The life and career of iconoclastic musician and composer John Fahey is investigated in new documentary
IN SEARCH OF BLIND JOE DEATH: THE SAGA OF JOHN FAHEY (James Cullingham, 2012)
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
Opens Friday, August 16
212-924-3363
www.johnfaheyfilm.com
www.cinemavillage.com
“He created a new language, modally speaking, harmonically speaking,” Pete Townshend says about guitarist and composer John Fahey at the beginning of In Search of Blind Joe Death: The Saga of John Fahey. “And if that’s not an iconoclast, I don’t know what is, really,” the Who axman continues, comparing Fahey to William S. Burroughs and Charles Bukowski. Those are apt comparisons for the so-called American primitive guitarist who did things on his instrument that no one has done before or since. Decemberists guitarist Chris Funk then calls the multifaceted Fahey, who was born in Washington, DC, in 1939, an “independent label owner, like maybe the first; record collector, musicologist, alcoholic, hobo, thrift store master.” Unfortunately, the documentary, directed by James Cullingham, spends the rest of its nearly sixty minutes cutting between amazing archival footage of Fahey, particularly in an early television interview with Laura Weber in which he shyly talks about his work, uses his guitar as an ashtray, and plays, which is mesmerizing to watch, and various experts trying to describe what might just be indescribable. The documentary never quite flows like a Fahey composition, instead going through fits and starts as talking heads (including Fahey college friend Barry Hansen, better known as Dr. Demento) discuss his influence, which turns out to be more interesting, perhaps, for Fahey purists than for general music fans. However, the scene with record collector Joe Bussard is a riot. Throughout the film, Cullingham, who met Fahey in 1982, dryly reads from Fahey’s writings and regularly returns to images of a turtle, a major Fahey symbol, but the director might have been better served by incorporating more archival footage of Fahey, who never did what was best for his career and today languishes in relative obscurity, twelve years after his death at the age of sixty-one.
Guitarist Nels Cline displays his chops and teams up with an eclectic group of musicians in studio-set documentary
APPROXIMATELY NELS CLINE (Steven Okazaki, 2013)
www.farfilm.com
In Search of Blind Joe Death: The Saga of John Fahey is part of a “Guitar Innovators” double feature that also includes Steven Okazaki’s lovely little Approximately Nels Cline, in which the multinominated director goes inside the studio to capture guitarist Nels Cline reimagining a pair of Irish folk songs with an eclectic group of musicians. Cline, a philosophy major who has played with Wilco, the Bad Plus, Mike Watt, Thurston Moore, Elliott Sharp, and his own Nels Cline Trio and Nels Cline Singers in addition to so many others, speaks eloquently about his process in a friendly, personable manner that makes him instantly likable. The sessions are a joy to watch, performed with violinist and vocalist Carla Kihlstedt, bassist Devin Hoff, trumpeter Ron Miles, Cibo Matto keyboardist Yuka Honda, clarinetist Ben Goldberg, and drummer Matthias Bossi. Oscar winner Okazaki (Days of Waiting, Troubled Paradise) primarily lets the music do the talking, from experimental noise to jazzlike improvisation to carefully orchestrated sections. “It’s really important if you feel something that’s really sensitive, and that’s really transporting, whether it’s a chord or if it’s a sound, I just try to process that and manifest it in a way that’s personal,” Cline explains. The only drawback is that the film is a mere twenty-seven minutes; we would have loved to see and hear more. In Search of Blind Joe Death: The Saga of John Fahey and Approximately Nels Cline open August 16 at Cinema Village, with Cullingham and Nels Cline producer Jeff Wood participating in Q&As following the 8:45 screenings on Friday and Saturday night.