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Jazz Films at Vancouver International Film Festival

Michel Petrucciani
North American Premiere
Directed by Michael Radford | In French and English with English subtitles

Friday September 30, 4:00pm, Vogue Theatre
Sunday October 2, 6:45pm, Empire Granville 7, Theatre 2
Friday October 14, 6:45 pm, Empire Granville 7, Theatre 2

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While diminutive in stature, late jazz pianist Michel Petrucciani was a monumental talent. Afflicted with brittle bone disease, the three-foot-tall Petrucciani frequently incurred broken fingers, arms and shoulders with his frenetic (and legitimately inimitable) playing style. As Michael Radford's candid tribute suggests, it was as if he needed to exorcise the music from his body. Knowing that his was to be a short life, the hedonistic artist was intent on living it to the fullest, leaving him as powerless to resist his muse as he was his many vices.

Stocked with Petrucciani's former confidantes and collaborators, Radford's film offers a wealth of intimate reminiscences. Furthermore, the screen is regularly ceded to the beguiling Petrucciani courtesy of archival interviews and performances. Posthumously holding court, he reveals that he was as deftly skilled with an anecdote as he was with a melody.

"It's supremely entertaining, not only because it boasts so much fine jazz but because its subject was such a fascinating, colourfully charismatic character... He was possessed of an extraordinary curiosity about and lust for life… Through the force of his personality and his playing, the film too exudes a thrilling energy."--Geoff Andrew, Sight & Sound


The Girls in the Band
World Premiere
Directed by Judy Chaikin

Tuesday October 11, 6:40pm, Empire Granville 7, Theatre 4
Wednesday October 12, 4:20pm, Empire Granville 7, Theatre 2
Friday October 14, 9:15 pm, Vancity Theatre

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A must see! Director Judy Chaikin's bebop documentary uncovers the startling history of female jazz musicians and all-woman big band music. From the 1940s to the swinging sounds of the contemporary DIVA Jazz Orchestra, the story of these incredibly talented pioneers roars with spirit and sound. Chaikin takes as a starting point Art Kane's famous 1958 Harlem portrait of jazz legends and weaves together a bracing combination of archival footage and interviews to explore a formerly undocumented history.

"They wiggled, they jiggled, they wore low-cut gowns and short shorts, they kow-towed to the club owners and smiled at the customer... and they did it all, just to play the music they loved. The Girls in the Band tells the poignant, untold stories of female jazz and big band instrumentalists and their fascinating, groundbreaking journeys from the late 30s to the present day. These incredibly talented women endured sexism, racism and diminished opportunities for decades, yet continued to persevere, inspire and elevate their talents in a field that seldom welcomed them. Today a new breed of gifted young women are taking their rightful place in the world of jazz which can no longer deny their talents."--the filmmakers. Featuring Gerri Allen, Jessie Bailey, Carla Bley, Clora Bryant, Melba Liston and more than a dozen others.