Opens Friday, March 7th at the Sie Film Center! Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story
This star studded tribute brings into focus the dazzling, complex period of Liza Minnelli’s life starting in the 1970s, just after the tragic death of her mother Judy Garland— as she confronts a range of personal and professional challenges on the way to becoming a bona fide legend. Over these years, Liza seeks out extraordinary mentors: Kay Thompson, Fred Ebb, Charles Aznavour, Halston, and Bob Fosse. With insightful participation from a coterie of colleagues such as Michael Feinstein, Mia Farrow, Ben Vereen, Joel Grey and the late Chita Rivera, along with the revelatory participation by the star herself, the film illuminates the contradiction of Liza Minnelli: her privilege and struggle, strength and vulnerability, unreal expectations and towering talent – the friction of which fueled her stunning rise, resilience and her enduring place as one of the greatest, most original performers in the history of entertainment.
To request accommodations or inquire about accessibility at the Sie Film Center, please email accessibility@denverfilm.org.
Sie Film Center, 2510 East Colfax, Denver 80205 (Parking garage is available)
Go here to watch the trailer:
https://denverfilm.eventive.org/films/67abb5a158f0c0817461df60?
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Sly Stone, Led Zeppelin and two rock docs that treat ‘genius’ very differently
Story by Emily Lordi, The Washington Post
“I hate to say it,” the rhythm and blues singer D’Angelo ventures toward the end of Questlove’s new documentary “Sly Lives!” (streaming on Hulu), “but these White rock-and-rollers, these motherf—ers go out in style, they go out paid. … They die in their tomato garden with their grandson, laughing … generational wealth passed down.”
Stone’s legacy is different. In the late 1960s and early ’70s, the West Coast polymath synthesized acid rock and funk through his multiracial, mixed-gender group Sly and the Family Stone, embodying countercultural possibility. (“We got to live together!” they sang in 1968’s “Everyday People.”) He then rescinded that optimism on his 1971 masterpiece, “There’s a Riot Goin’ On,” an album whose jagged distortions seemed to reflect the despondency of the Nixon years. Though it wasn’t the last Family Stone record, it has been heralded as the final salute of a tragic, carnivalesque figure who created some of his era’s most memorable music, only to blow his money on drugs, alienate his bandmates and withdraw from public life in the 1980s.
Stone, who published an unsentimental memoir in 2023, doesn’t participate in “Sly Lives!,” though Questlove (the drummer of the Roots and director of the documentary “Summer of Soul”) taps an impressive group of experts to compensate. Vernon Reid of Living Colour, the producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Andre 3000, the writer Dream Hampton, and most members of the Family Stone testify to his genius as a multi-instrumentalist and composer who influenced artists from Prince to Outkast. We see his tightly rehearsed ensemble performing in platform boots and sequined jackets on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” electrifying Woodstock and appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone.
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Go here to read the full story including Emily’s take on Becoming Led Zeppelin:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/sly-stone-led-zeppelin-and-two-rock-docs-that-treat-genius-very-differently/
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Becoming Led Zeppelin: an ‘exhilarating’ documentary
The Week UK | Article includes a video trailer for the movie. | Led Zeppelin were, for a time, “the world’s biggest band”, and at long last we have an “official documentary” about them, said James Mottram in NME. Directed by Bernard MacMahon, the film interweaves archive footage with interviews with Zep’s three surviving members: Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page, the guitarist who forged the band from the ashes of his previous outfit, The Yardbirds.
There are also “previously unheard musings” from John Bonham, who died in 1980, which make him feel present too. As per the title, the film focuses on the band’s inception, and it is “forensic” when it comes to pre-Zep moments, with explorations of the band members’ childhoods and early influences – even if it is “frustrating” that the narrative stops before “Stairway to Heaven”.
“It is worth making an effort to catch” this documentary in a cinema, to fully appreciate the “sheer immensity of the sound that comes roaring out of the big speakers” when the band plays – “a shuddering assault of electric blues that has lost none of its bone-rattling” power over the decades, said Neil McCormick in The Daily Telegraph. But this is an authorized take, and it’s a pity that it avoids Led Zeppelin’s “nearly mythic destructive arc”. This was a band, after all, “with a reputation for Satanic darkness, sexual abuse and violent aggression”, and which set “a wildly decadent template for show business hedonism”. In the end, I found the film a bit dry and dishonest.
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/becoming-led-zeppelin-an-exhilarating-documentary/
According to Wikipedia, [t]he former members have sporadically collaborated and participated in one-off concerts, including the 2007 Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert in London, with Bonham’s son Jason Bonham on drums. | You really should read the bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Led_Zeppelin
Jimmy Page was born 1/09/44, making him the oldest at 24 when Led Zeppelin hit it big. Second oldest was John Paul Jones, 1/03/46, almost exactly 2 years younger (22) than Page; and John Bonham, 5/31/48, and Robert Plant, 8/20/48, were 20 years old! No wonder they “went wild” when they started getting so famous!
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Led Zeppelin: Jimmy Page On Making The Led Zeppelin Remasters – Part 1 | Louder
From Louder Sound: Video Story – Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page on the story behind the Led Zeppelin Remasters.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/led-zeppelin-jimmy-page-on-making-the-led-zeppelin-remasters-part-1-louder/
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My Favorite Music Documentaries
Polyphonic, Nebula | go.nebula.tv/polyphonic – streaming serviceSlide Show Story
Jazz by Ken Burns
Country Music by Ken Burns
The Velvet Underground by Todd Haynes
Mantanga Maya MIA by Steve Lovinridge
Bob Dylan: Don’t Look Back by D.A. Pennebaker
Bob Dylan: No Direction Home by Martin Scorsese
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Cobain:_Montage_of_Heck
Amy (Amy Winehouse) – very painful to watch – deals with mental health issues
A documentary film, Amy (2015), directed by Asif Kapadia and produced by James Gay-Rees, was released on 3 July 2015. The film covers Winehouse’s life, her relationships, her struggles with substance abuse both before and after her career blossomed, and which eventually caused her death. The film received its première at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival on 16 May and has been reviewed as “a tragic masterpiece”, “brilliant”, “heartbreaking” and “unmissable”. . . . The film was highly acclaimed and received various accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2016 Oscars, Best Music Film at the 2016 Grammy Awards, the BAFTA for Best Documentary, the MTV Movie Award for Best Documentary, in addition to a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best British Film.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Winehouse | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_(2015_film)
20 Feet From Stardom
Summer of Soul – by Questlove – “It’s Fantastic”
The Beatles Get Back by Peter Jackson
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/my-favorite-music-documentaries/
The Mother of American Music – Bessie Smith | A queer, black woman
First recording “Downhearted Blues”, Lovey Austin & Alberta Hunter, writers
Columbia Records
Movie: St. Louis Blues
Died in a car accident at the age of 43 in 1937
Century of Song: 101 Songs that Shaped American Music
by Noah LeFevre and Polyphonic
Out Sept. 17th. | https://www.amazon.com/Century-Song-Songs-Shaped-American/dp/B0CLTPTXZL
https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/peopleandplaces/the-mother-of-american-music/