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Bonjour, good morning everybody!

On Jammin Friday, 14th of June 2019, I will have a special Sydney Film Festival segment where I will be playing some of musical legends featured in the festival such as Aretha Franklin, Leonard Cohen, Milles Davis, etc. Prepare yourself to travel into a musical journey where Jazz meets the Suave Rhythms of Latin America and Mother Africa. Soul, blues, gospel and Classic R&B songs from the 60s 70s will also be on the menu. All this with a French & Creole Touch! I will promote some local jazz gig in collaboration with Melanie from Take One who will provide a 1 minute segment on what’s going on in Sydney. Halfway through the show at 8am, get the weather and traffic report. I will be playing a plethora of beautiful songs, hopefully, you will enjoy this morning trip around the world.

Amazing Grace

Directed by Realised and Produced by Alan Elliott, 2019, USA, 88 minutes

“Spine-tingling”, “sensational”, “rousing”: just a few of the words used for Aretha Franklin’s show-stopping performance in this previously unreleased film of her 1972 concert.

The legendary singer and daughter of a Detroit preacher was raised on gospel music. After a string of hits, at age 29 she returned briefly to her roots. Over two days at L.A.’s New Temple Missionary Baptist Church, accompanied by the Southern Californian Community Choir, Aretha sang from the heart and her astounding performance was captured by filmmaker Sydney Pollack. The resulting recording, Amazing Grace, became her most successful album, but the film of her performance – for multiple reasons – was never released…until now. In the audience her father, legendary gospel singers and Mick Jagger are squished alongside camera crew and sound technicians. But all eyes and ears are on the Queen of Soul herself – and she’s never been more mesmerising.

Wed 19 June, 6:15pm at Dendy Newtown

Book Tickets: www.sff.org.au/program/browse/amazing-grace

Blinded by the Light

Directed by Gurinder Chadha, 2019, 114 minutes

In Bend it Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha’s joyful celebration of Bruce Springsteen’s music, discovering The Boss radically changes one British-Pakistani teenager’s life.

In 1987 Luton, Javed (Viveik Kalra) wants nothing more than to escape the dreary town, its racism and lack of opportunity. Though Javed is drawn to music and writing, his domineering father expects him to pursue a sensible career to bring money into the struggling household. When Javed comes across the music of Springsteen, he finds that the working-class poet speaks directly to his situation and his life – and inspires him to push forward and pursue his dreams. Based on The Guardian journalist Sarfraz Manzoor’s memoir, Greetings from Bury Park – and made with Springsteen’s blessing and full access to his catalogue (richly represented here with a number of iconic hits) – Blinded by the Light is an uplifting testament to the power of art to change lives.

Sat 15 June, 6:35pm at The Ritz Cinema Randwick

Book Tickets: https://www.sff.org.au/program/browse/blinded-by-the-light

A Dog Called Money

Directed by Seamus Murphy, 2019, UK, Ireland, 94 minutes

British rock star PJ Harvey’s restless, probing creative genius shines in this beautifully impressionistic documentary that combines travelogue and multimedia performance art.

A Dog Called Money documents the unusual process behind the recording of Harvey’s 2016 album The Hope Six Demolition Project. Director and Irish war reporter Seamus Murphy, who previously collaborated with Harvey on her award-winning 2011 album Let England Shake, accompanies her on a tour of forsaken places: Afghanistan, Kosovo and a disadvantaged neighbourhood in Washington, DC. Finding hope and humanity as well as devastation, Harvey meets people, writes poetry and gathers inspiration for new songs. Back in London, she and her band record the album in a specially built studio that doubles as a live performance-art space, for the public to peer in at them as they work. The resulting film is a rich tapestry of stunning location footage, wrenching on-the-ground experiences and unusually intense and personal music.

Fri 14 June, 8:30pm, Event Cinemas George St 4

Book Tickets: https://www.sff.org.au/program/browse/a-dog-called-money

Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love

Directed by Nick Broomfield, 2018, 102 minutes

The love affair that began on an idyllic Greek island between Leonard Cohen and his muse, Marianne, inspired one of his most adored songs. Directed by Nick Broomfield.

“I wrote this song for Marianne, I hope she’s here,” said Cohen at the 1970 Isle of Wight music festival. The couple met on the bohemian island of Hydra in 1960, when Cohen was a struggling poet-writer and Norwegian Marianne Ihlen a single mother recovering from an unhappy marriage. Cohen eventually left to pursue his writing career, and by chance to become a musician. Their relationship ebbed and flowed over successive decades. The documentary traces Cohen’s career and their love story, using wonderful archival footage and interviews, to the bittersweet end. Pertinently, director Nick Broomfield (Whitney: Can I Be Me, SFF 2017) met Marianne on Hydra in 1968, and she inspired him to make his first film.

