Browse by Label: PLEXIFILM

Artist:	COHEN & PETER SILLEN, JEM
Title:	Benjamin Smoke
Label:	PLEXIFILM
Format:	DVD
Price:	$21.00
Catalog #:	PLEX 003DVD

"Benjamin Smoke is the highly acclaimed documentary by directors Jem Cohen (Fugazi: Instrument) and Peter Sillen (Speed Racer) on legendary underground musician Benjamin. Benjamin Smoke follows the crooked path of this fringe-dweller, speed-freak, occasional drag-queen and all-around renegade living in the hidden Atlanta neighborhood called 'Cabbagetown,' and playing with his band Smoke. Benjamin Smoke is a hauntingly beautiful yet unflinching look at a performer whose life has had a profound effect on many artists, including R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, Cat Power's Chan Marshall and Patti Smith, who appears in the film. The DVD extras include two moving performances of songs written for Benjamin by Cat Power and Vic Chesnutt. Over a decade in the making, the film traces Benjamin's life from his childhood, to his work with Smoke and previous band the Opal Foxx Quartet, to living with HIV. But Benjamin Smoke is not a traditional music documentary; it is an intricate collage of inteviews, live performances, and time-lapse cinematography, all intercut with still photographs by award-winning photographer Michael Ackerman. What results is an open window into Benjamin's relationship with drugs, music, friends, lovers and the world around him, a little-known and rapidly disappearing pocket of the American South. Above all, Benjamin Smoke is an extension of the performer and his music and a portrait of a true American original." Specs: 78 minutes, color/black & white, super 8mm & 16mm, 1.33:1 (original ratio); NTSC format, region 0.

Artist:	WILCO
Title:	I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Label:	PLEXIFILM
Format:	2DVD
Price:	$27.00
Catalog #:	PLEX 007DVD

"In the fall of 2000, Wilco entered the studio to record their highly anticipated fourth album. Building on three critically acclaimed albums and a reputation for phenomenal live shows, the band seemed posed to cement its reputation as one of the great American rock groups. So how is it that one year later, with completed record in hand, the band found itself rejected by its corporate record label and missing two of its original members? First-time filmmaker and award-winning photographer Sam Jones was on-hand, chronicling this turbulent chapter in Wilco's history as it unfolded. The recording process is always rife with tension. That's to be expected, especially when the band is as ambitious as Wilco. The real surprise comes when the band delivers the final album to Reprise and all they get in response is two weeks of ominous silence. Soon, contracts are being broken and partnerships are being severed as Jones discovers he has a far more tumultuous tale to tell than he originally envisioned. Throughout the film, Jones tempers the backstage dramas and unfathomable corporate shenanigans with inspired live performances, as frontman Jeff Tweedy and company perform songs from the beleaguered Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album, recently released and already considered a modern classic. Shot in luminous black and white, I Am Trying To Break Your Heart is a riveting portrait of a band making the best music of its career." Specs: 2002, 92 minutes, black & white, super 16mm, 1.85:1 (original ratio), NTSC, region 0 (world).

Artist:	HANFT, STEVE
Title:	Kill the Moonlight
Label:	PLEXIFILM
Format:	DVD/CD
Price:	$23.00
Catalog #:	PLEX 027DVD

"Underground classic available for the first time in the United States on DVD, with bonus soundtrack CD featuring rare Beck songs. This 1994 feature film by music video director Steve Hanft is a lost cult classic about a man named Chance and his race car driving dreams. Chance, who works at a fish hatchery in rural California, needs to raise $2500 to rebuild his car and race in a local championship. He tries to make extra cash by collecting cans, cleaning up toxic waste, selling drugs, blowing leaves, feeding fish and stealing guns, all to fulfill his goal of pro racing glory. This music-driven slacker film is infamous as the inspiration for the Beck song 'Loser,' and its clips and samples appear in the 'Loser' video, also directed by Hanft." NTSC format, all region DVD, 89 minutes.

Artist:	WILCO
Title:	I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Label:	PLEXIFILM
Format:	DVD
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	PLEX 701DVD

Single disc version, minus the 2nd disc of bonus material found on PLEX 007DVD. "The acclaimed documentary on the making of Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot now available as a single-disc DVD edition. In the fall of 2000, Wilco entered the studio to record their highly anticipated fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot... Building on three critically acclaimed records and a reputation for phenomenal live shows, the band seemed poised to cement its reputation as one of the great American rock groups. So how was it that one year later, with completed record in hand, the band found itself rejected by its record label and missing two of its original members? First-time filmmaker and award-winning photographer Sam Jones was on hand, chronicling this turbulent chapter in Wilco's history as it unfolded. Filled with inspired live performances, rehearsals, recording sessions and behind-the-scenes drama, I Am Trying To Break Your Heart is a now-legendary portrait of a band making the best music of its career." All-region NTSC, 1.85:1 widescreen, 92 mins.

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