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Lights, camera, music!

MOFFOM returns with great sounds on celluloid
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By Steffen Silvis
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
October 17th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Once is not enough. The Irish film's stars will perform at MOFFOM.
Music on Film, Film on Music (MOFFOM)

When: Oct. 18–22
Where: Kino Lucerna, Kino Evald and Světozor
Tickets: 75 Kč for most films; 500 Kč for a festival pass
For a complete schedule, check www.moffom.org

Blondie, the Clash, Kurt Cobain, Chet Baker, Shostakovich, the Dixie Chicks, Lev Theremin and his vibration orchestra, with some disco, samba and death metal thrown in for good measure. It’s the annual Music on Film, Film on Music Festival, which pairs two of Prague’s greatest passions — music and cinema — for five days.
In its fourth year, MOFFOM has grown into an impressive festival which now includes workshops, exhibits and plenty of live music performances. But it’s the films, primarily documentaries, that drive the events, and there are many interesting ones to choose from this year. Following is a brief list of some of the festival’s offerings worth making time for. All films not in English will have English subtitles.
Blondie: One Way or Another—UK, 2006. Matt O’Casey, director. Members of one of the most influential bands of the ’80s found themselves breaking up just as they were hitting their stride. It’s not a pretty story (drugs, illness, financial chicanery), but how could it be other than fascinating with the heart-of-glass blonde at its center? Světozor: Oct. 20 at 10, Oct. 21 at noon
Fabricating Tom Zé—Brazil, 2006. Decio Matos, Jr., director. Through video clips, interviews and animation, director Matos explores the career of Brazil’s most fascinating musician, Tom Zé. The guitarist and Hooverist (he plays a mean — and strange — vacuum cleaner), Zé’s rise in the ’60s was quickly followed by defeat and obscurity until he was rediscovered by the Talking Heads’ David Byrne. Matos creates a memorable portrait of an uncompromising musician. Světozor: Oct. 20 at 2:30, Oct. 21 at noon
Kurt Cobain: About a Son—USA, 2006. A.J. Schnack, director. Nirvana didn’t invent grunge, but it put the movement on the map, and its lead singer became the haunting voice of his generation. (I can never forget seeing a group of young girls in Seattle a few days after his death, sitting in a circle on the street crying and singing his name to the chorus of Prince’s “Purple Rain.”) About a Son contains that voice as Cobain, in interviews, talks about his tough childhood in Aberdeen, Wa., his moves to Olympia and Seattle and the sudden, fateful arrival of fame. Světozor: Oct. 19 at 7:30
200,000 Phantoms—France, 2007. Jean-Gabriel Périot, director. At the center of Hiroshima’s atomic wasteland, one building survived as a shell and continues to stand as a warning against war. This famous blasted dome was built by a Czech architect, Jan Letzel, and director Périot provides an experimental music documentary chronicling the building’s history. Světozor: Oct. 19 at 10
My Grandmother (Moya Babushka)—Soviet Union, 1929. Kote Miqaberidze, director. It takes a Georgian to know a Georgian. Miqaberidze’s silent send-up of Bolshevik bureaucracy could have easily served as his passport to one of Stalin’s gulags. Instead, this slapstick Soviet comedy was simply banned for 50 years. For this screening it comes with live accompaniment by the Beth Custer Ensemble of San Francisco. Lucerna: Oct. 19 at 8
Once—Ireland, 2006. John Carney, director. The much-anticipated film starring Frames frontman Glen Hansard and Czech pianist Markéta Irglová is getting its premiere at MOFFOM before heading into general release. This Sundance-honored film is worth the wait, and its stars will be in Prague performing two concerts during the festival. Lucerna: Oct. 20 at 5:30, Oct. 21 at 1 (check festival website for concert information)
The Pied Piper of Hutzovina—UK, 2006. Pavla Fleischer, director. A road movie that follows Gogol Bordello’s frontman Eugene Hutz back into his Ukrainian homeland. Světozor: Oct. 18 at 4; Evald: Oct. 20 at 1
Shut Up and Sing!—USA, 2006. Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck, directors. While the Bush administration was beating its toy drums for the wildly successful invasion of Iraq, a popular country crossover band, the Dixie Chicks, played a concert in London. When singer Natalie Maines informed her audience that the band was embarrassed by Bush, the crowd went wild. Back in the States, the right-wing mob went wilder. Finding their CDs and books being publicly burned, and redneck stations refusing to play their music, the Chicks had a choice: cave or stand brave. They chose the latter. Evald: Oct. 18 at 7; Světozor: Oct. 20 at noon

Steffen Silvis can be reached at ssilvis@praguepost.com


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