A samurai action film from director Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer, Audition)? Yes, please.

The New England premiere of a this sci-fi flavored drama, which had well-received screenings at Sundance and SXSW. Directed by Mike Cahill and starring co-writer Brit Marling along with William Mapother (Ethan from Lost).

Guy with a Road Warrior fixation meets girl who can eat more crickets than he can. Directed by (and starring) Evan Glodell, who will be at the screening with co-star Tyler Dawson.

Director/star Miranda July’s first feature-length film since 2005’s “Me and You and Everyone We Know”. She’ll be here in person for a post-film Q&A.

Two Japanese siblings get stuck in a small California town on their way from Japan to San Francisco. Star Atsuko Okatsuka will be at the screening.

Shot entirely in Rhode Island and directed by Mark Heller, who will be at the screening along with actress Daniella Alonso. There’s also a chance that co-star Joe Morton (Brother From Another Planet, Eureka, Terminator 2) will be there as well, but don’t quote me on that. I’m a longtime fan of Joe’s work, so my fingers are very crossed.

Starring a trio of my favorite actors, Deadwood alums Garret Dillahunt (who plays the title character) and Molly Parker along with Donal Logue. Director Ryan Redford and Dillahunt (who’s also been in “Winter’s Bone”, “The 4400”, “The Road”, and the Terminator TV show) will both be at the screening, where I’m sure Dillahunt will not creep me out in real life at all.

I’m a sucker for gorgeous icescapes, and this drama built around two Eskimo brothers takes place entirely in Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost city in the United States. Director Andrew Okpeaha MacLean will be at one of the screenings (not sure which one yet), and I’m sure he has some great stories to tell.

Star John C. Reilly is, unsurprisingly, getting great early reviews for his role at an assistant principal in this high school-set dark comedy, which also stars Creed Bratten (yes, Creed from The Office).

Really looking forward to this one, although not to the sadness that’s sure to seep in as I watch Tracy Wright’s final film performance (the actress, a frequent on-screen and in-person part of past IFFBostons, passed away last year). In “Trigger”, which makes its US premiere here, she stars with Molly Parker as friends reflecting back on their now-distant days in a Canadian rock band. IFFB fave Bruce McDonald directed the film, which also features appearances from Wright’s husband Don McKeller, Sarah Polley, and Callum Keith Rennie. Be sure to pick up a copy of this year’s official IFFBoston program guide, which will include a special tribute to Tracy Wright.

A follow-up of sorts to Michael Winterbottom’s 2005 comedy “Tristram Shandy”, it stars Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon reprising the (possibly) exaggerated versions of themselves from that film. Winterbottom sends the two on a road trip of Northern England and, no doubt, hilarity ensues.

I’m all in for a faux documentary about a man hunting trolls (yeah, trolls) in the wilds of Norway, and the student filmmakers who discover him. Director Andre Ovredal will be at the screening to tell us exactly how much D&D he played growing up.

A based-on-true-events drama about human trafficking, this one has a killer cast: Rachel Weisz, Vanessa Redgrave, Monica Bellucci, and David Strathairn.

As the dad to an almost-4-year-old, I have a newfound appreciation for Elmo and his creator, puppeteer Kevin Clash. He’ll be at the screening (Elmo on hand) with director Constance Marks.

Is there any chance this won’t be a great time? Nope, not really. A packed house of the hometown hero’s family, friends, and fans will get to see this documentary about last year’s traveling Coco roadshow. Director Rodman Flender will be there, and word is that advance tix are already way sold out. Keep in mind that there will be a last-minute rush line, so show up early to the Coolidge to take your chances.

A look at a family who has turned a Portuguese monastary into their own personal artistic playground, focusing on the son who reanimates dead animals using electronics. Not exactly standard documentary fare, which makes it all the more appealing, as does the promise of Larry Dolan’s score. Director Jarred Alterman will be in attendance at one (maybe both) of the screenings.

Throw the word “dragon” in the title of your film and I’ll probably investigate. Unlike “Troll Hunter”, this one’s title isn’t so telling – it’s a personal portrait of Josh “Skreech” Sandoval, an untethered skateboarder wandering through his world. Director Tristan Patterson will be in attendance.

This one will be packed with MIT students & staff, for sure. From the IFFB site: “Follow MIT’s ‘free spirit’ as he digs through trash, encodes DNA with lines of poetry, and tries to send bacteria into space.” Director Peter Sasowsky will be at the screening, and he’s bringing Joe along with him.

Each year I ask the IFFBoston staff to recommend me special films that might not otherwise jump out at me, and this was one they gave me. I trust them implicitly, so check out the film’s synopsis and do the same. This is the films U.S. premiere, and director Jeff Silva will be at the screening for a Q&A.

I’m a sucker for films like this (see: “Wordplay”). This one follows six burgeoning magicians as they compete to be Teen World Champion at the World Magic Seminar in Las Vegas. Director J. Clay Tweel will be at the screenings.

