Earshot Jazz Films

Earshot Jazz Films

October 28 – November 6, 2008

Each year Northwest Film Forum presents the film component of the Earshot Jazz Festival, illuminating the lives, music and creative collaborations of great jazz artists. This year’s program features the Seattle area premieres of new documentaries Electric Heart and Martino Unstrung as well as archival presentations of the classic documentary Mingus (1968), the rarely seen feature film A Man Called Adam (1966), and animated jazz shorts by John and Faith Hubley (1957-75).

 

Mingus (Charlie Mingus 1968)

Sponsored by KBCS 91.3 FM

Oct 28 - Oct 29, 2008

(Thomas Reichman, USA, 1968, 16mm, 58 min) 40th Anniversary Screening

This frank, tender and at times shocking cinéma verité portrait of the legendary jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus reveals the volatile dimensions of this protean creator in a particularly difficult period.

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Jazz Animation From the Hubley Studio

Nov 01 - Nov 02, 2008

(John and Faith Hubley, USA, 1957–75, 35mm, 70 min)

Beginning in the 1950s, the wonderfully imaginative and innovative films of independent animators John and Faith Hubley broke from traditional styles of animation and addressed important issues with intelligence, passion and humor.

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Electric Heart: Don Ellis

Nov 01 - Nov 03, 2008

Innovative jazz composer, arranger, and musician Don Ellis continually ventured into new musical horizons. Often to the detriment of his career, Ellis experimented with unusual time signatures, electronics, and elements of rock, classical and world music.

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Martino Unstrung

Nov 01 - Nov 03, 2008

(Ian Knox, UK, 2007, digiBETA, 90min)

Director Ian Knox and Composer Milton Mermikides scheduled to attend Saturday and Sunday screenings

In 1980, the legendary jazz guitarist Pat Martino was brutally silenced by memory stripping brain surgery. Filmed over the past two years, Martino Unstrung is a fascinating tale of music and memory.

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A Man Called Adam

Nov 05 - Nov 06, 2008

(Leo Penn, 1966, USA, 16mm, 102 min)

This rarely seen 1966 independent film by blacklisted director Leo Penn (Sean Penn’s father) stars Sammy Davis Jr. as a troubled jazz musician (ghosted on trumpet by Nat Adderley) and Cicely Tyson in one of her first screen roles as a young civil rights activist.

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