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200 Motels film image; comic book style art collage of a man's face floating over a bunch of figures

Zappostrophe

+ Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels Film Screening

VIFF Live

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Time to fly your freak flag and jump into Frank Zappaland. A prodigious and prolific talent, Zappa (1940-1993) composed, recorded and produced more than 60 albums; music that brought to rock the complexity and sophistication of classical composition, drawing on jazz, blues, pop and music concrete, but leavened with a surreal and satiric wit.

Ahead of his time, Zappa also directed music videos and the feature 200 Motels (with Tony Palmer), a free-form rock tour riff with Keith Moon as a hot nun and Ringo Starr playing a dwarf Zappa that was shot on videotape in just 10 days. It’s a cult curio that revels in its own sense of possibility. Before the movie, enjoy a set of Zappa tunes resurrected and reimagined by the electrifying Zappostrophe, an eclectic 8-piece band who channel surf FZ’s discography.

Blair Fisher – vocals / trumpet / flute / keys
Blair Lewis – guitar / synths / vocals / rubber chicken
LJ Mounteney – vocals / kazoo
Nick Apivor – percussion / vocals
Guenter Schulz – guitar
Cole Tinney – keyboards
Brent Gubbels – bass
Jason Overy – drums

Zappostrophe…dares to take on Zappa’s weird and wonderful world – recreating his tunes with jaw-dropping musicianship, and a wink to his irreverent humour.

CHEK TV, 2024

Guest

Zappostrophe

Directors

Tony Palmer & Frank Zappa

Cast

Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Ringo Starr, Keith Moon

Credits
Country of Origin

USA

Year

1971

Language

English

19+
150 min

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits

Screenwriter

Frank Zappa

Cinematography

Tony Palmer

Editor

Rich Harrison

Original Music

Frank Zappa

Production Design

Cal Schenkel

Art Director

Leo Austin

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