Directed by James Marsh, the man behind 2008’s excellent “Man On Wire”, this film is about a chimpanzee, Nim, who was the subject of 1970s experiment that attempted to socialize him with a human family. Nim’s best friend Bob Ingersoll will be at the screening to answer questions.

A film with strong local ties, to say the least. Boston-based filmmaker Rudy Hypolite helms this in-depth look at Roxbury’s Madison High School basketball team and their coach, Dennis Wilson. Both Hypolite and Wilson will be at the screening (and you can bet that many of the students will be in the crowd, too).

Another film right in my geeky wheelhouse, director Michael Barnett documents the exploits and motivations of a bunch of real-life superheroes – not the quiet, behind-the-scenes kind, but the costume-wearing, danger-flirting kind. They’re out there, and Barnett will be at the screening to tell us even more about them.

150 years ago, the last known Wampanoag speaker died, and this film tells about the inspiration and efforts to revitalize this lost Native American language. Director Anne Makepeace chronicles the history and current state of the tribe, based in southeastern Massachusetts, and how the Wopanaak Language Reclamation Project is helping bring back their spoken word. Makepeace will be at the screening for a Q&A.

There are a ton of films I wasn’t able to write about (I gave especially short-shrift to the short films), so make sure you do some digging of your own at the fest site. Every year there are films I regrettably ignore, or hidden gems I take a chance on that stay with me long after.

Remember, the Independent Film Festival Boston is entirely non-profit, and put together by a volunteer staff of film lovers… so when you attend, treat those in staff t-shirts kindly (especially if they already look stressed out), and listen to anyone holding a walkie-talkie. Pick up some cool merch and a program guide to help fund the fest, and follow them on Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates.

See you tonight over in Davis Square…

[A Special Giveaway] KRISTIN HERSH books, music, + tee

Posted on April 24, 2011 at 11:01 pm | 4 Comments

Here’s a giveaway that’s been very long in the posting… since Autumn, in fact, when Kristin Hersh‘s debut memoir, “Rat Girl” was published in the U.S. and I started putting together this little contest to mark the occasion. Life got in the way, Kristin kept planning more cool stuff I thought I’d wait for, and I kept saying “next week”. Well, next week is now – time to get this very special package in the mail to one of you. Read on (and on) for details on what you could win and how to enter, as I recall my reaction to reading K’s book over a few long-since-passed Fall days…

Anyone who knows me in real life, or knows me from the over-sharing I’ve done on this site, knows of my deep appreciation for the songwriter, guitarist, and human being that is Kristin Hersh. I could gush, though I’ve done plenty of that. I could share stories of how she has both directly and indirectly impacted my own lifestory, but I’ll refrain. Simply said, she means an awful lot to me, and so does the art she’s been sending into the world for the last 25-or-so years. I’ve been listening to what she has to say, mostly in lyrics backed by exceptional music, for a couple decades now, half of my own life. Her words rarely fail to reach me, even when near-indecipherable or too obtuse to decode. Even her between-song-banter at live shows strikes a chord in me, revealing someone with a remarkable ability to toss thought-provoking gems into a crowd.

It’s much more recently that I’ve felt the power of those words when they stand on their own, through her own blog posts or when guesting on other sites around the web. I always thought she might have one hell of a good book inside of her, and whaddya know, she damn well did. It exists in “Rat Girl”, and for example, here’s one of my favorite parts so far, about Betty Hutton, a one-time bonafide Hollywood Movie Star ™, who Kristin befriended in college…

“Betty grew up in the golden age of Hollywood, back when movies were Broadway on film, so her idea of music is ‘singing as entertainment,’ and you can’t call what I do singing or entertainment. I hiss and yell and wail. Sometimes I make seagull noises, unfortunately. Music is something I have almost no control over. Like well-rehearsed Tourette’s.

When Betty sings, she sits at a piano and says lovely things about hope and broken hearts. I often sing phonetically, as if I don’t speak English. The words climb out of my throat and into my mouth. Then I have to spit them out.

Betty sings about starlight and champagne. I sing about dead rabbits and blow jobs. When I say playing music is owning violence, she says it’s owning love; when I say it’s math, she says it’s tap dancing; when I say it’s my gun, she says it’s her dance card.

I’ve also noticed that she sings notes that go with the chords in her songs. I have yet to do that. It sounds pretty when Betty does it; it sounds boring and goofy when I do it. So I make up new notes, ones that don’t belong anywhere near the chords I’m playing, and I sing those. People must think, It’s so nice of them to let that deaf girl sing.”

Kristin’s relationship with Betty is perhaps the heart of the book, and it’s got a very strong beat. Betty comes and goes during that long year, but mostly she stays, with Kristin and with you, and with me long after the you’re done reading. It’s a life-altering connection between to very different souls, and it speaks fiercely. There’s so much simply beauty in it to be found…

Betty: “Aren’t movies wonderful? Beautiful people living beautiful lives.”

Kristin: “For seven bucks? They’re just pretending. I’d rather watching real people living real lives for free.”

