The Doors: When You're Strange

When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors. from Mark Bataitis on Vimeo.

When You’re Strange uncovers historic and previously unseen footage of the illustrious rock quartet and provides new insight into the revolutionary impact of its music and legacy. Directed by award-winning writer/director Tom DiCillo and narrated by Johnny Depp, the film is a riveting account of the band’s history.

Said Depp, “Watching the hypnotic, hitherto unreleased footage of Jim, John, Ray and Robby, I felt like I experienced it all through their eyes. As a rock n’ roll documentary, or any kind of documentary for that matter, it simply doesn’t get any better than this. What an honor to have been involved. I am as proud of this as anything I have ever done.”

The film reveals an intimate perspective on the creative chemistry between drummer John Densmore, guitarist Robby Krieger, keyboardist Ray Manzarek and singer Jim Morrison — four brilliant artists who made The Doors one of America’s most iconic and influential rock bands. Using footage shot between the band’s 1965 formation and Morrison’s 1971 death, When You’re Strange follows the band from the corridors of UCLA’s film school, where Manzarek and Morrison met, to the stages of sold-out arenas.

Wax or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees (1992)

Film by David Blair. It's the first independent feature film to have been edited on a digital non-linear system. It is also the first film (independent or otherwise) to have been re-formatted as hypertext and posted on the internet.

"Wax: Or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees," had to be reduced from full color to a blurry black and white. And true, the spotty audio occasionally went silent. But coming as companies in the cable TV, telephone and computer industries are hot on the trail of 500-channel, all-digital TV, let history record that Saturday night marked the first baby steps in that direction.
The movie, an 85-minute feature by David Blair about a beekeeper who ends up being kept by the bees, has attracted a cult following since its release in 1992. Mr. Blair transmitted it Saturday night from a film production studio in midtown Manhattan. He played it on a VCR and fed it into a computer that converted it into digital form and fed it into the Internet. Promises, Promises
Mr. Blair's effort demonstrated that while information industry giants like Tele-Communications Inc., A.T.& T. and Time Warner are tantalizing the nation with promises of hundreds of channels of ultra-high-resolution interactive pictures transmitted via fiber-optic superhighways, the technology is still in its infancy.
Indeed, it was not until halfway through the digital network premier of "Wax" that the engineers gathered at an office of Sun Microsystems Inc. in Mountain View, Calif., were even able to find the movie signal in the Internet datastream and direct it to play on their color work stations. -  New York Times

The Mindscape of Alan Moore (2003)

The Mindscape of Alan Moore is a 2005 documentary film which chronicles the life and work of Alan Moore. In it, he details his startling and profound worldview.

Alan Moore presents the story of his development as an artist, starting with his childhood and working through to his comics career and impact on that medium, and his emerging interest in magic.

The film features the first film adaptations of scenes from Moore's acclaimed series V for Vendetta and Watchmen, shot in early 2002. Another key scene features a direct reference to the character of John Constantine from the comic book Hellblazer. The film also contains a brief look into Lost Girls, which would not be officially released until years later.

Ginger Baker's Air Force (Jazz and Rock, 1970) Full Show

Sadly the video of the entire concert has been deleted. I place an excerpt from the concert here until it comes up online again....

The man known as The Greatest Ever Rock Drummer releases Live 1970. This studio date was the only one played by the band in October 1970 and would be the final concert in Germany for the Airforce band before they split. The performance captured by the cameras features Sunshine Of Your Love both as part of an extended jam which included Early In The Morning a featured track from the first Airforce album and also later in the set as a stand alone performance and 12 Gates Of The City a Graham Bond composition which featured on the second Airforce album. The total running time of this performance is over fifty minutes and for transmission on the 20th October 1970 the decision was made to edit the performance and therefore the great majority of this historic and rare television appearance has remained in the vaults. Ginger Baker remains a hugely influential artist and as such commands a massive fan base most of whom will be interested in this rarely seen archive performance.

TRACK LIST:

1. EARLY IN THE MORNING / SUNSHINE OF YOUR LOVE (21:56)
2. 12 GATES OF THE CITY (6:40)
3. WHAT A DAY (6:03)
4. JOKING (2:05)
5. SUNSHINE OF YOUR LOVE (3:35)
6. TELL ME A STORY (9:08)

MUSICIAN CREDITS: GINGER BAKER-Drums,
GRAHAM BOND-Vocals/Hammond Organ/Saxes,
KEN CRADDOCK-Organ/Guitar/Vocals ,
STEVE GREGORY-Tenor Sax/Flute,
BUD BEADLE-Saxes,
COLIN GIBSON-Bass,
SPEEDY AQUAYE-Congas,
ALIKI ASHMAN & DIANE STEWART-Vocals

Julius Eastman (1940-1990): Creation (1973)

