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Punk music has always been about individuality. Although skinheads and fascists have periodically tried to co-opt and homogenize the genre over its 50-year history, they have always failed, because the true spirit of punk begins with an original thought, a unique life story, and the poetic philosophies that truth is beauty and that the pomp and artifice of pop music are a distraction from expressing something deeper.

At its core, punk is the people’s rock & roll. Perhaps that’s one reason why the genre appeals more broadly than some...

Here’s your daily dose of an indie film, web series, TV pilot, what-have-you in progress — at the end of the week, you’ll have the chance to vote for your favorite.

In the meantime: Is this a project you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments.

Pigeon Kings

Logline: A group of men in South Central Los Angeles find hope through their dedication to the rare sport of somersaulting pigeons.

Elevator Pitch:

Many have heard about pigeon coops and those raising pigeons in the inner cities of America, but many do not know why this subculture has emerged and what its purpose is. That is what “Pigeon Kings” wants to bring to light.

Through the story of these amazing men who have dedicated their lives to the little known sport of competitive rolling pigeons, we show not only this unique subculture but also a story of a...

Underground movies don’t typically lend themselves to commercial interruption, what with their narrative experimentation and their devotion to artistic sensibilities over more profitable concerns. Plus, home media viewers are becoming more accustomed to streaming business ventures that are based financially solely on subscriber fees and not advertiser dollars, e.g. Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Still, there might be a time when a home viewer will be in the mood for something a little more off the beaten path and not want to pay for an additional subscription over what is most likely an outrageous Internet bill — and want to view that off-beat media legally.

So, in that scenario, sometimes Hulu becomes a good option for viewing an oddball movie that screened at an underground film festival — if one doesn’t mind the intrusive ads. Below are five incredible flicks that deserve to be seen, no matter what the option is.

This week's edition of Latin Beat gets right to the point, as Eric Ortiz Garcia reports on music doc A Band Called Death opening in Mexico -- I agree, it's a sharply-made documentary, worth seeking out -- and Jaime Grijalba Gomez reports from Chile on Allende en su laberinto, which opens next week; we have the trailer for viewing now. Later in the week, look for more from Eric and myself; Eric is heading to the Los Cabos International Film Festival, and I'll be winging it to the Morbido Film Fest, held for the first time in Puebla, Mexico. ...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

The Weekend Watch is an open thread where you can share what you’ve recently watched, offer suggestions on movies and TV shows we should check out (or warnings about stuff to avoid) and discover queue-filling goodies from other Fsr readers. The comments section awaits. I’ll get the ball rolling with the movies/TV my eyeballs took in this weekend. The Final Member is a documentary about a guy who collects penises, but don’t let that fool you. For one thing it’s a Drafthouse Films release — they’re the folks who also gave a home to docs like A Band Called Death and Act of Killing — but for another it’s a damn fine film. It feels like something that would be silly on its face, but it’s actually a fairly profound and endearing look at what motivates us in life and in death. For as much as I love international cinema, I...

Exclusive: Film, television, branded content and digital media company Bow and Arrow Entertainment has launched in Los Angeles under principals Matthew Perniciaro (What We Do Is Secret, Fanboys, A Band Called Death) and Michael Sherman. The new shingle has an internal financing arm and aims to back three to four film and media projects annually, in addition to acquiring and developing material. Bow and Arrow is poised to fund features in a $1M-$10M range and will be run by Perniciaro, Sherman, and creative executive Laura Stoltz. Stoltz follows Perniciaro to Bow and Arrow from production and management co. Haven Entertainment, […]...

Oh Drafthouse Films, how I love thee. I must sound like a broken record when reviewing their releases on here, but the one overarching thing I can say about them—other than the fact that they’re completely bonkers—is that they’re consistent in whatever they do. They can put out truly remarkable and weighty films (The Act of Killing), totally warped freak-outs from up-and-coming auteurs (A Field in England), what-the-fuck cheesy masterpieces (Miami Connection), and unsettling lost classics (Wake in Fright) among others (A Band Called Death, I Declare War, Bullhead, and many many more). Their newest film, E.L. Katz’s Cheap Thrills, is certainly Wtf and totally warped, but the best part is that it has a delightfully devious tinge of philosophical weight to it that you could blink and miss it but still manage enjoy all of the gross out dark humor. It’s quite possibly...

While there exist notable documentaries about beloved musicians like Tom Petty, John Lennon and Philip Glass, most of the effort in nonfiction films about music strives to highlight the underrated and under-heard. With the critical and commercial success of Searching for Sugar Man, resurrecting under-appreciated musical personalities has proven to be lucrative, interesting and even (that most dreaded word in music) mainstream. Many music documentaries this year poised to reveal the Next Great Untold Story about music’s past and present. Sample This! illustrates how one song had an immeasurable influence on the development of hip-hop, while Artifact offers a lens into a music business crumbling apart in the 21st century. Good Ol’ Freda gives a microphone to the woman who connected The Beatles with their fans, while 20 Feet from Stardom places background singers front and center. Meanwhile, The Punk Singer and A Band Called Death show that punk has never been exclusively for angry white men...

He has a etched his name on a couple of Sundance entries as a musical adviser on Snow Angels and as a key production assistant in 3 Backyards and finally, Kyle Wilamowski will get to premiere his debut sometime in 2014. Percolating for almost seven years, Wilamowski secured a little Kickstarter coin to develop the project furthermore and it really has been in this past year where the film took shape. This summer, the first time filmmaker managed to land his young lead protag in Tye Sheridan (who before this made his first three feature film appearances with Terrence Malick, Jeff Nichols and David Gordon Green) and hit North Carolina terrain.

Gist: This is a coming of age drama about Conrad Stevens (Sheridan), a fifteen year old teenage boy growing up in small town America. When an innocent prank leads to the accidental death of the older brother of Conrad’s first girlfriend,...

Drafthouse Films releases can go one of two ways. The first are serious or important movies that tend to stay with you until far after you’ve seen them. Some examples of this would be their absolutely essential release The Act of Killing, the proto-punk doc A Band Called Death, the subversively twisted comedy Four Lions, or the meditative and literally testosterone-filled Academy Award nominated Bullhead. The second are eccentric misfit films that have been lost or ignored, only to be resuscitated by the geek-cred publicity powerhouse that is the Drafthouse empire. Some examples of this would be the 1980s cheese-tastic ninja-fest Miami Connection or Wake in Fright, the 1971 Aussie outback thriller directed by First Blood-helmer Ted Kotcheff. Now comes The Visitor, the 1979 Italo-freakout perfectly credited to a guy named Michael J. Paradise and starring a bafflingly eclectic cast that includes John Huston, Glenn Ford, Shelley Winters, Lance Henriksen,...

Chicago – We’re kicking off a great November of content with another “New to Netflix” feature, in which we help you fill your Netflix queue for the next 30 days. There are some undeniable greats that recently hit the service (like “Say Anything…”) along with some well-known recent hits (like “Olympus Has Fallen”), but we use this feature to track down the films you may miss in the labyrinth of Netflix.

With more and more film and TV lovers using broadband providers more often than video stores, Netflix may be the future of entertainment but it’s still annoying to navigate. Let us guide the way. Complete with links so you can add all ten of these directly to your queue.

A Band Called Death

“A Band Called Death”

Netflix Description: Blending a larger-than-life family story and a rock documentary, this film follows David, Bobby and Dannis Hackney, three teenage brothers...

These days, you can watch pretty much any movie online. Yet there's still one thing the magical wonders of instant streaming haven't solved for indecisive movie-lovers: what the heck to watch! Moviefone is here to recommend the best streaming movies from Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Instant and new digital releases from iTunes and Vudu each week in Moviefone's Digital Download.

This week's Digital Download picks range from Disney classics and martial arts legends to haunted houses and revenge-seeking brothers. Check out our suggestions below, and happy streaming!

Comedy: 'The Way, Way Back' (2013)

This coming of age tale follows the shy, 14-year-old Duncan, who slowly comes out of his shell after he is forced to go on summer vacation with his loving mom and her not-so-nice boyfriend. From the Academy Award-winning writers of 'The Descendants,' 'The Way, Way Back' stars Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Sam Rockwell, and others in this...

Here's the latest Austin and Texas film news.

Get your questions ready: the SXSW Film team will be hosting a Reddit Ama (Ask Me Anything) at 2 pm today. Austin filmmaker Richard Linklater will receive the Levantine Cinema Arts Award at this year's Houston Cinema Arts Festival, Culture Map Houston reports. The Nov. 6-10 event will include a screening of Linklater's 1993 Austin-shot film Dazed and Confused. Five Drafthouse Films titles, the distribution arm of the Alamo Drafthouse, landed on Netflix Instant last week: music documentary A Band Called Death, which screened at SXSW 2013; Filipino crime thriller Graceland, which screened at this year's Fantastic Fest; Korean drama Pieta; and Australian thriller Wake in Fright and comedy-drama Wrong, both of which screened at last year's Fantastic Fest.  Austin filmmaker and former Austin Film Society staffer Bryan Poyser's feature-length debut, Dear Pillow (Don's review), is now available to watch for free on Fandor...

