NXNE announces film lineup, record show

In addition to a rather stellar lineup of music, NXNE has released an exciting lineup of movies for this year’s fest as well as a first annual record show.

40 films will coincide with all the music. Some highlights include:

Ages and Stages: The Story Of The Meligrove Band
Dr. Brendan McCarney

Ages and Stages takes a raw but heartening look at the frustrations of The Meligrove Band, one of the best but most overlooked bands in Canada. Follow the band ‘s three core members, who have been together for fifteen years despite weathering all kinds of colossal bad luck, legal wrangling, being in the “wrong place at the wrong time” and the ever present feeling that it might just be time to hang it up.

The Ballad Of Hugh
Dr. Marco DiFelice
World premiere

Poet, musician, novelist and sculptor, Hugh Oliver may be an octogenarian, but he dreams the dreams of an 18-year-old. This is the story of a complete unknown trying to make it in the youth-obsessed entertainment biz, along with the rest of the up-and-comers out there. Centering on a golden day of recording at Canterbury Studios, where some of Toronto’s top musicians help to bring Hugh’s songs to life, the film is interwoven with interviews, animation, and music videos. Through his stories and lyrics, and with an incredible amount of candour and charm, Hugh teaches us that any age is a good age to dream, to play, to write, to learn. A tale of friendship and artistic endeavor, The Ballad of Hugh is a heart-warming, inspirational documentary that sheds a hopeful, lyrical light on the realities of aging.

Ecstasy
Dr. Rob Heydon
Writer Irvine Welsh will be in attendance

Ecstasy is a dark romantic comedy based on the controversial book, a bestseller in over 20 countries, by Irvine Welsh. The film combines Welsh’s provocative characters and superb story telling with shocking thrills and dark comedy, taking us on a journey into a crafty, drug fuelled contemporary satire on modern culture. Shot in Sault Ste. Marie and Toronto, as well as Scotland and Amsterdam, the plot follows a romance between Lloyd and Heather against a background of clubbing and drug dealing. Lloyd’s emotional experience is at the heart of this film; every step he takes leads him deeper into the secret world of his faith and love, forcing him to confront himself and his own beliefs and prejudices. Using hand-held cameras, mixing up drama and real life, shooting fast to capture performance and the ever changing light, the film reflects the hypnotic essence of life that young people face today.

KMS – Jewish Negroes
Dr. Moran Ifergan
Canadian premiere

Rappers KMS are black Israelis, Ethopian Jews whose families came to the promised land expecting “a land of milk and honey.” As with immigrants in many lands, they encounter an almost casual daily racism, which they counter with their own aggression, which is reflected in their music. They live in the large ghetto of central Israel. The film observes their daily life and catches the reality of black generation trying to find their identity in “white Israel.”

My Father And The Man In Black
Dr. Jonathan Holiff
Canadian premiere
Jonathan Hollif in attendance

A new documentary featuring Johnny Cash promises to be unlike anything you’ve seen before. Written and directed by Jonathan Hollif, the son of Johnny’s former manager, Saul Holiff , the movie features huge amounts of unseen material. Father and son had been estranged for 20 years when Holiff committed suicide in 2005. Six months later, Jonathan discovered a storage locker his father had kept for 30 years. It contained audiotapes of phone calls his father had made with Cash, hundreds of letters and other personal mementos. Brought together from more than 60 hours of audio described as ‘eyewitness contemporaneous accounts’ of what happened to Johnny and Saul, this film will likely rewrite much of the history books.

What Did You Expect? The Archers Of Loaf At Cat’s Cradle
Dr. Gorman Bechard
Gorman Bechard in attendance

Indie rock icons the Archers of Loaf reunited in 2011, and during the course of their reunion tour played two legendary concerts at Cat’s Cradle in Chapel Hill, NC. Combining in-your-face concert footage along with rare interviews of the band, this film by director Gorman Bechard documents those concerts, and captures the excitement and explosive energy of what its like to see this extraordinary band perform live.

For the full program of films, head on over here

Fans can attend NXNE Film screenings one of four ways: