|
INSTRUMENTA feature-length film/video about the band, Fugazi, directed by Jem Cohen and Fugazi. 115 mins. color. stereo. March 1999. The new "+ extras" DVD includes three extra live tracks and two Jem Cohen short films. A collaboration between filmmaker Jem Cohen and the Washington DC band, the project covers the ten-year period from the band's inception in 1987. Far from a traditional documentary, the project is a musical document: a portrait of musicians at work. Says Cohen: "With no desire on my part or the band's to create a factual career survey or any kind of promotional vehicle, the project presented an opportunity to cut things loose. Mixing sync-sound 16mm, Super-8, video, and a wide range of archival formats, the piece includes concert footage, studio sessions, practice, touring, interviews and portraits of audience members from around the country. Piecing it together over the course of about 5 years, I thought of bringing "dub" to documentary -- of a project where unadulterated real-time performances, abstract, rough-hewn Super 8 collages and archival artifacts would collide and conjoin in a way that honestly represented musical experience. The project was edited with band members and extensively uses soundtrack elements provided by Fugazi specifically for the film." Fugazi have produced six albums, and have toured extensively in the U.S. and overseas, including all 50 states in the USA and such places as Singapore, Brazil, and Sardinia. The band is self managed and releases all their material through Dischord Records, an independent label founded by Ian MacKaye and partner Jeff Nelson in 1980. The band maintains a policy of affordable access to their work through low record and ticket prices and plays only all ages shows.
|
