The 14th annual FilMusic Festival, running from June 25 through 28 at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center, is an exciting long weekend of feature films and musical performances celebrating the convergence of music, culture, and film. Martha’s Vineyard Film Society founder and executive director Richard Paradise notes, “The inspiration to create FilMusic was that music documentaries, especially those profiling the extraordinary lives of bands and musicians we love, have been on the rise for the past 15 years.”
Referring to two of the films on the docket, Paradise continues, “Unless a filmmaker dives deep into their subject, how else are we to know what inspired our favorite musicians and music creators to fame? How did bands like Earth, Wind & Fire get their start, and what are the secrets of their longevity? Or the influence that someone like John Prine had on so many other singer-songwriters of his time and still today?”
The festival begins on Thursday, June 25, at 7:30 pm with the Emmy-nominated “We Want the Funk,” followed by a discussion with co-director Stanley Nelson. The film, which will have you dancing in your seat, if not the aisle, opens with reflections from musicians, historians, music curators, and professors on the genre’s definition: Funk may not be describable, but you know it when you hear it. And most important, when you hear it, you feel it. You indeed feel the funk throughout the film, which traces its earliest roots to James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, and Parliament-Funkadelic. It examines the symbiotic relationship between the explosion of funk music from the Midwest and the political and racial dynamics in 1970s inner-city America. “We Want the Funk” also examines its permutations within Afrofuturism and its influence on musicians such as Elton John and David Bowie, among others.
On Friday, June 26, at 4 pm is “Earth, Wind & Fire,” by producer, director, and musician Ahmir (“Questlove”) Thompson. The documentary relates the story of the legendary, ninetime Grammy awardwinning band Earth, Wind & Fire. It traces its genesis through founding member Maurice White, chronicling the band’s evolution and relevance from the 1970s to the present day, while exploring the deep philosophical and spiritual meaning behind the band’s message and music. Drawing from Earth, Wind & Fire’s rich visual, sound, and written archives, including never-before-seen footage, the film plays like an experiential kaleidoscope of images, colors, and music, transporting viewers to the vibrancy of live performances that have electrified fans from the past and today.
That night at 7:30, the short concert film “Robby Ameen Live at the Poster Museum” will be followed by a live performance from the master drummer and bandleader Ameen and friends, as well as a discussion with Ameen and director Nelson Hume. During COVID, Ameen used a decades-old poster shop to record, teach, rehearse, and eventually present a weekly series in its expansive storefront, replete with the world’s largest collection of vintage posters. With his longtime band members in tow, Ameen created an intimate neighborhood salon, overflowing with fiery, original Afro-Cuban music that has deep strains of contemporary hard bop and funk.
On Saturday, June 27, at 4 pm, is Paris Barclay’s music biopic, “Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It.” The documentary chronicles the extraordinary life and six-decade career of Grammy-winning keyboardist Billy Preston, whose signature sound shaped the work of the Beatles, Ray Charles, Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, Barbra Streisand, Sly Stone, Eric Clapton, and countless others.
That night at 7:30 pm is Michael John Warren’s “You Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine,” followed by a Q and A with the musician’s widow and the film’s producer, Fiona Whelan Prine. The documentary captures a star-studded tribute in October 2022. It features admirers and collaborators such as Bonnie Raitt, Brandi Carlile, Tyler Childers, Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yoakam, Jason Isbell, and Bob Weir, among many others, performing on the Ryman stage in Nashville for this special celebration of his life and music. Throughout the film, the audience’s enthusiasm is palpable. Fiona says of her husband’s 50-year career, “His fans were, and remain, loyal and devoted in a unique way, many of them having followed him since the beginning of his career in the folk clubs of Chicago in the late 1960s.” About the concert, she adds, “Artists from every genre and generation spent two unforgettable nights together. We laughed, cried, shared stories, and sang the songs.”
Sunday, June 28, at 1 pm is “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert,” directed by Baz Luhrmann. The documentary, which focuses on the early 1970s, features recently found footage from his Las Vegas residencies and tours between 1970 and 1972, revealing the King as the master musician and performer he was. (See the full MV Times review at bit.ly/MVT_EPiC.)
On Sunday, June 28, at 4 pm, awardwinning director-producer Madeleine Hetherton-Miau’s “Mozart’s Sister,” a musical mystery exploring Maria-Anna Mozart, the famous composer’s older sibling, is presented. Hetherton-Miau’s approach is multifaceted. She uses re-enactments to transport us to the 18th century, revealing the close relationship between the two child prodigies. The film also features excerpts from their letters, and interviews with contemporary music historians, a forensic handwriting specialist, conductors, and actress and playwright Silvia Milo, who wrote and performed the acclaimed one-woman play “The Other Mozart.” We follow Maria-Anna from performing for royalty when she was as young as 10 years old; the life she faced after age 15, when it was no longer respectable for her to play in public; and the choices she had to make as a woman in her time to survive. Ultimately, the tale is one of triumph, and inspires an immensely articulate and talented young classical composer, Alma Deutscher, whom we also follow throughout the film as Maria-Anna’s contemporary doppelganger.
The weekend’s final film, Bill Lichtenstein’s “The Airwaves Belonged to the People: WBCN and the American Revolution,” screens on Sunday, June 28, at 7:30 pm, followed by a discussion with executive producer Robert Sennott. The newly rereleased documentary recounts how a Boston rock radio station helped ignite the cultural and political revolution of the late 1960s and beyond. During an era of profound social turbulence in America, WBCN abandoned standard radio formats to become a powerful, independent platform for progressive news, the antiwar movement, civil rights, women’s rights, and the LGBTQ liberation movement. The film highlights how the station merged rock ’n’ roll with revolutionary politics, giving voice to a countercultural generation ignored by mainstream media.
Reflecting on the festival’s importance, Paradise says, “Music as a part of our American experience is significant. It is a popular film genre we sit and watch, reliving our memories.”
For tickets and more information, visit mvfilmsociety.com.