Sun 16 June 6:45pm Dendy Opera Quays Cinema 1

Tue 18 June, 8pm Dendy Newtown

Book Tickets: https://www.sff.org.au/program/browse/marianne-leonard-words-of-love

Inna De Yard: The Soul of Jamaica

Directed by Peter Webber, 2018, France, 97 minutes

Jamaican music gets its own version of The Buena Vista Social Club, complete with legendary performers, unplugged roots music and a whole lotta of chillin’ in the yard.

Director Peter Webber (Girl with a Pearl Earring) filmed musicians Ken Boothe, Winston McAnuff, Kiddus I, Cedric Myton and others, in a house on a hill above Kingston. Bob Marley may have hit the big time overseas, but there were plenty of other Jamaican musicians who, while loaded with talent and locally popular, didn’t make it internationally. For some, life and family got in the way, others were perhaps a little too fond of the ‘erb. But they haven’t given up on music, and when they get the call they head on over, more than ready to jam, creating a great new unplugged album. We’re talking reggae, ska and rocksteady from the ’60s and ’70s, but it’s never nostalgic – their music is vibrant and still full of relevance today.

Sat 8 June, 5:45pm, Dendy Newtown

Book Tickets: https://www.sff.org.au/program/browse/inna-de-yard-the-soul-of-jamaica

Trixie Mattel: Moving Parts

Directed by Nick Zeig-Owens, 2019, USA, 91 minutes

Behind the scenes with ‘Skinny Legend’ Trixie Mattel, the RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 3 winner who’s very serious about drag, and very serious about being funny.

Trixie is the drag persona of Milwaukee-born country musician Brian Firkus. We meet as she’s recording a new album and struggling to keep her TV comedy spin-off, The Trixie & Katya Show, together. As Trixie admits, she did a really shitty job on her first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. When she’s approached to join the All Stars season, she feels she has nothing to lose – and yet much to prove. A whirlwind tour follows – Dublin-Manchester-Los Angeles-Chicago – with hardly a moment to pull on her Parton-like gown or paint her signature face. Not just an on-the-road-with-Trixie film, this is also a surprisingly revealing portrait of the life of a professional performer – one with heels, humour and heart.

Sun 16 June, 2:30pm, Event Cinemas George St 4

Sat 8 June, 6:35pm, Event Cinemas George St 3

Book Tickets: https://www.sff.org.au/program/browse/trixie-mattel-moving-parts

Daffodils

Directed by David Stubbs, 2018, New Zealand, 109 minutes

A stirring musical romance brimming with decades of New Zealand hits from Crowded House to Bic Runga; and a box office hit at home.

New Zealand pop star Kimbra stars as Maisie, a singer whose dying father (George Mason) opens up about his life before she has to rush off to a gig. Moved by his revelations about the joys and sorrows of his relationship with her mother (Rose McIver), Maisie guides us through her parents’ wistful story with covers of beloved Kiwi classics by artists like Dave Dobbyn, Bic Runga, The Mutton Birds and Crowded House. The songs frame a tale that begins with a whirlwind teen romance in 1966 and continues through years of ups and downs, hard times and heartbreak. Filled with nostalgia for New Zealand life in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, Daffodils is a quintessential Kiwi love story, and a powerhouse of iconic tunes.

Fri 14 June, 8:30pm, Hayden Orpheum Cremorne

Book Tickets: https://www.sff.org.au/program/browse/daffodils

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool

Directed by Stanley Nelson, 2019, USA, UK, 115 minutes

An insightful bio-doc of the legendary Miles Davis, the man and musician, packed with revealing newly released archival footage and interviews with friends like Quincy Jones.

For Miles Davis, music was always there – it came before everything. Born in small town “racist to the bone” Illinois, he was gifted a trumpet as a young teen. In 1944, he headed to New York: studying, frequenting clubs and meeting his idols (including Dizzy and Bird). A stay in post-war Paris (where jazz was on a high and segregation non-existent) changed his thinking, but on returning to America, depression and drugs held sway, until he played a career-changing set at the 1955 Newport Jazz Festival. The story of his musical development and fierce creativity, life and loves is vividly and movingly told using the iconic musician’s own words (read by Carl Lumbly) from his much-admired 1989 autobiography.

Sat 8 June, 6:35pm, Event Cinemas George St 3

Book Tickets: https://www.sff.org.au/program/browse/miles-davis-birth-of-the-cool