For all who enjoy the rhythm of the beat, June 26 through 29 is filled with enticing screenings for this year’s Filmusic Festival at the M.V. Film Center. Feature films, a musical performance, and an author talk will celebrate the convergence of music, culture, and film throughout the long weekend.
Richard Paradise, founder and executive director of the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society, reflects, “To me, a film festival is a special period when you really can focus on a selection, genre, or theme, and give it a deep dive, breadth, and diversity of programming. I truly believe that a film festival brings a community together in a special way compared with simply going to see a nationally released film.” He continues, “At a festival you can show films that don’t have a large national release, and are smaller in scope but nonetheless important and entertaining.”
Paradise started this festival 13 years ago. “I looked at how popular music is on the Vineyard. There’s a rich history here with performers and concerts, so I thought, ‘Why not host a festival that combines music and film? About music as a cultural art.’”
An opening reception with live music kicks off the festival on Thursday, June 26, followed by a screening of “It’s Never Over: Jeff Buckley” and a discussion afterward with Oscar- and Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker Amy Berg. Buckley was a rising singer-songwriter known for his astonishing four-octave vocal range and had only one album to his name when he died suddenly in 1997 at the age of 30. He was recognized for hits like “So Real,” “Grace,” “Last Goodbye,” and “Everybody Here Wants You.” The film is partly told from the perspective of the women in his life and features rare performance clips and previously unseen footage.
On Friday, June 27, at 4 pm, is “Janis Ian: Breaking Silence,” a moving and intimate look at the life and genius of a groundbreaking singer-songwriter. As a teenager in 1966, Ian scored the hit “Society’s Child” about an interracial relationship. The song launched her illustrious career but also ignited controversy, plunging her into an emotional tailspin and life-threatening illness. She emerged from the ashes with an even bigger hit, “At Seventeen,” in 1975, about body shaming.
That evening at 7:30 pm is “Becoming Led Zeppelin.” Featuring new interviews, previously unseen footage, and performances, this documentary tells the origin story of Led Zeppelin in the legendary band’s own words. The film traces the meteoric rise of the four members through the 1960s music scene, culminating in their meeting in the summer of 1968. Bernard MacMahon’s experiential cinematic odyssey explores the creative, musical, and personal origins of Led Zeppelin.
Saturday, June 28, begins at 4 pm with “They All Came Out of Montreux.” Director and screenwriter Oliver Murray tells the story of the world-famous Montreux Jazz Festival and its beloved founder, Claude Nobs. Starting in 1967, with virtually no knowledge of the music industry, Nobs transformed a sleepy town on the shores of Lake Geneva into a mecca for some of the most significant international recording artists of all time, including Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, David Bowie, Miles Davis, Etta James, and Prince.
At 7:30 pm is “One to One: John & Yoko.” On August 30, 1972, in New York City, John Lennon played his only full-length show after leaving the Beatles. The One to One benefit concert at Madison Square Garden was a rollicking, dazzling performance by him and Yoko Ono. The film uses the legendary musical event as the starting point to explore 18 defining months in the lives of John and Yoko in Greenwich Village in the early 1970s. The music is newly remixed and produced by Sean Ono Lennon.
On Sunday, June 29, at 1 pm, it’s “Fred Mollin: Unplugged,” featuring a video, an author reading, a Q-and-A moderated by Caryn Richman, and a book signing. In 1977, at the age of 24, Fred Mollin co-produced Dan Hill’s international hit record “Sometimes When We Touch,” which became one of the most successful ballads in the history of pop music. How do you follow that? “Unplugged” answers that question by revealing previously untold, behind-the-scenes stories and an incredible array of personalities.
At 4 pm is “Brother Verses Brother,” followed by a discussion with filmmaker Ari Gold on Zoom. The film is a personal musical odyssey. Combative twin musicians hunt for their dying poet father in an improvisation performed by the director’s own family. The film features a single unbroken shot through the streets of San Francisco. One brother seeks love and excitement, while the other seeks to immerse himself in his music. But as night falls and their father remains missing, their frantic safari leads them from the secret haunts of the Beat poets into the heart of their family.
The weekend draws to a close at 7:30 pm with “Ron Delsener Presents.” The documentary relates the untold story of one of the most influential concert promoters in New York, who brought the city to life one concert at a time. The documentary is a high-energy, behind-the-scenes look at the legendary promoter who helped shape the sound of a generation, from Hendrix to Springsteen and beyond.
For more information and tickets, visit mvfilmsociety.com.
FYI, Janice Ian’s hit, “At Seventeen”, is not about body-shaming! It is about being an outsider and experiencing social exclusion, and even about questiong the short-live happiness of those who do fit in (debutantes). Ms Ian, who grew up on a chicken farm in NJ with her Jewish activist parents, didn’t look like or feel like the girls she grew up around. She is a Jewish lesbian whose “otherness” of angst and not fitting in is something most adolescents can identify with, but most adolescents grow out of their “otherness” feelings. Some of us, even as old people, are still treated like outsiders for being who we are. https://miamijewishfilmfestival.org/films/2025/janis-ian
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