That’s what this book gives you. Real Lives. And for longtime fans of Kristin’s first band, Throwing Muses, there are little easter eggs – not-so-hidden surprises that pop-up during Kristin’s story – that will no doubt make you smile. Within the memoir’s very first paragraph, she writes about a cross hanging the wall of an apartment she used to crash in, and a Jesus nailed to it with fish-like scales. A song will come into your head…

“I have a fish nailed to a cross on my apartment wall.”

For Muses fans, that’s a seminal line, from the band’s “Fish“. It immediately reveals that Kristin lyrics, as unearthly as they often felt, were very much grounded in her own very surreal world.

Later in the book, a sidewalk talk with a mohawk-sporting, tie-wearing, pamphlet-wielding kid on a Providence street corner. As their conversation, and Kristin’s recounting of it, starts to include phrases like “smack freak” and “blame society” and “the holocaust”, you’re suddenly inside the beautiful genesis of a major piece of Muses history – the birthplace of the disturbingly anthemic “Hate My Way“. Reading that page gave me chills.

It’s not just the Throwing Muses ephemera that connects, though. If you’re not yet a fan, but a fan of music, there’s much more to be found. Little pearls of wisdom within…

“I don’t listen to much music. The more you love music, the less music you love, ’cause you get picky — we take our religion seriously. Bad music is angrifying and good music is so painfully intense.”

And so, in honor of the remarkably productive phase that Kristin finds herself in, I’m pulled together a bundle of greatness to pass along to one reader…

What you see above is a copy of the “Crooked” album/book, along with copy of “Rat Girl” that Kristin signed, the debut disc from her rock trio 50 Foot Wave, and a limited-edition (and long-since unavailable) t-shirt commemorating Kristin’s 2007 live appearance at the Brattle Theatre with her longtime bandmate, step-sister, solo artist, and former Belly frontwoman, Tanya Donelly.

If you want a shot at having all that merch in your mailbox, send an message to giveaways [at] bradleysalmanac [dot] com with “KH” in the subject line. Include your full name and city of residence (North American residents only, unfortunately), and get it to my inbox before next Monday evening, May 2nd, at 5pm. That’s when I’ll pick the winner and contact them for a mailing address. Simple as that.

For more on Kristin, “Rat Girl”, and her ongoing musical output, here’s a wealth of links…

Kristin has been doing multimedia performances for “Rat Girl” (titled “Paradoxical Undressing in the UK), and you can watch an 8-minute trailer / short-film that gives you a taste of both the performance and the book. The U.S. premiere of this spoken word/music/video took place earlier this month at The Getty Center in Los Angeles, so I’m hoping an East Coast / Boston edition is in the works (Brattle? ICA?).

If you remain unconvinced that you should be reading “Rat Girl”, this might do the trick: Read the book’s introduction and first 3 chapters thanks to Penguin, Kristin’s U.S. publisher. Order it straight from them while you’re there, or pick it up from Amazon.

Yes, there’s a Throwing Muses album in the works, and you can download a whole bunch of K solo demos at the Throwing Muses’ CASH Music site. The album is entirely fan-funded, and you can make a donation while you’re over there. Here’s one of my favorites – can’t wait to hear what drummer Dave Narcizo and bassist Bernard Georges add to this track…

[MP3] Throwing Muses / Kristin Hersh – “Bluff / Bluffy” (solo KH demo)

Kristin and Throwing Muses have been releasing, for free, very special aural accompaniments to “Rat Girl” entitled The Season Sessions. These are old Muses songs, entirely re-recorded as acoustic versions, released in batches each season. Fall, Winter, and Spring so far, one remaining. Something this unique probably deserves a ‘Nac post all its own, and it speaks to how much K has going on that it has become just a footnote to this one.

Pick up the gorgeous artbook/CD edition of her most recent solo album, “Crooked”, from the Book Depository, or get the disc alone straight from her Throwing Music site. Here’s a track from it…

[MP3] Kristin Hersh – “Rubidoux“

K’s trio 50 Foot Wave has been rolling along as well, and lucky us, they’ve decided share their most recent work, “With Love From The Men’s Room”, via CASH Music as well. The album is being released track-by-track on their site, with the first two (“Radiant Addict” and “Grey“) already up and ready to grab. Here’s Part 1…

[MP3] 50 Foot Wave – “Radiant Addict“

New online literary magazine User Furniture Review posted an excellent interview with Kristin last month, so take a read and have a look around the rest of the site while you’re there. Well worth exploring.

More Rat Girl-related press / interviews / reviews at the Huffington Post, KEXP (which focuses on the book’s fantastic Gilbert Hernandez cover), the Boston Globe (review / interview), NPR (which has audio and another excerpt from “Rat Girl”).

Last August, Kristin visited the Manhattan Barnes & Noble for their Upstairs on the Square series, and you can watch the entire hour-long reading / performance / interview.

And finally, check out a very recent video interview with Kristin courtesy of the just-launched Rock Book Show website.

Alright, get with the emailing – this present needs a happy home.