Films screen all day at the Orpheum Theatre, Scottish Rite, Central Library, Historical Museum, Garvey Center, Hotel at Old Town and the C.A.C. Theatre at Wsu. Click here for Friday’s schedule.

Be sure to check out these films with Special Guests:

I Declare War, 1:30 pm at the Orpheum with Director James Lapeyre Lost On Purpose, 4:00 pm at the Orpheum with co-Director Josh Barrett Blackfish, 4:45 pm at the Scottish Rite with Producer Manuel Oteyza Her Aim Is True, 11:15 am at the Garvey Forum with Director Karen Whitehead Zipper: Coney Island’S Last Wild Ride, 1:30 pm at the Garvey Forum with Director Amy Nicholson A Band Called Death, 4:00 pm at the Garvey Forum with Director Mark Covino The Last White Knight, 11:30 am at the Garvey Med. with Director Paul Saltzman Barzan, 2:00 pm at the Garvey Med. with Producer Sarah Stuteville and...

It's been a stellar year for music documentaries. Twenty Feet From Stardom, A Band Called Death and Sound City have all managed to tell important stories and still be crowd-pleasing films. Much like Dave Grohl's warm and friendly portrait of the Sound City studios out in Southern California, the movie Muscle Shoals invites us to take a closer look at a studio where some of the most important recordings of all time have been created. 

Rick Hall opened Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama in 1960 after establishing a music publishing business. With a life-altering personal tragedy behind him, he focused all of his energy into the studio and truly got hooked by producing local and regional artists. Shortly after Percy Sledge recorded "When A Man Loves A Woman" at Fame in 1966, the floodgates opened and the studio become a destination for Jerry Wexler at Atlantic Records to bring his...

A Band Called Death is a story of rebirth. And that would probably have seemed entirely appropriate to the late David Hackney, had he lived to see it. Hackney and his two brothers, Bobby and Dannis, formed their band, Death, in the early 1970’s. Three African-American teenagers, sons of a Baptist preacher, they played unapologetically fierce and compelling proto-punk in the soul/funk Mecca of Motown. The music they made would languish in obscurity for almost 40 years, until the world came knocking, just as David Hackney knew they would…

The film, by Marc Christopher Covino and Jeff Howlett, set fire to the festival circuit last year, earning almost unanimous critical praise, and was released on DVD and Blu-ray last month. Something more than your average rockumentary, it corrects a historical and aesthetic injustice by allowing the visionary brilliance of this forgotten band of brothers to shine for all the world to see,...

The 7th annual Sydney Underground Film Festival, which runs this year on September 5-8 at the Factory Theatre, opens with a real bang when they will screen cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s latest cinematic odyssey, The Dance of Reality. This is Jodorowsky’s first film in over twenty years and is an imaginative and playful quasi-autobiography.

The rest of the four-day celebration is packed with more film oddities and excursions into surreal and transgressive territory. One particular highlight that is not to be missed is Don Swaynos’ incredibly crowd-pleasing comedy Pictures of Superheroes, about a slacker cleaning woman’s descent into an absurd world she can’t escape. Read the Underground Film Journal’s review of Pictures of Superheroes here.

Other twisted fiction films screening include Drew Tobias’s sick and twisted See You Next Tuesday, Cody Calahan’s apocalyptic Antisocial and Lloyd Kaufman’s highly-anticipated sequel Return to Nuke ‘Em High: Vol.

2 films debuting on DVD and Blu-ray this week that you should know about... one I recommend; the other, not-so much. The rockumentary A Band Called Death is now on DVD, Blu-ray, VOD, iTunes as well as digital download, so you have several options available to you, if you missed it in theaters earlier this year, courtesy of Drafthouse Films. Directed by Jeff Howlett and Mark Covino, the film made its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival last year, screening in competition, and continued to travel the film festival circuit through this year. Its synopsis reads: Before Bad Brains, the Sex Pistols or even the Ramones, there...

Moviefone's Top DVD of the Week

"What Maisie Knew"

What's It About? A modern update on Henry James's 1897 novel of the same name, this indie drama follows a six-year-old girl caught in the middle of her parents bitter custody battle. With her aging rock star mother (Julianne Moore), art dealer father (Steve Coogan), and mom's bartender boyfriend (Alexander Skarsgard), Maisie (newcomer Onata Aprile) learns to navigate through the adult's selfish behavior.

