The boys and I got to see two phenomenal music documentaries last night at the Whitney Humanities Center as part of the 2015 New Haven Documentary Film Festival.
The first film was Salad Days written and directed by Scott Crawford. It documents the DiY Washington DC punk music scene from 1980 to 1990. It was so inspiring to see all these artists starting and building a music scene who’s wake is still felt to this day with bands such as Fugazi and Minor Threat. The rise of the independent record labels such as Dischord and the rise of the fanzine such as Metrozine (and many others) was so amazing. The best part for me was to see that young teenagers making it all happen! I was so happy that my boys got to see this film! Guys like Ian MacKaye were trailblazers that give them a framework for what their trying to do with the music scene with The Foresters and their music label Dord Music Group.
The second film was Danny Says directed by Brendan Toller. This gave us an inside look into the birth of the New York City art and music scene from Andy Worhol and The Velvet Underground in the early 60’s all the way through The Ramones in the 70’s. The film really highlighted Danny Fields passion for the music as a journalist, photographer, record label executive and manager, but most importantly as a fan. He liked what he liked first and the money was secondary. It was so amazing to see how he made it up as he went along and invented job titles in the music industry where none had existed before. I’m so excited the Danny Fields archives will be acquired by the Yale Beinecke Library
Danny Says Fundraising Video, Kickstarter Fall 2012 from Brendan Toller on Vimeo.
I strongly encourage you to see both of these films!
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