Tyler
11-21-2004, 08:16 PM
From the official Flaming Lips website:
Bradley Beesley's long-awaited Lips documentary is nearing completion and is set for release on 23 March through Shout Factory. This feature-length exploration of the Flaming Lips Universe is expected to premiere at either the Sundance Film Festival (January), or the South by Southwest Music-Film Festival (March). Bradley's hope is that the 'unbelievable access' he's enjoyed over the last ten years or so has enabled him to avoid making, "another okay rockumentary and, together with the band, instead create an insightful and personal piece of cinema."
The film looks at both the family backgrounds of the band members and how these have influenced the development of the band, and also talks to the various people they've encountered along their long journey, including (of course) one-time Lip Jonathan Donahue (of Mercury Rev) and the likes of Beck, Jack White, and Liz Phair. Bradley is rightly proud of what he's created, but it's clearly been quite a journey, "After combing 400 hours of footage covering a decade of personal interviews, live shows, music videos, family life, and behind-the-scenes of Christmas on Mars (okay not really ten years of Mars filming - but it feels like it!), it's almost finished. Although I am certainly excited and ready to share this film with the world, I have to admit it's bitter sweet. I just can't imagine a Lips concert, a Drozd brother jam session, or a Coyne family Christmas that I won't be filming..."
As ever where the Lips are concerned, Bradley's arrival in their world was a happy coincidence. He was though, soon manning the camera and co-ordinating photography on all the Lips' videos, and he later made documentaries about 'Okie Noodling' (bare-handed Oklahoman catfishing) and blues label Fat Possum Records. Bradley explains, "If the Flaming Lips have had, as Wayne always says, an 'accidental career' then this documentary is indeed also an accident. Fifteen years ago I was simply Wayne's art school neighbor in Norman, Oklahoma with a film camera and some tenacity. [At the time], they didn't think I was the best filmmaker on the planet but then I didn't think they were the best band, although I did think maybe they were the freakiest. And thus our relationship was built of geographic convenience and a mutual desire to create weirdness. Working with the Flaming Lips has thankfully made my filmmaking career happen."
If you happen to have seen 'The Flaming Lips Have Landed', Bradley's earlier extended promo for this project, you'll be glad to know that you still haven't seen the half of it... in fact little of that material remains in the actual film. We'll have detailed information about the whole project early in the New Year. Expect some interesting extras when the DVD arrives!
More here: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/6627563/theflaminglips?pageid=rs.Home&pageregion=single1&rnd=1101050610837&has-player=unknown
And here: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/news/04-11/17.shtml#story2
Bradley Beesley's long-awaited Lips documentary is nearing completion and is set for release on 23 March through Shout Factory. This feature-length exploration of the Flaming Lips Universe is expected to premiere at either the Sundance Film Festival (January), or the South by Southwest Music-Film Festival (March). Bradley's hope is that the 'unbelievable access' he's enjoyed over the last ten years or so has enabled him to avoid making, "another okay rockumentary and, together with the band, instead create an insightful and personal piece of cinema."
The film looks at both the family backgrounds of the band members and how these have influenced the development of the band, and also talks to the various people they've encountered along their long journey, including (of course) one-time Lip Jonathan Donahue (of Mercury Rev) and the likes of Beck, Jack White, and Liz Phair. Bradley is rightly proud of what he's created, but it's clearly been quite a journey, "After combing 400 hours of footage covering a decade of personal interviews, live shows, music videos, family life, and behind-the-scenes of Christmas on Mars (okay not really ten years of Mars filming - but it feels like it!), it's almost finished. Although I am certainly excited and ready to share this film with the world, I have to admit it's bitter sweet. I just can't imagine a Lips concert, a Drozd brother jam session, or a Coyne family Christmas that I won't be filming..."
As ever where the Lips are concerned, Bradley's arrival in their world was a happy coincidence. He was though, soon manning the camera and co-ordinating photography on all the Lips' videos, and he later made documentaries about 'Okie Noodling' (bare-handed Oklahoman catfishing) and blues label Fat Possum Records. Bradley explains, "If the Flaming Lips have had, as Wayne always says, an 'accidental career' then this documentary is indeed also an accident. Fifteen years ago I was simply Wayne's art school neighbor in Norman, Oklahoma with a film camera and some tenacity. [At the time], they didn't think I was the best filmmaker on the planet but then I didn't think they were the best band, although I did think maybe they were the freakiest. And thus our relationship was built of geographic convenience and a mutual desire to create weirdness. Working with the Flaming Lips has thankfully made my filmmaking career happen."
If you happen to have seen 'The Flaming Lips Have Landed', Bradley's earlier extended promo for this project, you'll be glad to know that you still haven't seen the half of it... in fact little of that material remains in the actual film. We'll have detailed information about the whole project early in the New Year. Expect some interesting extras when the DVD arrives!
More here: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/6627563/theflaminglips?pageid=rs.Home&pageregion=single1&rnd=1101050610837&has-player=unknown
And here: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/news/04-11/17.shtml#story2