mall," Jesus begins his famous talk by saying, "Blessed are the mean in spirit, for theirs in the kingdom of heaven." Behind him, cheering him on, are his "disciples," including Gingrich, Perry, Romney, Santorum, Bachmann, Limbaugh, and Beck.
Jesus goes on: "Blessed are the pure in ideology, for they can demonize any who disagree." And the zingers continue:
"Blessed are you when you revile and persecute and utter all kinds of evil falsely. Rejoice and be glad. Great is your reward, for in the same way the prophets Beck and Limbaugh have persecuted others before you."
"For any who believe our governments should help the poor show contempt for their Maker and whoever ignores the needy honors God."
"You have heard it said [Matthew 5:33], “Don’t swear falsely,” but I say to you, if uttering falsehoods furthers our cause, it is righteous."
And these are just the tip of the not-so-niceberg. Learn more at TeaPartyJesus.org, and check out the entire "Sermon on the Mall" (just less than seven minutes) here:
January 12, 2012
Was Elvis the Founder of Christian Rock?
That's one of many questions explored in an upcoming film on 'the story of Christian rock.'
If the list of interviewees for Bleed Into One, an upcoming documentary on the history of Christian rock, is an indication of filmmaker Tim Hudson's ability to piece together a good film, then he's off to a great start.
Bleed Into One: The Story of Christian Rock, Told by Those Who Survived, currently in the editing phase and aiming for a late 2012 release, includes interviews with CCM legends like Randy Stonehill, Steve Taylor, Phil Keaggy, John Schlitt, Glenn Kaiser, Charlie Peacock, and many more, including much more contemporary stars like Jeremy Camp, MercyMe's Bart Millard, Relient K's Matt Thiessen, and Skillet's John Cooper. Plus requisite interviews with experts like former GMA president John Styll, Raised by Wolves author John J. Thompson, HM magazine editor Doug Van Pelt, and P.O.D. manager Tim Cook.
It all adds up to what Hudson says (on a blog post) is an exploration of Christian rock's "secret history, one that people think they know but really have no idea, and it's all here, waiting to be put together, watched, and discussed. Hopefully your interested in piqued . . ."
Mine certainly is. But the film may never get finished -- or see the light of day -- if Hudson is unable to fund his closing costs, $30,000 for licenses to play all those great songs, and another $30,000 for post-production costs. That's why Hudson has launched a Kickstarter campaign, but he needs to raise that $60,000 by Feb. 4 -- just three weeks from now. (Heck, I even went to Kickstarter and made a small contribution.) Kickstarter has helped countless projects get off the ground, including the previously dead-in-the-water Blue Like Jazz film, which raised almost thrice its $125,000 goal and will now release to theaters in April.
As for the above title of this blog post, that comes from a video teaser that includes a clip from one of the interviewees -- Mike Roe of the 77s and the Lost Dogs, who says, "I don't like the term 'Christian rock,' but if it did begin somewhere, maybe it began with Elvis Presley." It'll be interesting to hear Roe elaborate on that in the final film.
A documentary on the history of Christian rock is long overdue. Here's hoping Hudson can complete the task and pull it off. That's a movie I'd like to see.
Here's the official website, and the Facebook site. Below, find the teaser, and below that, a longer trailer for the film:
Bleed Into One - Teaser from Eyecue Media on Vimeo.
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