Why We're In: While uncomfortable and sad, "What Maisie Knew" tells a deeply emotional story that will stay with you. The adult leads give memorable performances, but it is Aprile's rawness that makes the film so gripping.

Moviefone's Top Blu-ray of the Week

"The Muppet Movie" The Nearly 35th Anniversary Edition

What's It About? The classic 1979 (almost 35 years ago) movie was the first time we saw Kermit and friends on the big screen. In the movie musical Kermit...

A Band Called Death - Drafthouse Films - Blu-ray and DVD Director: Mark Christopher Covino, Jeff Howlett Cast: Bobby Hackney, Dannis Hackney, David Hackney, Henry Rollins, Alice Cooper To quote my interview with the stars of this fine film: "A Band Called Death has one of the best stories you'll see in a movie this year. Or next year. Or any year. It's almost too good to be true, but it all really happened." It's pretty common for documentaries to knock you off your feet, though most of the time that happens when the subject matter is just plain depressing. That's not the case here. This is an incredibly uplifting, wondrous story about a trio of brothers who were well ahead of their time musically. But it's way, way more than that. The story of...

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Seconds (Criterion Collection) I posted my review yesterday (read it here), but here's a quote: "Thrillers aren't done like this nowadays. The opening is far too subtle for today's audiences and the ending too bleak, which is one reason to stack your collection with similar titles and make sure your cup runneth over just in case the occasion calls for it."

Shane I've only seen Shane once and that viewing was clouded with expectation and curiosity. Once I take a moment to watch it a second or third time I would feel it valid to weigh in. That said, I'm curious about this new Blu-ray release, though it isn't as if Warner Home Video went the distance with the special features only offering an audio commentary and nothing else.

Olympus Has Fallen Meh, I'm sure it will be on HBO some time soon and then replayed with regularity on Spike.

Home Invasion is a weekly post every Tuesday which shows you what is being released on Blu-Ray & DVD today! We scoured through Amazon to bring you everything you might be interested in. Our Picks of the Week are releases that we are looking forward to checking out, have reviewed and/or were are Picks of the Week on the Dtb Podcast. All descriptions are courtesy of Amazon.com unless noted otherwise. If you are thinking about purchasing any of these items, by clicking via the links provided, you are supporting Dtb. Thank you!

Not a lot of releases this week due to the holiday but there are definitely some titles worth checking out!

Price: $22.93

Click Here to buy the Blu-ray + Digital CopyClick Here to buy the DVD

This film leans towards cult than horror, obviously. Death is a band that will blow your mind that you haven’t heard of them sooner.

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, the acclaimed dine-in art house chain with a strict no-talking no-texting policy, is finally opening its first New York location in Yonkers on August 5. The company will continue expansion into New York, with plans to open a theater on the Upper West Side (the former Metro Theater at 2626 Broadway) in 2014 and in Downtown Brooklyn in 2015.  To celebrate the Grand Opening, the six-screen Yonkers theater will open its doors early during its staff training days on August 2-4 to offer $2 movies and half priced food and drink (excluding alcohol) to lucky early customers/guinea pigs. There is an eclectic mix of new releases and oldies lined up for these staff training days. The program features "The Act of Killing," "A Band Called Death," "2 Guns," "The Way Way Back," "The Shining," "Fantastic Mr. Fox," and "Singin' in the Rain." A peek at the Grand Opening programming promises all the...

It’s a golden era for “forgotten musical acts of the ’60s and ’70s” docs. While Malik Bendjelloul’s Searching for Sugar Man took home the BAFTA and an Academy Award for Best Documentary earlier this year, following a wave of acclaim after its Sundance premiere, films like Jeff Howlett and Mark Christopher Covino’s A Band Called Death, Jay Bulger’s Beware of Mr. Baker and Morgan Neville’s Twenty Feet from Stardom have ridden the festival circuit praise to their own well-received releases in recent months. Next in line is Drew DeNicola and Olivia Mori’s Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me, an assured, rather handsome look at the …...

On the heels of last week’s rock doc opener, Mark Christopher Covino and Jeff Howlett’s A Band Called Death, rock n’ roll documentaries have been understandably on our collective brain. (Landon explored the genre and some of its recent attempts to “fix” rock music earlier this week.) Though A Band Called Death tells a great story about America’s first (and forgotten) punk band, I found it to be emotionally lacking (even with tons of appropriate emotion to mine for the production, including the death of its most influential member), which got me thinking about other rock docs that I found truly emotionally satisfying. There was only one that immediately came to mind, even though I had almost forgotten about its very existence. While A Band Called Death is an impressively comprehensive documentary about the band and the brothers, its desire to meticulously track the timeline of the story holds it back from having a...

