Doc'n Roll Film Festival

DOC'N ROLL FILM FESTIVAL 

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Sweeping through 12 cities across the UK and Ireland, Doc'n Roll Film Festival is platforming the best in music documentaries for an 11^th season. Continuing its mission to spotlight the innovative and under-the-radar alongside the trailblazers, transgressors and inspirational outliers, it offers a rich selection of feature-length films which push the boundaries of music storytelling. 

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With its focus on DIY spirit, independent music and marginalised voices, Doc’n Roll continues to champion the untold stories of music subcultures from across the globe. This year’s programme of 26 premiere feature films, including four world and seven international premieres and 80 UK-wide events, will take audiences on a musical odyssey from New York City to Melbourne, Toronto to Los Angeles, London to Ukraine, Ohio to Scotland, while spotlighting a broad range of genres including rock, punk, hip hop, folk, R&B, experimental music, jazz and more.

From the first official documentary on Wu-Tang Clan's Ol' Dirty Bastard to an intimate exploration of British singer-songwriter Hak Baker, audiences will be treated to an eclectic mix of musical subjects, scenes and contexts. Screenings will take place in renowned London cinemas including BFI Southbank, the ICA and Barbican Cinemas, and many of the premiere events will be followed by exclusive Q&A sessions with filmmakers and artists that will offer unique insights into the creative processes behind the films.

"Our Doc’n Roll Film Fest programme will feature more women than ever before,” said Vanessa Lobon Garcia, director and co-founder of Doc’n Roll Film Fest. “It’s a significant achievement in a genre still dominated by male perspectives. We’re thrilled to be expanding our festival's artistic horizons. Including a film on the acclaimed painter Chris Gollon in our lineup is not only an honour but also a reflection of our love for the arts and our desire to bring stories of significant cultural impact to the big screen. Gollon’s love for music and connection to London adds a special resonance to this year's programme.

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BRIGHTON STRAND DETAILS

PAULINE BLACK: A 2-TONE STORY

Thurs 24 Oct

Duke of York's

(Includes Q&A with director Jane Mingay)

Pauline Black, lead singer of 2-Tone hit band The Selecter, tells her extraordinary life story in the same frank manner that helped shape her as an iconic, era-defining female musician. Pauline had a difficult upbringing and joining the 2-Tone music movement in 1979 was the perfect catalyst; enabling her to explore and express all sides of herself. Looking back at her own ground-breaking experience in this feature documentary, Pauline traces how her legacy came about and how it is relevant to the world today, especially where society pushes the boundaries of gender, politics, race and identity. Pauline, of mixed Nigerian and Jewish heritage, was adopted into a white family in Essex in the 50’s. Her upbringing was defined by casual racism from within her own family. Pauline went on to find her own identity in the Coventry 2-Tone music scene and The Selecter was a reflection of working-class life in Thatcher's Britain, their music as social reportage and with an ethos of anti-racism and anti-sexism.

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HAKEEM

Sat 26 Oct

(Includes Q&A, with Hak Baker in attendance) 

DUKE'S AT KOMEDIA

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An unconventional music documentary for a very unconventional musician, this film follows British singer and rapper Hak Baker over five years. Directed by the filmmaking duo of Deadhorses (James Topley and Ivo Beckett), Hakeem balances profundity and profanity as Baker confronts the traumas of class and masculinity in the wake of his sudden stardom. An anarchic yet sincere portrait of British lad culture, full of arresting aesthetics and savage honesty, this is more than a chronicle of a musician's life – it’s a fascinating and intimate portrait of existential angst, brotherhood and hope in the face of the taboos that surround male mental health.

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DORY PREVIN: ON MY WAY TO WHERE

Sun 27 Oct

Duke's At Komedia

(Includes Q&A)

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Writing and singing the unvarnished truth about buried secret life experiences is more common today than when Dory Previn wrote brilliant, disturbing and darkly funny songs in the 1970s. She began as an Academy Award-nominated lyricist for Hollywood musicals with songs for Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and Dionne Warwick, before a tabloid scandal and public breakdown led to her re-emergence as a cult artist in the Laurel Canyon scene. The film draws on archives for its compelling story as J. Smith-Cameron (Succession) reads the voices in Dory’s head. Previn’s eloquent articulation of her relationship with her voices anticipates the burgeoning Hearing Voices and Mad Pride movements that are revolutionising how we now understand mental health.

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LITTLE EDEN - A FILM ABOUT THE BEVIS FROND

Mon 4 Nov

Duke Of York’s

(Includes Q&A with filmmakers and band members, and an acoustic music performance)

Despite almost complete disinterest from the wider music industry, The Bevis Frond have spent the best part of 40 years maintaining a thriving recording-and-touring career, supported by an avid and ever-growing, global fanbase. An unclassifiable mix of dissonant pop melodies, punk aggression, propulsive guitar licks, folk, blues and neo-psychedelic rock, their music has been covered by a host of musicians including The Lemonheads, Teenage Fanclub, Elliot Smith and Juliana Hatfield, while iconic bands like Pavement and Dinosaur Jr. all point to them as pioneers of indie distribution models. This playful documentary from the directors of The Ballad Of Shirley Collins, tells the extraordinary story of the band over the course of a single, semi-fictionalised day in the life of the band’s singer-songwriter and guitarist Nick Saloman, and serves as a timeless example of how to succeed in the music industry on your own terms. All shot in Hastings, the film features moogs, badgers, septuagenarian footballers, seagulls and window cleaners, but most of all, it folds together an eclectic soundtrack of in-turn explosive, transcendental and exquisite music drawn from the band’s catalogue of 35 (often double) albums, spanning four decades.

For more information or tickets, visit: www.docnrollfestival.com/films