We’re ecstatic to announce that we’ve teamed up with IN-EDIT Festival, Amsterdam’s International Music Documentary Film Festival, to offer our members free access to a selection of screenings taking place at the Het Ketelhuis, Westergasfabriek. There will also be a number of live performances by matching musicians, Q&A’s with artists and directors, and industry meetings arranged for and by professionals. See below for a complete list of available events and how to reserve your seats!
dir. Matt Tyrnauer / 98 min / USA / 2017 / English / English subtitles
The rise and demise of the defining temple of the disco era. With a heart-stopping audio-visual archive (featuring the likes of Grace Jones, Mick Jagger and Sylvester Stallone), and interviews with the club’s staff and the surviving co-founder, Schrager, the first part of the film is a whopping story of success, delusions of grandeur and sexual freedom (truncated by the appearance of AIDS and the conservatism of the Reagan era). In the second part, Schrager tells his version of events (tax evasion and drug dealing) that would land them in jail and later to reinvent themselves in a world that did not resemble anything they had built. Pop mythology of the first order, reviewing an era of opulence during a few years with no notion of tomorrow. Growing up listening to his mother’s reggae and grandmother’s soul and jazz music, Mairo Nawaz finds a correlation with the modern electronic music of today and his family’s rich archive.
Descent Into Maelstrom: the Untold Story of Radio Birdman
dir. Jonathan Sequeira / 110 min / Australia / English / English subtitles
The odyssey against wind, tide, venue owners and marketing departments, by the pioneers of the Australian underground, and natural heirs of Detroit’s fiercest rock: Radio Birdman. Considered untouchable legends of punk-rock garage in their own right, this film reveals overwhelming live footage from the early years (1974-78) of the electrifying Radio Birdman. A tale of pluck, perspiration and passion in which its members reveal the feeling of family and the “do it yourself” mantra that always propelled the band. And they don’t pull any punches when fessing up to how the shit hit the fan. DJs from Wap Shoo Wap, Amsterdam’s high energy rock ‘n roll event organisers, will help you move ya body.
I Used to Be Normal: a Boyband Fangirl Story
19.30, 5 April in Room 2
dir. Jessica Leski / 93 min / Australia, USA / 2018 / English / English subtitles
A lucid and revealing essay on the phenomenon of the “boybands” – from The Beatles, to Take That, to One Direction – through the personal experience of four women. With an empathic, reflective and non-ironic lens, this film explores the role played by different bands in the lives of four women from Australia and the United States, aged between 16 and 64 years old. They all share their most vivid dreams about these idols, with disarming sincerity. And, as we learn more about each one of them and their trials and tribulations (be they with their family, or cultural, ethnic or sexual identity), we understand how their passion for one group or another has accompanied them at all times or even helped them be who they are.
Giacinto Scelsi. The First Motion of the Immovable
14.45, 7 April in Room 2. Introduction by journalist Jair Tchong
dir. Sebastiano d’Ayala Valva / 81 min / France, Italy / 2018 / French and Italian / English subtitles
When Sebastiano d’Ayala Valva was 10 years old, his father played him music by his cousin, the composer Giacinto Scelsi. He found it frightening. Now he attempts to penetrate the world of a composer who remained obscure for many years and whose ideas about music and sound were unorthodox. Scelsi, who died in 1988, claimed that he didn’t create his music himself, but that it came to him from the gods. He spent much of his life as a recluse and refused to be photographed. Here, he comes to life through the memories of singers and musicians. Jaïr Tchong is a cultural journalist and activist. He’s also a music documentary/music film fanatic, event organizer (Melkweg and Tolhuistuin) and former afro-latin DJ.
MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A.
15.00, 7 April in Room 1. Performance by FATA BOOM
dir. Steve Loveridge / 96 min / UK, USA / 2018 / English / English subtitles
Two decades of home videos reveal the life of M.I.A., first as a refugee in London fleeing the war in Sri Lanka and then as a star in a business that does not tolerate political positions. A filmmaker by vocation, M.I.A. began recording her life and surroundings in South London twenty-two years ago, where her family of Tamil origin had taken refuge while escaping the war. The vast video archive that she accumulated now allows her to reconstruct her tremendous journey as a young immigrant for whom music was the only compass by which to be placed in London’s racial mosaic. FATA BOOM consists of Dutch Indie producer Martijn Groeneveld and an anonymous singer who appears in a distinctive array of masks, tassels and face paint. EP ‘Boa‘ was the forerunner of their recently released debut album ‘CONSTRICTED’, a celebratory feat which has continued through sell-out performances.
dir. Nicolas Jack Davies/ 86 min / Jamaica, United Kingdom / 2018 / English, Jamaican / English subtitles
Between documentary and cinematic remake, the story of the most famous Jamaican music label is also that of the love affair of the young British working class with the rhythms that emerged in the ghettos of Kingston. The cultural impact of Trojan Records is undeniable and, especially in the United Kingdom, can be traced in the ska revival of the 2 Tone label, the Notting Hill carnival and in the expansion of the sound systems culture which in turn, would play a key role in the hip hop revolution and club culture. This film skilfully condenses the half-century of history of the most important Jamaican music label, considered in its golden age to be “the Motown of reggae”. Don Letts is a legendary British film director, DJ and musician. Co-founder of Big Audio Dynomite and videographer for The Clash, he came to notoriety in the late ’70s as the DJ that single-handedly turned a whole generation of punks onto reggae.
Two Sevens Clash (Dread Meets Punk Rockers)
18.15, 6 April, in Room 1. Q&A with Don Letts.
dir. Don Letts / 44 min / United Kingdom / 2017 / English / English subtitles
A tiny treasure. Don Letts dusts off his personal collection of Super8 tapes to review the “punky reggae party” in first person. The fruitful understanding among rastas and punks from 1976 and 1977 to which he contributed from the turntables of the legendary Roxy club, and which led him on a Jamaican adventure, accompanied by John Lydon.
The screenings are free for a selected number of members. To secure a spot please RSVP before 3 April by sending an email to mailinglist@subbacultcha.nl with the movie’s title in the subject line, plus your full name. Members are required to pick up their tickets 30 minutes before the film starts – don’t forget to bring your membership card!
