Film and Jazz

Film and jazz have fed each other from the beginning. A close relationship between image and sound that seems to keep bearing fruit. Running from Friday 4 to Tuesday 8 at 5pm at the microcine room of the Centro Cultural Recoleta.


vie 04 / 17:00 h

Sonic mirror

Place Centro Cultural Recoleta / Microcine

The ex drummer of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, whose album Spectrum influenced an entire generation of musicians, is still touring the world. This documentary follows him around Brazil, where he conducts a clinic with musicians from the favelas (shanty towns), as well as throughout an emotive experiment in Switzerland where music is used as a means of communication with a group of autistic people. At an age when others are retiring, Cobham is still alive and kicking, playing and exploring.

Director: Mika Kaurismäki
Switzerland-Finland-Germany, 2008
Cast: Billy Cobham, Randy Brecker, Debalê Malê and Big Band Espoo.
Runtime: 79 min

sab 05 / 17:00 h

Imagine the sound

Place Centro Cultural Recoleta / Microcine

The first full-length film by the director of Grass was this documentary portraying the present time of the musicians who emerged with the wave of free jazz in the early 1960s. Besides the customary interviews, which combine anecdotes and political and aesthetic stands, what really matters are the performances, with an eccentric Taylor banging the piano as if it was a wild animal and he, its tamer.

Director: Ron Mann
Canada, 1981
Cast: Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Paul Bley, Bill Dixon and Kenny Werner.
Runtime: 91 min

dom 06 / 17:00 h

Anita O’Day: The life of a jazz singer

Place Centro Cultural Recoleta / Microcine

At the request of the audience who enjoyed it in the 2008 edition of the Festival, once again we screen this documentary on the most respected white singer of the genre, featuring her own testimony short before she died in 2006. From her days with Gene Krupa and Stan Kenton, all the way through her duo with Oscar Peterson, the unforgettable performance at the Newport Festival and her turbulent life including fifteen years as a heroin addict.

Directors: Robbie Cavolina and Ian McCrudden
United States, 2007
Cast: Anita O’Day, Leonard Feather, Johnny Mandel, Billy Taylor and Ann Ross.
Runtime: 90 min

lun 07 / 17:00 h

Calle 54

Place Centro Cultural Recoleta / Microcine

Under the structure of a documentary unfolds a musical. Trueba’s “favourites” in Latin jazz play their music and lay themselves bare through brief chats with the director, who traces, from one music piece to the other, a portrait of each artist.

Director: Fernando Trueba
Cast: Runtime: 105 min

mar 08 / 17:00 h

The jazz baroness

Place Centro Cultural Recoleta / Microcine

She didn’t sing or play any instrument, and yet her name has become a legend: Baroness Nica von Koenigswarter was a friend and patron of numerous jazzmen, including Thelonious Monk –who dedicated his song “Panonnica” to her – and Charlie Parker, who died at her apartment. Nica was white and came from a very wealthy family, the Rothschilds, but devoted her life to helping black musicians in times of bebop and racial segregation. Her grandniece Hannah unveils family secrets and anecdotes of the New York jazz scene in this documentary entirely dedicated to her memory.

Director: Hannah Rothschild
United Kingdom, 2009
Cast: Thelonious Monk Jr., Sonny Rollins, Roy Haynes, Chico Hamilton, Quincy Jones, Clint Eastwood and Helen Mirren’s voice
Runtime: 82 min