My Vancouver International Film Festival Reviews: Two extraordinary films that centred Black artists

BY SELINA MCCALLUM

The Vancouver International Film Festival wrapped up this past Sunday and it was a great success. I viewed two beautiful films that centred Black artist.

The Melt Goes On Forever: The Art & Times Of David Hammons

Directed by Judd Tully and Harold Crooks

The Melt Goes on Forever: The Art & Times Of David Hammons had its North American premiere at VIFF. It was a brilliant film that introduced me to an artist that I am now inspired by.

This documentary perfectly combines interviews, archival footage, music and animation to bring to life the story of David Hammons, an African-American artist in New York, who’s art was firmly rooted in the questioning of dominant culture and exposing racial injustice.

Directors Judd Tully and Harold Crooks always wanted to work on a film together. They were coming up with documentary film ideas when they landed on the art of David Hammons.

“We landed on David Hammons as being this amazing artist. Also, an artist, at least at the time, was unknown outside of this very elite small art world. And our idea was to bring him to a larger audience, because we both felt that he was such a powerful kind of outsider, insider artist who was so present about many social issues and dealing with them from the very beginning of his practice, which goes back to when he was a young man in Los Angeles, in the mid 60s and in the Watts rebellion. And so, we very much wanted to create this sort of historic landscape from that time to moving to New York,” said Tully.

One of Hammons’s art pieces that stood out was a chandelier replacing a basketball net. He also used bottle caps to cover an entire phone poll. Last but not least, he used cut hair from Black barber shops around New York and used the hair in his projects as well.

Tully says he is most proud of the beautiful music that is in the film.

“One of the things that I’m most pleased about with the film is the music is composed by Ramachandra Borcar and what he was able to do, and the musicians he was able to bring in, I think greatly augmented the effect of the film and in terms of moving along when you have a lot of people talking,” said Tully.

The co-director says the art world started to wake up during the Black Lives Matter Movement in 2020.

“I’m involved in the art market, not buying and selling, not as an art dealer, but as a journalist covering things like auctions, art fairs and art exhibitions. The art world, until fairly recently, was something like approaching a South African apartheid. It was a White only world, from top to bottom artists, art dealers, museum curators, museum directors, and then all of a sudden, it was as if someone flicked on a switch and said, “Oh, my goodness, we have to bring in this other part of our world.” And that’s been going on actually, during the time that we made the film. And so your question about the message behind the film is that, it’s just waking up the artwork.” said Tully.

Check out www.themeltfilm.com to learn more about the film and where you can watch it.

Music Pictures: New Orleans

Directed by Ben Chase

Music Pictures: New Orleans is a beautifully done film that is compelling and sounds even better because of the four New Orleans superstars featured in the film.

Music Pictures gives us four legacy portraits of New Orleans music figures Irma Thomas, Little Freddie King, Ellis Marsalis, and The Tremé Brass Band. In their 80s, these local masters continue their practice, for the love of the music, in the city that made them who they are.

The film had its Canadian premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival last week. Earlier this year it had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

Ben Chase is the Director, Screenwriter, Editor and Producer of the film. He says that this story is inspirational because the musicians choose to continue to make music despite hardships.

“It’s a story about these beautiful people that are still doing their thing. To me, watching the subjects of the film practice their craft in their 80s, when they don’t need to be doing it, when they’ve already had enough recognition in their town, they’ve already had enough struggles in their life, but they do it because they love it. That’s inspirational. I think that could be inspirational to anyone, whether they are Canadian, or otherwise,” said Chase.

Sadly, one of the artists featured in the film, Ellis Marsalis, passed away in 2020 from Covid at 85.

In the film, we see all four musicians perform. Living-legend Little Freddie King, one of the last original bluesmen, is still performing live at age 81. Grammy-winner Irma Thomas, who is also known as “The Soul Queen of New Orleans,” and has performed with James Brown, sings gracefully in the film. Benny Jones Sr., of the Tremé Brass Band also gives a stunning performance.

Chase shares how and why he selected the four talented New Orleans musicians.

“I can see this project as both a music recording project and a documentary film. I was doing some work with this record label in New York, that just did these kinds of vinyl compilations called New Vale records. I had just moved down to New Orleans and I said, “Listen, there’s some incredible musicians here that are not being recorded really too much at this stage in their careers, but and also haven’t quite gotten the recognition outside of New Orleans that they deserve,”” said Chase.

Music Pictures takes the audience on a journey through New Orleans as it shows the history of the city, the energy on the streets, and the passion of the musicians. The musicians also share vulnerable stories that help the audience feel closer to them. Chase hopes that after people watch the film, they will feel intrigued to search up each artist and listen to their music.

“It’s a difficult moment for music because everything’s online, and it becomes ephemeral. So, things kind of have less gravity than they did back in those days. And that’s why I think we have a lot to learn from those musicians who came up in that era. And to go through what those artists had to go through as Black musicians in the South in the 60s and 70s. This documentary is not going to change the trajectory of anything, but hopefully, when people watch it, they’re going to look up all the artist’s records and dig into it,” said Chase.

Check out www.musicpictures.co to learn more about the film and where you can watch it.