So I’m listening to the soundtrack from A Mighty Wind. I know some “purists” poo-poo this movie because they feel it belittles folk music. I find it pretty darn funny myself (I usually love anything Christopher Guest touches). But my question is:

Any other movies have folk music as a dominant theme in them? Bound for Glory, of course. Songcatcher. I guess I’m thinking movies as in, not documentaries. Years back, Sean Penn was looking at doing an adaptation of Death of a Rebel, about Phil Ochs, but to the best of my knowledge that never transpired.

I can think of a whole bunch of (mostly forgettable,  but I watch them anyway) country-based movies, but not too much is coming to mind in the folk and acoustic realm. Anyone?

And if you were a Hollywood (or indie) producer, who do you think would be an interesting subject for a movie?

Tim Hardin
Phil Ochs
The Carter Family

?

When O Brother came out, it also had some back-lash as i remember. I recall some people seemed to resent the attention it gave to the music. I thought it was a great movie myself, though it took me a while to deal with the casting of George Clooney (everyone around him does an excellent job however).

I also liked A Mighty Wind, though Spinal Tap remains my favorite!

Oh, yeah,  Oh, Brother—what a fun movie!  This thread inspired me to check out the American Folk and Bluegrass Category on Netflix.  A whole bunch of concerts and documentaries, and a few instructional DVDs—some pretty good ones.  While I was there I added Genghis Blues to my queue—been meaning to watch it for a while…

Without meaning to sound like a Netflix commercial, they also have some of the Pete Seeger Rainbow Quest shows from the early 60’s available… Black and white, grainy, unpolished performances and absolutely wonderful. I watched the one with Johnny Cash several times now! Watched a fairly good Tim Buckley documentary from them a month or two ago, too.

I agree with you about Spinal Tap, btw, Ben! Just thinking about the cucumber scene makes me laugh…

My favorite part of Ghengis Blues is when the big city Americans find out what the prize for the competition is.

There really IS good music on Spinal Tap. I have a mp3 of Big Bottom, i think its very imaginative (though you won’t be hearing it so much on the Folk Show for a variety fo reasons).

I was just thinking of recent popular culture that has folk music in it. There is also the movie Juno to which people labeled the music anti-folk (the definitions of anti-folk are the same as folk, wich seems sort of silly to me).

Also the show Flight of the Concords, wich cover a variety of genres, including folk. Niether of these will really inform the listener about the wider genre, but its fun to see what fresh takes on the music are. Concords is very funny to boot.

I’ve had to laugh about that Anti Folk label, because some of the music I hear with that description sounds exactly like, well, some things I just think of as Folk! But, you know, if you’re 18 or 19, that can carry some negative connotations, apparently.

It is funny how some people just cringe at the “F-word…”  (F for “Folk,” naturally… what did you think I meant?!)

One of my favorite quotes, btw, was from one of my favorite singer/songwriters, David Olney, who once said to me “I took it as a hell of a compliment when somebody called me a folksinger!”

It’s kind of a strange one, but Ray McKinnon (campaign advisor to Homer Stokes in O Brother, tall lanky character actor you’d probably recognize to see) directed / led a really interesting Billy Bob Thornton movie called Chrystal that manages to have a lot of trad music as sort of an unspoken, invisible character in the plot.  It’s kind of an interesting movie, especially if you like rural, backwoods-type characters and scenes.  Not for watching w/ kids around…

Almost any of Anthony Minghella’s movies use music as expertly as I’ve ever seen on the silver screen…  Talented Mr. Ripley (jazz) and Cold Mountain (traditional music) coming to mind.  Though, it can be said that Charles Frazier (the author of the Cold Mtn novel) used music expertly in the context of the book itself, in fact, if you knew the tunes he was referencing, it (potentially) added a whole different dimension to how you digested the story.

Adam

Ghengis Blues:  If you’ve been thinking of watching this movie—don’t wait!  It works on a bunch of levels,  and Paul Pena and Kongar-ol Ondar are hard to forget.  The music is fascinating, the visuals are stunning,  and the personalities stick with you.  There are a lot of places I’d like to visit,  and now Tuva is on the list!

I recall some people seemed to resent the attention it gave to the music. I thought it was a great movie myself, though it took me a while to deal with.

Regards

Tanee

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dossier surendettement

I love Ghengis Blues!

The movie O Brother Where Art Thou?  for me was surprisingly hilarious the song i laughed my head off and i like when george clooney pulls at the fake beard i like the words

People watch it in english class mostly because it’s an oddysey, so you can compare and relate it to the roman or greek story about Oddyseus.

Best Folk Music Movies : Mockumentary documentary about American folk artists, groups, trips, concerts and history are as varied as the problems they pose. Whether it’s undeniable energy of O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Scenes behind the scenes to be strong here for Silly Love Me or color service in A Mighty Wind, pop music fans are far from being under-served in any DVD shop .

I don’t quite understand where you’re going with this, Best Top Sell. Care to elaborate? Maybe it’s our local video store or Netflix, but I am not aware of a lot of movies or even documentaries in the folk realm beyond the ones i’ve listed when the thread started - would you mind sharing a few of what you’re thinking about?

There are music movies a’ plenty. But I was more curious if there were any FOLK-oriented ones beyond the ones I knew of:  (the only folk mockumentary I can think of) A Mighty Wind. Bound for Glory. Songcatcher. Oh Brother.

And of course there are lots of concert videos, some movies that make very effective use of folk and trad music (ie Cold Mountain) and some great documentaries like Ghengis Blues.

Aah, A mighty Wind.. I think I laughed louder than the rest of the audience in the theater combined!

Genghis Blues was very inspiring for me - I use throat singing as an integral part of my sound healing and meditation practice.

Several years ago I saw a movie about Woody Guthrie but I don’t recall the title. Does anyone remember that?