June saw the buzzed-about release of not one, but two documentaries examining talented but underappreciated and not-at-all famous musicians: Morgan Neville’s 20 Feet From Stardom, about the careers of female back-up singers, and Mark Christopher Covino & Jeff Howlett’s A Band Called Death, about an African-American, Detroit-based proto-punk bank who recorded music and broke up before The Sex Pistols initiated any anarchy whatsoever in the UK. These two documentaries are hardly the first non-fiction films to focus their lenses on the lives and extraordinary-ordinary struggles of marginal musical subjects: Sacha Gervasi’s popular Anvil! The Story of Anvil was perhaps the first really visible instantiation of this subgenre, which reached its height when Searching for Sugar Man struck awards show and box office gold, resurrecting the career of long-forgotten singer-songwriter Rodriguez in the process. Back in March, I argued contemporary mainstream documentaries seem to be heavily preoccupied with resurrecting exceptional but buried personalities, while...

Drafthouse Films' A Band Called Death has several new clips up from the rockumentary directed by Jeff Howlett and Mark Covino. The film opened in theaters this past weekend, and includes Bobby Hackney, Sr., Dannis Hackney, David Hackney and Bobbie Duncan. Before Bad Brains, the Sex Pistols or even the Ramones, there was a band called Death. Punk before punk existed, three teenage brothers in the early '70s formed a band in their spare bedroom, began playing a few local gigs and even pressed a single in the hopes of getting signed. But this was the era of Motown and emerging disco. Record companies found Death's music - and band name - too intimidating, and the group were never given a fair shot, disbanding before they even completed one album. Equal parts...

A Band Called Death has one of the best stories you'll see in a movie this year. Or next year. Or any year. It's almost too good to be true, but it all really happened. On the surface it seems like just a simple documentary about, well, a band from the '70s who called themselves Death. They were never a big deal, but they should have been. They were a trio of brothers (Bobby, Dannis and David Hackney) living in Detroit who were playing punk music before punk was even a thing. They predated the Sex Pistols and the Ramones, but unfortunately they were never able to break out. No one was interested in watching black teenagers play heavy, fast "white-boy music" in the home of Motown, and, on top of that, no one wanted to book a group with such a morbid name...

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Drafthouse Films has officially released the rockumentary A Band Called Death, on VOD, iTunes as well as digital download, and now in theaters (it opened today in select cities - For a full list of screening dates and locations please visit: http://drafthousefilms.com/film/a-band-called-death#watch).  Directed by Jeff Howlett and Mark Covino, the film made its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival last year, screening in competition, and continued to travel the film festival circuit through this year. Its synopsis reads: Before Bad Brains, the Sex Pistols or even the Ramones, there was Death. Formed in the early...

Our friends at Drafthouse Films bring us this week's most promising new release, an indie documentary about a groundbreaking but overlooked band with an unmarketable name. Punk and Seventies music fans shouldn't miss A Band Called Death (really, not such a great name), a film in the vein of Searching for Sugar Man.

The Independence Day holiday week is a slow one for special screenings. But martial-arts film fans might find the Austin Film Society's Old School Kung Fu Weekend intriguing, especially because the five-film lineup is top secret. If you're an adventurous moviegoer, check out the screenings on Friday and Saturday night at the Marchesa Hall & Theatre to see what surprises special guest programmer Dan Halsted (of Portland's Kung Fu Theater) has in store.

Film noir fans should head for the Paramount and Stateside on Tuesday and Wednesday for double-feature screenings of classics from three decades. Humphrey Bogart and...

Ask the average person on the street to name the city that saw its walls shake with the birth of punk music and odds are they won’t answer “Detroit.” Ask them to name the band who first mashed the raw and the melodic together to create punk music before the term even existed, and they most assuredly won’t say “Death.” And we won’t even bother asking if anyone knew that the forefathers of punk were African American. But thanks to the new revelatory and inspiring documentary A Band Called Death, the truth behind the band’s nearly simultaneous birth and death may yet find them their proper place in music history. There were four Hackney boys growing up in ’70s Detroit, but while the oldest kept himself busy in other ways, his three younger brothers developed a serious interest in music. Bobby, Dannis and David taught themselves bass, drums...

