Despite what Spinal Tap would have you believe, the business of making a music documentary can be a serious one… Maybe a bit too serious in Metallica’s case. In fact, there’s a whole festival dedicated to this niche art. Turning things up to 11 at Chapter Arts Centre this week will be Doc ‘n’ Roll, the UK’s “premier” music documentary film festival.
It’s the first time the event has been in Wales though not the only stop-off for the touring festival, which has been rolling around the British Isles since the start of October in cities including Birmingham, Brighton, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield. It was also exported to the deep cold of Oslo, marking the start of Doc ‘n’ Roll’s international iteration. Back home, the festival’s week-long stay in Cardiff – from today until Sunday – will be the big finisher for its eighth year.
The lineup of films you can see in Cardiff has a little something for almost every musical taste. This includes cinematic offerings from art-rock icon and sometime director St. Vincent in The Nowhere Inn, New Wave legend Lydia Lunch in The War Is Never Over, Greenwich Village folkster Karen Dalton in In My Own Time, Black Brazilian jazz pianist Dom Salvador in Dom Salvador & Abolition, the recently deceased Mark Hollis – frontman of pop-rockers Talk Talk – in In A Silent Way, the classical/electronic experimentalist of many names, Matthew Herbert, in A Symphony of Noise, and finally, the surprisingly political history of Congolese rumba in The Rumba Kings.
If you can’t make the trip to Chapter Arts, the on-demand streaming service Doc’n Roll TV also has plenty to offer music historians from a wide and globe-spanning range of genres, eras and scenes – from French rappers to Native American heavy metallers, and more.
CARDIFF CINEMA LISTINGS
Mon Nov 8, Chapter Arts Centre, 8:30 pm
A Symphony Of Noise – Matthew Herbert
Tues Nov 9, Chapter Arts Centre, 8:30 pm
The Nowhere Inn: St. Vincent
Wed Nov 10, Chapter Arts Centre, 8:30 pm
The Rumba Kings
Thurs Nov 11, Chapter Arts Centre, 8:40 pm
Dom Salvador & Abolition
Fri Nov 12, Chapter Arts Centre, 8:40 pm
In A Silent Way – Talk Talk
Sat Nov 13, Chapter Arts Centre, 8:40 pm
The War Is Never Over – Lydia Lunch
Sun Nov 14, Chapter Arts Centre, 8:40 pm
In My Own Time – Karen Dalton
Info here.
words HANNAH COLLINS
