Canadian Premiere
Four snapshots from behind the rich music scene of New Orleans. Filmmaker Ben Chace (Wah Do Dem; Sin Alas) dips into four recording sessions—jazz, blues, soul, and more jazz—and allows the artists to share their stories, beginning with the Queen of Soul, the legendary Irma Thomas; then Benny Jones from the Treme Brass Band; King of the Blues, Little Freddie King; and finally, father and son, Ellis and Jason Marsalis, on piano and vibraphone, respectively.
Chace might have expanded any one of these vignettes into a feature-length documentary; instead he gives us a buffet, a taster, or a playlist if you will, and invites us to draw out the connections between these veteran African-American artists who found their métier making music long ago, but continue to create, compose, and inspire. The director is himself a musician, and it shows: there is a shorthand that musicians share and which underscores the sessions captured here. As for the music, you’ll want to get up and dance.
Media Partner
Community Partner
Irma Thomas, Ellis Marsalis, Little Freddie King, Benny Jones Sr., Jason Marsalis
USA
2021
English
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Blue Star
In crisis, a popular singer quits Spain to backpack in Argentina. There he comes under the spell of a veteran musician, who teaches him the art of chacareras, zambas and vidalas. It's a journey of musical kinship and spiritual reawakening.
The Mother and the Bear
Johnny Ma’s film stars Kim Ho-jung as a Korean woman who flies to Winnipeg when her immigrant daughter is hospitalized there. This crowd-pleaser plays up cultural differences to hilarious effect and offers a touching take on mother-daughter tension.
Forastera
In this mysterious and subtle coming of age drama, teenager Cata is soaking up the sun, smoking furtive cigarettes, and enjoying a summer break with her grandparents and her younger sis in Mallorca. That is, until Cata's beloved abuela collapses...
Credits
Executive Producer
John Caulkins, Henry Kasdon
Producer
Ben Chace, Bill Ramsey
Screenwriter
Ben Chace
Cinematography
Nisa East, Bruno Doria, Zac Manuel, Sam Fleischner, Andrew Storrs
Editor
Ben Chace
Director
Ben Chace
Ben Chace has directed several independent feature films including Wah Do Dem (2010), which won the Jury Prize at the Los Angeles Film Festival, was shortlisted for Best Film at BFI London Film Festival and was listed in Artforum’s Top 10 Films of 2010. His follow-up Sin Alas (2016), the first American-produced feature filmed in Cuba since 1959, screened at AFI Latin American Film Festival and Curaçao International Film Festival Rotterdam and was distributed by Kino Lorber. Ben grew up in Providence, Rhode Island and attended NYU Gallatin School.
Filmography: Wah Do Dem (2010); Sin Alas (2016)