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SFFILM Festival

Soundbreaking: Stories from the Cutting Edge of Recorded Music

Directed by Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre

USA | 102

29 Apr
Fri, Apr 29, 2016 at 3:00 pm PT

Description

Take a fascinating peek behind the curtain at how music is made within the studio in this immensely entertaining series. The two segments presented here focus, respectively, on the role of the music producer (the late George Martin gets major props) and how magnetic tape and multi-tracking revolutionized how we hear popular music. While interviews with producers like Martin, Brian Eno and Quincy Jones, and musicians, such as Paul McCartney, Roger Waters and Annie Lennox get into the nuts-and-bolts of what goes on in recording sessions and how the producer and musicians work together, where the series excels is in the many stories relating notable moments in pop history. These include Martin recalling his introduction to the young, raw Beatles and how they grew in sophistication with each new LP; Waters and Roger Daltrey talking about how the Beatles with their 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, utterly changed rock music by taking advantage of studio techniques and making a record that could never be duplicated on stage; and Tom Petty describing the offhand way he and producer Jeff Lynne wrote and recorded his Top 10 hit “Free Fallin’.” Adding to the series’ pleasures is archival footage, which includes late Sun Records honcho Sam Phillips reminiscing about his discovery that shook the world, Elvis Presley, and guitarist/technical wizard Les Paul and his vocalist wife Mary Ford demonstrating his new, multi-track technique. The entire eight-part series airs this November on PBS. Here is a chance to whet your appetite for more. —Pam Grady

Director Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre

Maro Chermayeff is a director, producer and writer, as well as the founder and chairman of the MFA Program in Social Documentary at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Among her projects as a director are Juilliard (2003), the TV series Carrier (2008), Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (2012) and A Path Appears (2015). As a producer on Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present (SFIFF 2012), she received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Documentary and won a News & Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Arts & Culture Programming.

Jeff Dupre made his directing and producing debut in 1998 with Out of the Past, the winner of the Sundance Film Festival Documentary Audience Award. He received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Nonfiction Series for Broadway: The American Musical (2004) and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Documentary and a News & Documentary Emmy for Outstanding Arts & Culture Programming for Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present (SFIFF 2012).

Film Details

Language English

Year 2016

Runtime 102

Country USA

Director Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre

Producer Jeff Dupre, Maro Chermayeff, Joshua Bennett, Julia Marchesi, Sally Rosenthal, Amy Schewel, Warren Zanes

Editor Nancy Novack, Sam Pollard, Howard Sharp, E. Donna Shepherd, Jay Keuper

Cinematographer Axel Baumann, Ulli Bonnekamp, Will Edwards, Simon Fanthorpe, Robert Hanna, Wolfgang Held, Tom Hurwitz, Filip Kiisk, Allan Palmer, William G. Pena, Nik Porter, Bob Richman, Antonio Rossi, Ben Shapiro, Jon Shenk, Andy Young

Music Nathan Halpern, Chris Ruggiero