Rock documentaries are clearly all the rage right now following the Oscar win for "Searching for Sugar Man." The latest to open in theaters today, Jeff Howlett and Mark Covino's "A Band Called Death" profiles an undiscovered band that was doing punk even before the term was coined, pre-dating the Ramones. Below, the filmmakers share their picks for their favorite rock documentaries. "A Band Called Death" is also available on iTunes, VOD and for digital download now. Directors' Statement: When we originally set out to make "A Band Called Death" our intention was to document an important missing link in the genesis of Punk Rock music. What began as a film about a band ultimately became a 40 year history of a family, a tale of the bonds of brotherhood and a journey to musical enlightenment. Our “Rockumentary” grew into something much more, something that transcends the music. And, at...

Brothers From the Attic: Unexpected Afterlife for Protopunk Band

After cutting their debut album in 1974, “Death” found that nobody in the record industry wanted to touch their music. That is, until 35 long years later when, in a story that yet again confirms the greater strangeness of truth to fiction, “Death” is miraculously rediscovered, their album finally released to great acclaim by music aficionados and fans, and, soon after, A Band Called Death, the richly-textured and deeply-moving documentary under review here by Mark Covino and Jeff Howlett appears about them. The best part of the story is, it couldn’t have happened to a more admirable and engaging group of people than the Hackney brothers and their musically-inclined offspring, most of whom are drummers and in bands themselves.

In choosing the name “Death” for the punk band that David Hackney and his two brothers, Bobby and Dannis, started out of their parents’ house in Detroit,...

Cult bands don’t get much cultier than the early-’70s Detroit proto-punk band Death. In fact, the debut album by the trio of brothers wasn’t released until 2009, decades after they had split up. The story of the band — and its recent, remarkable rescue from the garbage can of musical history — is related in a new documentary, A Band Called Death, which features interviews from Henry Rollins, Elijah Wood, Kid Rock, and Questlove, amongst others.

The film hits cinemas tomorrow while Death are playing at The Cinefamily in Los Angeles Friday and Saturday and at New York’s (Le...

The playlist of music documentaries this year has been overwhelming yet welcome to audiophiles around the world. Earlier this year, Drafthouse Films picked up A Band Called Death, which opens Friday at the Alamo Drafthouse Village. This movie -- also currently available for viewing on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video and VOD outlets -- sheds light on a remarkable story fit for the annals of rock-and-roll history.

A Detroit band before its time, Death was made up of three of the Hackney brothers -- Dannis, David, and Bobby -- recording punk music in the early Seventies when others black musicians around them were deep into the Motown sound. The band played a few shows and recorded a single but were unable to interest record companies due to their punk sound and band name. Brother David had been inspired by the tragic death of their father to name the band Death, and...

More than one review, not to mention promotional materials wired with easy hooks, take note of an intriguing connection between two fairly recent music documentaries that played at festivals last year. Oscar-winner "Searching for Sugar Man," which involves the rediscovery of long-forgotten folk musician Sixto Rodriguez, mirrors the premise of "A Band Called Death," about an underappreciated African American proto-punk group resurrected by its members' offspring, which opens this week. The parallels are pretty substantial: Both movies involve Detroit-based musicians retroactively appreciated as visionaries in their respective musical genres during their early days, the mid-to-late seventies. But while "A Band Called Death" has received considerably less attention and acclaim in the time leading up to its release, directors Jeff Howlett and Mark Covino arguably recount a more eventful saga. Presented like a detective yarn, "Sugar Man" eventually turns into a comeback story, with...

In the early 1970s, three teenage African American brothers, David, Bobby, and Dannis Hackney, formed a band called Death and played "hard-drivin' rock & roll" -- really, a precursor to punk rock, pre-dating pioneering black punk band Bad Brains by about five years -- across their hometown of Detroit. They didn't get far; their only single rarely got airplay and the unreleased master tapes for their debut album sat unheard in a dusty attic in Detroit for nearly 35 years. A Band Called Death, directed by Mark Covino and Jeff Howlett, chronicles the Hackney brothers' story, from their early years playing instruments purchased with a family insurance settlement in a cramped room in their parents' house to the band's rediscovery and eventual revival several decades...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Title: A Band Called Death Directors: Mark Covino, Jeff Howlett In the vein of “Searching for Sugar Man” and “Anvil! The Story of Anvil,” earnest and engaging nonfiction feature “A Band Called Death” again helps prove that all the best nonfiction music stories aren’t tied up in “Behind the Music”-type bitterness and acrimony, and certainly aren’t related to any level of achieved fame. A warm if slightly overlong tale that sketches an arc of both what sadly might have been and what surprisingly now is bubbling to the surface, the movie chronicles the rather incredible story of three African-American Detroit brothers who, in the 1970s shadow of Motown, formed a [ Read More ]

