THE SOUNDS OF DOCS
This year’s music documentaries section will be an opportunity to travel in three different directions. We might choose to explore the genres, from techno, through various shades of guitar alternative to bebop. Geographically, we might sail from Melbourne to the Congo, then to Manieczki, only to end up in El Paso. We will also travel through time, from the mid-20th century to the present day. Undoubtedly, Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat, awarded at the 2024 Sundance Festival, is sure to be the highlight of these journeys. Thick with archival material, it tells the story of jazz musicians caught up in a Cold War intrigue set in central Africa at a time when sixteen countries regained their independence. With Mutiny in Heaven: The Birthday Party, we will be transported to Australia and then to 1980s Europe, where Nick Cave came of age artistically. For those who know him as the elegant gentleman from 20,000 Days on Earth, this picture may be shocking. The film tells the story of his post-punk roots and his band, The Birthday Party. The rebellious energy is also powerfully present in Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird, a highly personal portrait edited from four decades of footage captured by Omar Rodríguez-López, guitarist and founder of At The Drive In and The Mars Volta. A number of issues raised in this film, such as artistic freedom, balancing between indie and mainstream, or the difficulty of combining music with normal life is also examined in terms of Polish realities, in Twenty Years Later: C.K.O.D.3 and Love, Peace, Noise. The former is already the third instalment of a unique project, as part of which director Piotr Szczepański documents how Cool Kids of Death fare once every 10 years. Meanwhile, Jarosław Kasperek—touring with Titanic Sea Moon—tells the story of the band and its previous incarnation, the legendary Polish noise rock crew Ewa Braun. Both films offer interesting insights into the Polish scene at the turn of the millennium. Adding to that picture, Rave takes a look at the techno scene through the eyes of young protagonists and a veteran, who reassess the utopian ideas about the classless and egalitarian nature of that genre.
