Hipsters the world over rally behind their beloved indie films and indie music, so it’s only logical for someone to marry the two. Enter Sound Unseen Roadtrip, a traveling festival featuring the best of a crop of independent music films, which will roll into Columbus this weekend at the Arena Grand Theater.
“Even if you’re not a music fan, you should come out just for the history,” said Tony Barnett, spokesman for Green Chief Productions. “You’re not just seeing one type of music unfold on the screen, but a moment in history unfold in front of you.”
The roadtrip is the offspring of the Sound Unseen Film & Music Festival in Minneapolis, a week-long event featuring about 40 films. The roadrip features a selection of the five films from the festival that have gotten the best reaction from the audience.
“(My partner) and I came up with the idea of taking it on tour,” said Nate Johnson, event coordinator for Sound Unseen. “A lot of these films don’t make it into theaters, and there’s really a good audience out there for this type of thing.”
In the past few years, digital video has made a crossover possible between filmmakers and musical documentarians, Johnson said.
“They’re compatible in their do-it-yourself ethic,” he said. “It’s basically the same idea, and you go about it the same way. The means to make films have become much more available.”
Although some festivals feature independent music films as a sidebar, Johnson said Sound Unseen is the only festival that concentrates solely on the genre.
“We tried to emphasize diversity with our choices. We have hip-hop, reggae, classic punk, classic alternative rock and “American Astronaut,” which doesn’t really fall under any of those categories,” Johnson said.
The trip begins at 8 p.m. on Friday with “Westway to the World,” a documentary on the legendary punk rock band The Clash, told through the people who followed the band from the beginning.
Next up is “Rockers,” a one-of-a-kind gem that takes the audience on a tour of the reggae music world and Jamaican life as it follows brilliant but down-on-his luck drummer Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace.
“The Graceful Swans Of Never,” is a brand new documentary on one of the defining bands of “alternative” rock, the Smashing Pumpkins. “Swans” follows the band’s highlights and lowlights, from their exuberance during the making of “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” to the devastation they felt following the overdose death of backup keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin.
Completing the lineup are “Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme,” which is the story of a group of underground hip-hop MCs, “Punking Out,” a long-lost short documentary capturing the punk scene in New York City circa 1978 and “The American Astronaut,” a flinty black and white feature written, directed and starring Cory McAbee of the cult musical group The Billy Nayer Show.
“Imagine a long Laurel & Hardy skit directed by Salvadore Dali,” Entertainment Weekly said about “Astronaut.”
Johnson conceived and planned the show with fellow independent film festival veteran Steve Trimble, who has worked on the Chicago Underground Film Festival and RESTFEST. The two hold similar viewpoints on movies and music, which makes the behind-the-scenes organization run smoothly.
“Working with Steve is super cool,” Johnson said. “We have the same ideas and the same vision for what’s going on.”
Johnson, a 25 year-old graduate of Carlton College, said organizing the festival is basically his job right now.
Sound Unseen will play through Sunday at Arena Grand, 175 W. Nationwide Blvd. Call (614) 470-9900 for more information. After completing the run in Columbus, Sound Unseen will travel to Milwaukee, Detroit and Minneapolis before ending up in Chicago.