The post A Band Called Death Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Chicago – Wouldn’t we all like to believe that if one is true to their passion, honest with their creative vision, and unwavering in the world’s inability to embrace them that it is only a matter of time before that changes? We’ve always loved this theme in fiction and the encouraging idea that cream rises to the top propelled “Searching For Sugar Man” to an Oscar because of the goodwill it engendered.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

Less than a year later, here comes another (superior) documentary about a Detroit musician for whom fame remained elusive until the next generation discovered his talents. Opening this week in most markets, “A Band Called Death” captures the joy of music, the remarkable influence it can have on future talents, and the importance of appeasing nothing but the creative drive within. It’s been a very strong year for documentaries already with “Stories We Tell” and “The Gatekeepers.

Mondo, the division of the Alamo Drafthouse championed for bringing art back to movie poster design, has collaborated with artist Jay Shaw to create the poster for Drafthouse Films' rock documentary A Band Called Death. The poster is embedded below. Drafthouse Films acquired North American rights to the rockumentary in February, which is directed by Jeff Howlett and Mark Covino. The film made its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival last year, screening in competition, and continued to travel the film festival circuit through this year. Its synopsis reads: Before Bad Brains, the Sex Pistols or even the Ramones, there was Death....

Title: A band called Death Director: Mark Covino & Jeff Howlett Starring: Bobby Hackney Sr., Dannis Hackney, David Hackney Bobbie Duncan. Mike Rubin, reporter of The New York Times, titled his article on Death band: “This Band Was Punk Before Punk Was Punk.” And indeed it was, since the trio – composed by Bobby Hackney Sr., Dannis Hackney, David Hackney – preceded the Sex Pistols and Bad Brains in the early 70s, when they were just teenagers in Detroit. Mark Covino and Jeff Howlett, through the rockumentary ‘A band called Death,’ reconstruct the spiritual voyage of a music (and band) that seemed destined to never emerge. Record companies found Death’s music [ Read More ]

The post A band called Death Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Has the Orion Music + More Festival found a permanent home in the Motor City? After launching last year in Atlantic City, the Metallica-led rock weekend is setting up shop on Belle Isle June 8 and 9. And in keeping with the name and spirit of the event (Orion like the constellation, not Lake Orion the suburb), the two-day lineup is jam-packed with stars of the rock variety.

Fortunately for procrastinators, single-day tickets, two-day passes and VIP packages are still available. Click here for ticket info and FAQs.

Although the main event takes place over the weekend, two alums from the 2012 Orion gathering in Atlantic City will be pounding out their tunes at pre-festival concerts on Friday night. Catch Baroness at St. Andrews Hall or Chevy Metal, featuring Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters, at the Majestic. A Saturday after-show will also bring electronic dance musician Dillon Francis back from the island for a special set at the Fillmore.

Drafthouse Films acquired North American rights to the rockumentary A Band Called Death, in February, which is directed by Jeff Howlett and Mark Covino. The film made its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival last year, screening in competition, and continued to travel the film festival circuit through this year. The film's synopsis reads: Before Bad Brains, the Sex Pistols or even the Ramones, there was Death. Formed in the early '70s by three teenage brothers from Detroit, Death is credited as being the first black punk band, and the Hackney brothers, David, Bobby, and Dannis, are now considered pioneers in their field. But it wasn’t until recently — when a dusty...

"We are fighting to maintain our identity!" While the Cannes Film Festival rages on, today's trailer is for an indie rock doc called A Band Called Death, which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival this year and was picked up by Drafthouse Films in February. This trailer has been out for a bit, but we haven't featured it yet and I thought it a worthy film to highlight today. Similar to the Oscar winning doc Searching for Sugar Man, this tells the story of a three-member African-American punk rock band called Death from Detroit that never hit it big until 30 years later when tapes were found in an attic. This looks badass. The Ultimate Trip. Watch the official trailer for Jeff Howlett & Mark Covino's A Band Called Death, in high def from Apple: Before Bad Brains, the Sex Pistols or even the Ramones, there was a band called Death.

