CIMMfest: Chicago Music & Movies Festival
By Greg Wahl
http://cimmfest.org
Going back to the earliest days of cinema, when silents were accompanied by live-in theater musicians, music and film have been artistically complementary. The Chicago International Movies & Music Festival, now in its fourth year, honors the enduring relationship between the two art forms with four days & nights of film screenings, live performances, VJ/DJ sets, and several Q&A sessions with actors, directors and musicians, at various venues around Logan Square and Wicker Park. Here's a selection of highlights from the lineup for this weekend's CIMMfest.
Queens of Country
Thursday, April 12
Wicker Park Arts Center
2215 West North Avenue
Chicago, IL
(773) 278-7677
nnwac.org
7:00 p.m.
$15
Lizzy Caplan and Ron Livingston star in this quirky comedy that follows a line-dancing queen and her quest to find the owner of an iPod she found after the music on it leaves her spellbound. The wild plot includes kidnappings, time travel, cross-dressing, and a character played by former Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan. Ryan Page, Christopher Pomerenke, Lizzy Caplan, Joe Lo Truglio, and
Matt Walsh are scheduled to appear in person at the screening.
Kids These Days with Rapper's Delight
Friday, April 13
Double Door
1572 North Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL
(773) 489-3160
doubledoor.com
9:00 p.m.
$25 for film and show, $10 for movie only, $20 for show only
With two horns, a rapper, a blues-rock trio and a female singer, young Chicago band Kids These Days covers a wide range of musical territory. Their energetic set at Lollapalooza last year was a standout, and on April 13 they're headlining at CIMMfest with Rapper's Delight featuring founding members of the pioneering hip-hop group the Sugarhill Gang. The performance is in conjunction with the film I Want My Name Back, showing at 7:00 p.m. at the Wicker Park Arts Center, and will include a Q&A session with Master Gee and Wonder Mike.
Bad Brains: Band in DC
Friday, April 13
Logan Theater
2646 North Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL
(773) 252-0627
9:15 p.m.
$10
This documentary profiles the unique and influential reggae-punk Washington, D.C. band Bad Brains, featuring interviews with contemporaries such as Henry Rollins and Ian Mackaye. Follow the triumphs and struggles of a band as they break new ground and progress through the decades on the musical fringe, keeping it all together despite the challenging eccentricities of frontman HR.
ADULT.'s Three Grace(s) w/ Hubble
Friday, April 13
Wicker Park Arts Center
2215 West North Avenue
Chicago, IL
(773) 278-7677
nnwac.org
9:30 p.m.
$15
Electronic music duo ADULT. presents a trilogy of short horror films in the avant-garde style of Dario Argento and Kenneth Anger, with a Midwestern twist. Decampment (2008), Traditions (2010), and Possession(s) (2011) will be accompanied by a live score by the directors, along with a performance by Ben Greenburg, aka Hubble.
Irvine Welsh's Ectasy
Friday, April 13
Logan Theater
2646 North Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL
(773) 252-0627
9:30 p.m.
$10
Based on a 1996 novella that treads familiar ground by the author of Trainspotting, this film adaptation of Irvine Welsh's Ectasy is the result of a decade-long project for director Rob Heydon. It stars Adam Sinclair and Smallville's Kristin Kreuk as a pair who cross paths that blur the line between chemistry and chemicals. Heydon and Welsh will be present for the screening.
Louder Than Love: the Grande Ballroom Story
Saturday, April 14
Logan Theater
2646 North Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL
(773) 252-0627
3:00 p.m.
Four years in the making, this rock doc chronicles the brief but highly influential life of Detroit's Grande Ballroom, arguably the birthplace of punk. From 1966-1972, the venue hosted legendary gigs by Iggy & the Stooges, Alice Cooper, The Who, Led Zeppelin, and, most notably, house band The MC5. Filmmaker Tony D'Annunzio will appear in person for a Q&A at the screening.
Vinylmania
Saturday, April 14
The Society for Arts
1112 North Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL
(312) 486-9612
societyforarts.com
7:15 p.m.
$10
Old-school audiophiles will especially appreciate this homage to the most enduring format for playable music, the vinyl record. The official film of Record Store Day 2012 (April 21), this documentary explores the mutual obsessions of various record collectors, DJs, musicians and artists around the globe. Also showing is Music Man Murray, a short documentary about a man with way too many LPs.
Les Blank Retrospective: Dizzy Gillespie & Always for Pleasure
Saturday, April 14
Logan Theater
2646 North Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL
(773) 252-0627
9:30 p.m.
$10
Les Blank has been making documentaries for over 50 years, and this year's CIMMfest presents one of his earliest, Dizzy Gillespie (1965), along with 1978's New Orleans-themed Always for Pleasure, widely considered to be his greatest film. While most of his films focus on American roots music, Blank's documentary topics have included such subjects as Werner Herzog, garlic and gap-toothed women. Ziveli! Medicine for the Heart (1987) and A Well Spent Life (1971), Kurt Vonnegut's favorite film, will screen at the Logan Theater on Friday, April 13 at 7:00 p.m. Spend It All (1971) and Dry Wood (1973) will be showing at the Logan Theater on Saturday, April 14 at 5:00 p.m. Les Blank himself will appear in person at each screening.
California Solo
Sunday, April 15
Wicker Park Arts Center
2215 West North Avenue
Chicago, IL
(773) 278-7677
nnwac.org
5:30 p.m.
Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting, The Full Monty) stars as a washed-up Britpop star in this understated drama. The former rock star's new life in California is threatened with deportation, which forces him to confront past and current demons he'd spent years running from. Also showing, Brad Standley & The Foxflies' video for "Tik Tok Nation."
