Philadelphia Film Festival 2007 (Part 1)

I have been living here in Philadelphia for almost a year now and as such, I was looking forward to attending the 16th annual Philadelphia Film Festival (which I had never attended before), which started last Thursday and is still going on now. In order to condense all of our movie watching into one weekend, we bought tickets for a movie on each day last weekend (one for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively). Thus, in each of these installments, I will review an individual film. First up is Friday night’s selection.

On Friday night, we saw the new documentary Kurt Cobain: About a Son. A groundbreaking film, its audio is comprised entirely of KURT COBAIN’s interviews with author and former Rolling Stone journalist MICHAEL AZERRAD. Some of these same interviews (all conducted in late 1992 to early 1993) were used in Azerrad’s book Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana. Director AJ SCHNAK added a kaleidoscope of images that changed to coincide with the dialogue, almost making it seem like a live action movie even though the only “characters” were Cobain and Azerrad and they weren’t even on the screen! In a way, it was eerie to hear Cobain’s voice almost 13 years after his suicide, though it serves as a reminder of how alive he was during this short lifespan, though it’s also not hard to see how fragile and depressed he was as well. Cobain is almost like a ghost here and the fact that the interviews were conducted mainly in the wee hours of the morning (mainly in Cobain’s house in Seattle; Azerrad said they would often talk until the sun came up) gives the film a sleepy, ghost-like quality as well.

Throughout the film, a timeline is traced from Kurt’s childhood up through his time living in Olympia, WA and eventually to his rise to fame. His time spent living in Olympia seems to have had a significant affect not only on his musical taste but on his political views as well. It should be noted that he championed feminist, gay rights and anti-racist causes during Nirvana’s tenure as one of the most popular rock bands on the planet. On a musical level, he probably influenced a lot of people to check out THE RAINCOATS, SCRATCH ACID, THE MELVINS, THE VASELINES, DANIEL JOHNSTON and others as well. His praise even convinced The Raincoats to reform (and for their early ‘80s albums to reissued by DGC, the major label that also put out their reunion record Looking at the Shadows). However, another interesting part of the film had to do with his eventual rejection of the insular nature of Olympia’s scene, thus further fueling his ambition for Nirvana to be heard by as many people as possible. And for a short while, he succeeded and planted a lot of non-mainstream ideas into the culture at large and for that he should be commended.

Another interesting facet is his view of celebrity life and his eerie predictions of a digital future with everyone walking around listening to headphones instead of talking to one another at parties. He also believed, and rightfully so, that entertainers should be allowed a certain level of privacy and that their families should be left out of discussions. This directly contradicts the notion that some people have that if someone is out to be famous, they should take the lack of privacy as part of the package.

After the screening, we in the audience had the privilege of asking Azerrad (who was in attendance) a bunch of questions. Although he can seem a bit aloof as a talking head on VH1 programs, tonight he was friendly, patient and quite affable in general, answering audience members’ questions capably and intelligently as well.

Anyway, I would highly recommend seeing this film if you’re a fan of Nirvana or Kurt Cobain.