"Eastman's experimentalism shared some tropes with Cage's, particularly the juxtaposition of disparate sonic materials, amplification, electronics, and tape music. 'Creation' (ca. 1973) is exemplary in this regard. Eastman composed it for the S.E.M. Ensemble, and it was played by Kotik, Eastman, and Williams on their European tour in the summer of 1973. The piece is, like 'Tripod' and 'Thruway', bifurcated into a prerecorded sound collage and a live acoustic component. Eastman's tape collage brings together wildly divergent sounds—vocal drones on an open fifth, sounds of screaming, laughing, crying, and electronic feedback. On the recording Eastman, Williams, and Kotik quote popular songs ('Danny Boy' and 'The Girl from Ipanema' stand out). Gay signifiers emerge periodically as well on the tape. Eastman and his fellow performers affect a lisping comic tone of voice while discussing subjects more expected in a John Waters film than in a classical music concert. This tape accompanies live sounds of percussion, flute, and piano that blend repetition, improvisation, and virtuosic displays from the performers. Eastman's inclusion of queerly surreal material is in line with a long tradition of avant-garde shock techniques in which abject subject matter is joined to an equally disruptive musical surface or formal conceit." - Ryan Dohoney, "John Cage, Julius Eastman, and the Homosexual Ego", in: Benjamin Piekut (ed.), "Tomorrow is the Question. New Directions in Experimental Music Studies", Ann Arbor MI 2014, pp. 39-62, here p. 43

"Creation" for flute, piano, percussion, and recorded sounds (1973)

played by Petr Kotík, Julius Eastman & Jan Williams (S.E.M. Ensemble)

photo (by R. Nemo Hill): Julius Eastman with a charming lady named Bill Paradise

An interview and vocal recital from 1984 by Julian Eastman can be heard here.

The Antifascists (Full Film 2017)

A low-intensity war is being fought on the streets of Europe and the aim is on fascism. This critically acclaimed documentary takes us behind the masks of the militants called antifascists.

In 2013 a group of armed nazis attacks a peaceful demonstration in Stockholm where several people are injured. In Greece the neo-nazi party Golden Dawn becomes the third largest in the election and in Malmö the activist Showan Shattak and his friends are attacked by a group of nazis with knives and he ends up in a coma.

In this portrait of the antifascists in Greece and Sweden we get to meet key figures that explain their view on their radical politics but also to question the level their own violence and militancy.

Subtitles available in CC.
Support our new project by donating to http://paypal.me/antifadoc

For more info, screening license or contacts:
http://www.theantifascists.se
http://www.facebook.com/theantifascists
http://www.instagram.com/theantifascists

Subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Greek, Polish, Indonesian

FELA and Egypt 80 Live Oct 1 1996 Water Parks in Ikeja, Lagos

Proof that Fela Kuti had the power right to the end. Fela was 10 months away from death when this was filmed. It seems more like a ritual than a concert. The performance begins with raw rhythms and bodies on stage and then comes the music; trance rhythm, call and response without the strong brass section one associates with Fela's earlier more famous pieces (not the best audio quality on this film but the power of it still comes through). Fela seems to be in good spirits but his usual on stage banter is absent and he appears to be emaciated. By the 23rd minute of the performance the capacity crowd is starting to reach a frantic emotional high and people are rushing the stage. At the 45 minute mark Femi Kuti comes out for a saxophone solo, perhaps his father did not have the strength for it by this stage, with Fela only playing keyboard up to this point. Now the band takes off and Fela is sadly no longer on stage. He returns later to lead an emotional build up with the brass section from his position at the keyboard and then with the microphone center stage. This is an intense documentation of the last days of a master musician, his band and dancers. "The taste of excitement".

Occult Symbolism in Art

Occult symbolism in art. Art curator/historian Lisa Derrick explains some of the occult symbolism in both classical and modern art and helps decipher it for the passive viewer.

Manufacturing Dissent

Manufacturing Dissent from Radical Times on Vimeo.

This video presentation is a documentary-based analysis of the role of the media in the political strategy of former Queensland Premier, Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen.

The video documentary was submitted as part of a thesis for a Master of Arts degree at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in July 1997.

The documentary was compiled by Debra Beattie, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Sources include:
The Sunshine System (1986) Quentin Dempster and Ross Wilson (50 minutes)
The Moonlight State (May 1987) ABC Four Corners, Chris Masters (reporter), Andrew Olle (presenter) and Peter Manning (executive producer) (59' 59")
The Battle For Bowen Hills (1975) Peter Gray and Garry Lane (Crowsfoot Films) (21 minutes)
Earth First (1987) Gaia Films Jeni Kendall (director/producer) and John Seed (producer) (54 minutes)
If You Don't Fight, You Lose (1978) Leslie Mannison, Joseph Monsour and Ian Curr (24 minutes)
The Whole World Is Watching (1982) Amanda King and Peter Gray (25 minutes)
Friends And Enemies(1987) Tom Zubrycki, Jotz Productions (88 minutes)
Portrait Of A Premier (1978) Brian Benson
State Of Shock (1989) David Bradbury
Joh's Jury (1993) ABC Television, Ken Cameron (98 minutes)
Bruce Dickson footage (1977)

Laurie Anderson's "The Dream Before" is sung by Christine Johnson, recorded at one of the early performances of Women In Voice at the Sitting Duck (cafe and performance venue) in Brisbane in the early 1980s.

Lyrics: History is an angel being blown backwards into the future
He said: History is a pile of debris
And the angel wants to go back and fix things
To repair the things that have been broken
But there is a storm blowing from Paradise
And the storm keeps blowing the angel backwards into the future
And this storm, this storm is called Progress.

Inspired by Walter Benjamin
Lyrics by Laurie Anderson
Performed by Christine Johnson