Rock ’n’ roll is the soundtrack to summer at BAMPFA as we celebrate the roots and resonance of rock in cinema both in the Barbro Osher Theater and with three free events on our outdoor screen. This series includes some of the best concert films of all time, including Monterey Pop, Wattstax, Stop Making Sense, The Last Waltz, and Dave Chappelle’s Block Party; influential fiction films King Creole (Elvis Presley’s favorite of his films) and The Harder They Come (the film starring Jimmy Cliff that brought reggae to an international audience); groundbreaking documentaries Dont Look Back and The Decline of Western Civilization, and more. The sinister aspect of rock culture is revealed in the documentary Gimme Shelter, as the Dionysian mayhem of the Rolling Stones’ free concert at Altamont devolves into violence and murder, and in Peter Watkins’s dystopian Privilege, which depicts fictional pop star Steven Shorter as a pawn to the profit motive and reactionary politics.
This program is inspired by David E. James’s book Rock ’n’ Film: Cinema’s Dance with Popular Music and the related series at New York’s Anthology Film Archives last year. As Anthology’s program notes put it, “For two decades after the mid-1950s, biracial popular music played a fundamental role in progressive social movements on both sides of the Atlantic. . . . James’s book [and, by extension, the series] explores the music’s contradictory potentials, balancing rock’s capacity for utopian popular cultural empowerment with its usefulness within the capitalist media industries.” James joins us on June 22 to present an illustrated lecture on the intersection of rock and film.
Kate MacKay, Associate Film Curator
Image Credit: Dave Chappelle’s Block Party
show less
This program is inspired by David E. James’s book Rock ’n’ Film: Cinema’s Dance with Popular Music and the related series at New York’s Anthology Film Archives last year. As Anthology’s program notes put it, “For two decades after the mid-1950s, biracial popular music played a fundamental role in progressive social movements on both sides of the Atlantic. . . . James’s book [and, by extension, the series] explores the music’s contradictory potentials, balancing rock’s capacity for utopian popular cultural empowerment with its usefulness within the capitalist media industries.” James joins us on June 22 to present an illustrated lecture on the intersection of rock and film.
Kate MacKay, Associate Film Curator
Image Credit: Dave Chappelle’s Block Party
Rock ’n’ roll is the soundtrack to summer at BAMPFA as we celebrate the roots and resonance of rock in cinema both in the Barbro Osher Theater and with three free events on our outdoor screen. This series includes some of the best concert films of all time, including Monterey Pop, Wattstax, Stop Making Sense, The Last Waltz, and Dave Chappelle’s Block Party; influential fiction films King Creole (Elvis Presley’s favorite of his films) and The Harder They Come (the film starring Jimmy Cliff that brought reggae to an international audience); groundbreaking documentaries Dont Look Back and The Decline of Western Civilization, and more. The sinister aspect of rock culture is revealed in the documentary Gimme Shelter, as the Dionysian mayhem of the Rolling Stones’ free concert at Altamont devolves into violence and murder, and in Peter Watkins’s dystopian Privilege, which depicts fictional pop star Steven Shorter as a pawn to the profit motive and reactionary politics.
This program is inspired by David E. James’s book Rock ’n’ Film: Cinema’s Dance with Popular Music and the related series at New York’s Anthology Film Archives last year. As Anthology’s program notes put it, “For two decades after the mid-1950s, biracial popular music played a fundamental role in progressive social movements on both sides of the Atlantic. . . . James’s book [and, by extension, the series] explores the music’s contradictory potentials, balancing rock’s capacity for utopian popular cultural empowerment with its usefulness within the capitalist media industries.” James joins us on June 22 to present an illustrated lecture on the intersection of rock and film.
Kate MacKay, Associate Film Curator
Image Credit: Dave Chappelle’s Block Party
read more
This program is inspired by David E. James’s book Rock ’n’ Film: Cinema’s Dance with Popular Music and the related series at New York’s Anthology Film Archives last year. As Anthology’s program notes put it, “For two decades after the mid-1950s, biracial popular music played a fundamental role in progressive social movements on both sides of the Atlantic. . . . James’s book [and, by extension, the series] explores the music’s contradictory potentials, balancing rock’s capacity for utopian popular cultural empowerment with its usefulness within the capitalist media industries.” James joins us on June 22 to present an illustrated lecture on the intersection of rock and film.
Kate MacKay, Associate Film Curator
Image Credit: Dave Chappelle’s Block Party
show less
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Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA)
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