2003: A Musical Odyssey 2003 / I Am Trying To Break Your Heart / USA 2002
The popular Chicago-based beat group Wilco and the strange story accompanying their latest album. Lots of excellent music and loftily b+w Chicago!
When Sam Jones began filming a portrait of a rock band practically at the zenith of their career, he had no idea that his film would tell another story: about major record labels whose market philosophy sometimes veers outside the creative world they promote. The band Wilco writes, rehearses, records (in the black-and-white images of its native Chicago) and speaks through the lips of song-writer Jeff Tweedy of the desire “to somewhat destroy what we create ourselves, to hack open the casing and see what mechanism is ticking away inside”. A series of effective, melodic beat songs, veiled here and there in psychedelic clusters (perhaps related to Beatles songs during the era of the “Revolver” album) are to be recorded for the Reprisa label, however, the company decides this isn’t the kind of music they’re looking for – considering them too complex for today’s pop music – so it withdraws from the contract. The album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot does eventually come out, however. Not only is it hailed by the critics (The Village Voice, Rolling Stone) as one of the greatest albums of 2002, but it also adds an unexpected punchline to the film and, indeed, the band. A story about a band which, confronted by illusions of independence, finally discovers itself.
92 min / Black & white, 35 mm
Director Sam Jones
/ Dir. of Photography Sam Jones
/ Music Wilco
/ Editor Erin Nordstrom
/ Producer Peter Abraham, Sam Jones
/ Production Fusion Films, koprodukce / coproduction: Plexifilm
/ Cast Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Leroy Bach, Glenn Kotche, Jay Bennett, Greg Kot, Tony Margherita, Jonathan Parker, Fred Armisen, Daniel Herbst, Chris Brickley a další / and others
/ Contact Plexifilm, Fusion Films
www: www.wilcofilm.com
Sam Jones is a photographer and advertising director who has been living in Los Angeles for the past ten years. His photos of musicians and media celebrities appear in magazines such as Esquire, Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. His direction and co-production of this feature-length black-and-white film about the band Wilco mark his debut in documentary filmmaking. Its success is reflected not only in the extraordinary response from the public and reviewers, but also its extended publication on a double DVD, accompanied by a commentary by Rolling Stone columnist David Fricke.
Plexifilm
580 Broadway #1003, 10012, New York
United States of America
Phone: +1 212 965 9220
Fax: +1 212 965 9262
E-mail: [email protected]
Fusion Films
1548 18th Street, 90404, Santa Monica
United States of America
Phone: +1 310 449 1300
E-mail: [email protected]
Gary Hustwit
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