Category: NPP2024

Presented in association with the Oh Yeah Centre as part of the Women’s Work festival.

Indigo Girls were one of only a handful of acts to emerge in the 80s and 90s who somehow found success in the music industry purely on their own terms.

Blending 40 years of home movies, incredible raw film archive, and intimate present-day verité, the award-nominated It’s Only Life After All is a poignant reflection of the iconic folk rock duo.

Even at their commercial peak, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers were routinely mocked for being too earnest, too poetic, too folky, too lesbian. Back then, being labelled a female, gay singer-songwriter was an artistic and commercial curse, as Ray recalls in vivid detail in one of the film’s most powerful scenes.

There’s been something of an Indigo Girls renaissance in the offing since Margot Robbie’s Barbie belted out Closer to Fine across thousands of multiplexes last summer. It’s Only Life After Allis a timely look into the obstacles, activism, and life lessons of two queer friends who never expected to make it big.

“Smart and compelling…Existing fans will be mesmerized, but non-fans like me should also get a kick out of “It’s Only Life After All.” Elisabeth Vincentelli – Critic’s Pick, New York Times

https://womensworkni.co.uk

 

We’re pretty damn delighted to announce that Now Press Play – our mini festival of all things music-in-film is back from 23-27 October!

And what better way to trail volume 2 of Now Press Play than by dropping a couple of hotly anticipated NI Premieres?

Teaches of Peaches is the sh*t hot new film about one of the most iconic (and iconoclastic) music artists of recent decades.

Blending footage from the 2022 Teaches of Peaches Anniversary Tour with Super-8 film of self-directed music videos, archival interviews, backstage antics and anecdotes from collaborators Feist, Chilly Gonzales and Shirley Manson, ToP captures the transformative journey of Canadian Merrill Nisker into the internationally acclaimed cultural powerhouse Peaches.

As a feminist musician, producer, director, and performance artist, Peaches fearless originality has challenged social norms, dismantled stereotypes, and confronted patriarchal power structures. The Teaches of Peaches is a celebration of the woman, the work and the world around her.

In the words of the almighty P herself: “It’s fine all the time. Like sex on the beaches…the teaches of Peaches”. Amen to that.

Dir: Philipp Fussenegger, Judy Landkammer (2022)

“Anyone who gets to spend two hours with Peaches (and this documentary) should consider themselves lucky to be taught such teaches.” Cineuropa

“At 56…she defies age and ageism, using her show & expanding its gender-fuck fluidity, to connect with audiences who embrace everything from the underground to the ballroom scene. Like the album that gives Teaches of Peaches its name, this documentary is a refreshing alternative to ho-hum convention.” POV Magazine

 

This is the incredible story of Don Lewis – one of electronic music’s forgotten pioneers, whose musical genius and technological vision spanned a dizzying range of styles.

With fearless creative freedom that defied the conforming forces of the music industry of the 1970s and 80s, Don Lewis took music to places that opened the doors for myriad others (Prince and Kraftwerk to name but two) to walk through.

Over a 54-year career in music, Lewis designed sounds and instrument voices for Hammond, Yamaha, and ARP, helped develop the Roland TR-808 drum machine and developed a unique live rig – The Live Electronic Orchestra – a precursor to MIDI— that was light years ahead of its time. He gave performances at the Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall, and the Apollo Theatre and collaborated with the likes of Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, and the Beach Boys.

Don Lewis and The Live Electronic Orchestra delves into the life and times of a uniquely brilliant African American artist who was unwilling to sacrifice his own curiosity in his pursuit to change the world’s musical landscape.

Dir. Ned Augustenborg (2023)

 

We were gutted to learn of the untimely death earlier this year of Martin Phillips – the legendary frontman of The Chills.

Not only were The Chills New Zealand’s best band, they were also true musical pioneers, bringing their “Dunedin Sound” from New Zealand to these shores with a string of seminal albums and singles.“Heavenly Pop Hit,” may have been the group’s (and Martin’s) most transcendent moment, but their back catalogue is glutted with classics – “Pink Frost,” “I Love My Leather Jacket,” and “Kaleidoscope World” to name but a handful of finely wrought beauties.

Phillips valiantly led the line through thick and thin – there were 21 different line ups of The Chills in total. As “The Triumph and Tragedy of Martin Phillips” demonstrates, the indomitable Phillips was working right up to the end, in spite of a recent Hepatitis C diagnosis and a warning that he had a 31% chance of dying within the year.

“The Triumph and Tragedy…” is an inspiring and retrospectively moving document of a true original, a troubled but brilliant soul endlessly driven on by his singular creative urge. We can’t think of a better way to celebrate the life of one of pop music’s unsung heroes.

“As a fan, I wanted to punch the air. And of course, Chills fans will absolutely devour this documentary. But if you’ve not yet had the distinctive pleasure of hearing his band, the triumph and tragedy of Phillipps’ story will make you one for life.”  Andrew Stafford, The Guardian

 

NPP has the very great pleasure of pressing “play” on the northern Irish premiere of Devo – the long-awaited documentary film on everyone’s favourite American art-punk-dada nerds.

Few groups embraced sci-fi, satire and surrealism with the gusto that Devo did, as this epic, energetic portrait reveals.

Formed by Ohio twins Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh, and Gerald and Bob Casale, along with Bob Lewis, in 1973, the band took their name from the word ‘de-evolution’, believing than humankind had reached a point of regression in its development.

They looked like they had stepped out of a sci-fi movie, sounded like a melange of emerging music styles (embracing punk, rock, the emerging electronica scene and, later, pop) and playfully critiqued the direction their country – and the world – was heading.

“Wham!” director Chris Smith’s immensely entertaining and insightful film presents this eclectic band’s storied past and present, from their work with Brian Eno and the success of the single “Whip It” to more recent incarnations of the group.

All together now: “Are we Not Men? We are DEVO!”

Dir: Chris Smith (2024)

“Chris Smith’s film about the jump-suited robo-rock avatars of De-evolution is as much fun as its subject” Variety

“…packaged in a dizzying barrage of incredible visuals and music that’s almost overwhelming, Devo joins a string of standout recent films like The Sparks Brothers, Summer of Soul and The Velvet Underground that demonstrate that we’re living in a golden age of music documentaries.” Hollywood Reporter

 

Hearts of Fire is a 1987 American musical drama film starring and loosely based on Bob Dylan’s success as a rock musician. It received universally poor reviews, a limited theatrical release, and was later written off by Dylan himself.

Also though, Hearts of Fire is an unintentionally hilarious car crash of a movie, featuring a perpetually bemused-looking, mumbling Bob Dylan as an reclusive ageing rock star, with the heroically mulleted Rupert Everett as the “young punk” usurper. And Fiona…

Sadly, director Richard Marquand – of “Return of the Jedi” fame – died not long after Hearts of Fire came out. But not, as some wags opined at the time, out of embarrassment.

Co-writer Joe Estherhaus went on to plumb further depths with “Basic Instinct” and “Showgirls”. But nothing of either men’s output prepares the viewer for Hearts of Fire, which amongst other delights features the most rubbish punch ever thrown on celluloid. No seriously…

Join your host Joe Nawaz as  Now Press Play celebrates one of the most notorious forays into that most slippery of genres. The rock and roll biopic.

“Dear lord. A really bad movie,” DVDLaser

“An incredibly blunt instrument of 80s vacuity” Channel 4

“Where’s my cheque, man?” B. Dylan