ML turns the spotlight on three filmmakers screening new work at the Los Angeles Film Festival this week. Directors with films in the festival’s Narrative and Documentary competitions have offered up their observations on their latest and greatest. Monday’s titles include three docs: Jeff Howlett’s A Band Called Death, Mai Iskander’s Words of Witness and Dominga Sotomayor’s Thursday Till Sunday. And trailers are included (naturally).
A Band Called Death, directed by Jeff Howlett [Documentary Competition]
Synopsis:
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 demo tape made its way out of Bobby’s attic nearly 30 years after Death’s heyday — that anyone outside a small group of punk enthusiasts had even heard of them. Equal parts electrifying rockumentary and epic family chronicle, the story of Death is one of brotherly love and fierce, divinely inspired expression. [Courtesy of Los Angeles Film Festival]
Responses by Jeff Howlett:
Howlett gives his take on A Band Called Death:
A Band Called Death is a documentary about the Hackney’s, three African-American brothers from Detroit that formed the proto-punk band “Death” in the early 70s. The film is a family story of brotherly love, and the human spirit that uncovers a treasure in the form of a 1974 demo tape that established their name in American Punk Rock History.
And why audiences should check the film out at the LA Film Festival:
The audiences should check out our film to discover an inspiring story about a band who…