Drafthouse Films has released the trailer for their upcoming rockumentary A Band Called Death. Mark Christopher Covino and Jeff Howlett direct the film which was actually available via VOD from March 24th, 2013 and now hits theaters on June 28th. Before Bad Brains, the Sex Pistols or even the Ramones, there was a band called Death. Punk before punk existed, three teenage brothers in the early '70s formed a band in their spare bedroom, began playing a few local gigs and even pressed a single in the hopes of getting signed. But this was the era of Motown and emerging disco. Record companies found Death's music...

Drafthouse Films acquired North American rights to the rockumentary A Band Called Death, in February, which is directed by Jeff Howlett and Mark Covino. The film made its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival last year, screening in competition, and is scheduled to next screen at the SXSW Film Festival in March. The film's synopsis reads: Before Bad Brains, the Sex Pistols or even the Ramones, there was Death. Formed in the early '70s by three teenage brothers from Detroit, Death is credited as being the first black punk band, and the Hackney brothers, David, Bobby, and Dannis, are now considered pioneers in their field. But it wasn’t until recently — when a dusty 1974...

The mighty Boston Underground Film Festival celebrates their impressive 15th edition this year on March 27-31 at the Brattle Theatre. Here’s some highlights to be on the lookout for:

Opening night film: I Declare War, a childhood parable about war and brutality, directed by Jason Lapeyre and Robert Wilson.

Closing night film: Big Ass Spider!, a raucous giant arachnid vs. the military flick, directed by Mike Mendez.

Other Feature Films: Both Drew Tobia’s first feature, See You Next Tuesday; and the punk documentary A Band Called Death by Mark Christopher Covino and Jeff Howlett recently won awards at the 20th Chicago Underground Film Festival and will now kill it at Buff. Sion Sono, a Buff regular, will be screening the last of his “Trilogy of Hate,” Guilty of Romance; while Calvin Lee Reeder has the gross-out feature-length version of his gross-out short The Rambler. And Zach Clark, a Bad Lit favorite,...

The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival announced Audience Award-winners today from the Narrative Feature Competition, Documentary Feature Competition, Narrative Spotlight, Documentary Spotlight, Emerging Visions, Midnighters, 24 Beats Per Second, SXGlobal, Festival Favorites and Design Award categories. Audience Award results for all categories were certified by the accounting firm of Maxwell Locke & Ritter. The Audience Awards follow the previously announced 2013 Jury Awards, which included Grand Jury Winners Destin Daniel Cretton’s Short Term 12 for Narrative Feature, and Ben Nabors’ William And The Windmill for Documentary Feature. For the complete list of 2013 Award Winners, visit sxsw.com/film. The 2013 SXSW Film Festival hosted a total of 133 features, consisting of 78 World Premieres, 13 North American Premieres and 9 U.S. Premieres, with 76 first-time directors. 110 shorts will screen as part of 10 overall shorts programs. The nearly 250 films were selected from a record number of overall submissions, over 5,700, comprised of approximately 2,100 features and 3,600 shorts,...

The massive 20th Chicago Underground Film Festival has come and gone and, surprisingly, the city is still standing!

But, in the epic event’s wake is left the exhausted bodies of several award winners, chosen by a three-panel jury composed of Mimi Brody, Frederic Moffet and Jack Sargeant; as well as a special award chosen by the audience.

Actually, the audience was so enamored of all the films screening at Cuff this year, they couldn’t make a decision of what they enjoyed the most. So, the Audience Award resulted in a tie between the feature film debut of Drew Tobia, See You Next Tuesday, and the anti-war documentary Hit & Stay by co-directors Joe Tropea and Skizz Cyzyk.

The jury gave the Most Visionary Award to the very personal documentary A Body Without Organs by Stephen Graves. And they bestowed the Lifetime Achievement Award on underground filmmaking legend Jon Moritsugu,...

New stills from Welcome to the Punch, Admission, The Sweeney, Wolf Creek 2, Carrie, Evil Dead, the set of The Wolverine, and cast photos for NBC's Hannibal.

New posters for The Look of Love, The Place Beyond the Pines, Grace Land, Olympus Has Fallen, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2, Monsters University, Open Windows and Iron Man 3.

"Brett Ratner's 'Hercules' project, starring Dwayne Johnson, has been moved up by two weeks. It will now open July 25th 2014, with no other films currently scheduled for that date…" (full details)

"The sequel to the late 90's comedy 'The Best Man' has finally scored a proper title - 'The Best Man Holiday'. It is slated to open November 15th…" (full details)

Russell Crowe appeared on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" the other night, and he talked briefly about his role as Jor-El in the upcoming "Man of Steel":...