CIMMfest

Doctors gave Abbie Evans a week to live when she was born, but this beautiful, moody, rebellious teenage girl isn’t one to listen when people tell her what to do. She sells merchandise at her rocker dad’s concerts, flirting with customers and enjoying life on the road. She also has to undergo painful daily treatments to keep her alive. As she approaches adulthood and wants to spread her wings, her devoted parents struggle to let go. “Opts for a celebration of life over a fear of death to ultimately devastating effect.” – Variety
Q & A with Cary Bell, John Evans

Plays with: 
Chicago Premiere Short Documentary, Like a Breath (Comme une respiration) 
Jaelle Marquis-Gobeille / Canada / 5 min.

A wordless portrait of Amelie, a contemporary dancer preparing for her first professional dance show while dealing with the everyday struggles of living with cystic fibrosis and diabetes.

Co-Presented with Boxx Magazine and Women in Film

Four films about music and memories passing from parent to child.

USA Premiere 
Koentopp
Short Documentary / Paul Hamilton, Caleb Vinson / USA / 45 min.
Koentopp follows master luthier Dan Koentopp through the construction of one of his gorgeous guitars, and the emotional life story that has made him what he is today.Q&A with directors.

Chicago Premiere 
Battle of the Jazz Guitarist
Short Documentary / Mark Columbus / USA / 8 min.
A young filmmaker begins to understand what his father, "the Jimi Hendrix of the Fiji Islands,” gave up for his family.

Chicago Premiere 
The Final Note
Short Documentary / Mayeta Clark / USA / 16 min.
This portrait of a Bronx warehouse cluttered with pianos and the eccentric characters who restore them presents the decline of a once-majestic instrument and the high craft of piano restoration.

Chicago Premiere
Grand Canal
Short Fiction / Johnny Ma / USA, Canada / 19 min.
A boat captain who loves Chinese ballads tries to collect a debt to save his fleet of boats, as remembered by his ten-year-old son.

An entertaining and enlightening selection of films from our favorite Canadian city, Winnipeg, and its amazing home-grown film co-op. (Although two of the films are actually from Montreal.)

Chicago Premiere
Bome Gnomeski
Music Video / Curtis L. Wiebe, Marlon Wiebe / Canada / 3 min.
A cautionary tale about a little tree who gets more than he bargained for when he leaves the forest for the mean streets of the big city.

USA Premiere
Mahsa: Cantata for a Forbidden Voice in Four Movements
Short Documentary / Kiarash Anvari / Canada, Iran / 16 min.
In a country where public performances by women are forbidden, the internationally acclaimed Iranian vocalist Mahsa Vahdat struggles to make her voice heard.

World Premiere
Polar Express
Music Video / Karen Asmundson, Gwen Trutnau / Canada / 5 min.
The carnival is back in town in this rockin', gender-bending music video about a young man's love affair with an amusement park ride.

Chicago Premiere
Seasick
Short Fiction / Eva Cvijanovic / Canada / 3 min.
Seasick is a animated, meditative exploration of one's love of the sea, set to a soundtrack of traditional Croatian music.

Empty
Short Documentary / Jackie Traverse / Canada / 5 min. 
Set to music by Little Hawk, this animated and starkly honest story is a daughter’s tribute to her estranged mother.

Bazen en Helden - "Le Dernier Soir"
Music Video / Kayla Jeanson / Canada / 6 min. 
A woman in a mask leads a group of children through an evening of fun and fantasy, crafting masks and projecting animated unicorns onto houses.

Goths! On the Bus!
Music Video / Karen & Jaimz Asmundson / Canada / 4 min. 
The winner of our 2012 Best Music Video is back, as depressed as ever. Even goths have to buy their black lipstick somewhere!

The vintage revival scene of the 1990s has grown into a worldwide phenomenon as electronic musicians have begun to turn away from laptops to embrace the sound, physicality, and unpredictability of modular synthesizers. I Dream of Wires, co-written and produced by house music veteran Solvent, takes us along for an informative history of the modular synth and a look at the musicians who are part of its comeback, including Trent Reznor, Carl Craig, Vince Clarke of Erasure, and many more.
Q & A with director Robert Fantinatto

PLAYING WITH:

North American Premiere 
Short Documentary - Box of Sound
Chuck Przybyl / USA / 12 min.
Chicago-based circuit bender and musician Antoine Kattar turns a cigar box into a synthesizer in this film that lovingly documents every step of the process, from concept to music.

A smorgasbord of offerings illustrating the diversity of nations, subjects, and styles we highlight at CIMMfest. 

Chicago Premiere
Shooter Jennings' The Other Life
Short Fiction / Blake Judd / USA / 28 min.
Shooter Jennings says goodbye to his family and hits the road on a supernatural journey inspired by Stephen King, Stanley Kubrick, and his own past.

KnickaNack Dan
Music Video / Pedro Castro / USA / 4 min.
KnickaNack Dan was raised in the Tennessee trees by a man, a bear, and a pile of leaves. His tale just might astound you.

Kid Exodus - "Are We Apart"
Music Video / Viktor Enoksen / Norway / 4 min.
Kid Exodus escapes from a secret lab, and the authorities will do anything to get him back. When they finally corner him, things get messy.

Chicago Premiere
We Keep on Dancing
Short Fiction / Jessica Barclay Lawton / Australia / 9 min.
Two strangers meet through a haze of smoke from a broken-down Volkswagen Beetle in this sweet tale of love, loss and ... car trouble.

Chicago Premiere
My Black Box (Ma boîte noire)
Short Documentary / Nicolas-Alexandre Tremblay / Canada / 12 min.
At the age of four, rapper Dramatik was treated for aggression. The treatment left him with a stutter; freestyling provided him with a cure.

These New Puritans - V (Island Song)
Music Video / PICNIC / UK / 8 min.
A woman goes to the movies to lose herself and her mind in this animated video that These New Puritans describe as "the closest so far to band's vision."

Chicago Premiere
The Rhythm in Her Veins (El ritmo en sus venas)
Short Fiction / Juan Alberto Poveda Paredes / Spain / 13 min.
Irene and Rafa have a boring relationship full of lies, but an unexpected accident forces them to live together as they never have before.

In 2011, the New York Times said, “Vincent Moon reinvented the music video.” They were talking about Moon’s “Take Away Shows,” improvised video shoots with musicians including Vampire Weekend, Yo La Tengo, REM, St. Vincent, Andrew Bird, Arcade Fire, Tom Jones, Sufjan Stevens, Okkervil River, Jens Lekman, and Sigur Ros—videos that Moon then distributed for free. He’s also made tour documentaries for Arcade Fire, REM, Beirut, Mogwai, and The National. Since 2011, he’s been traveling the world creating his Petites Planètes (small planets) series, obsessively documenting music where he finds it, from traditional vocal groups in war-torn former Soviet republics to Brazilian pop stars on the roofs of Sao Paolo—and he distributes it all for free. He’s not just reinventing the music video, he’s reinventing how we learn about the world. Join him at CIMMfest, where he’ll present some of his latest work and talk passionately about how music truly unites humanity.
Q&A with Vincent Moon
This is the second of two improvised presentations of films he's been working on for the past four years. Each one will be different; check back for details about what each one might contain. 

A selection of films about specific locations, even when that location is unclear.

World Premiere
Will Play for Beer
Short Documentary / Carrine Fisher / USA / 42 min.
Will Play for Beer documents the thriving independent music scene in Seattle, focusing on the cooperation between artists and their efforts to succeed in an ever-changing music industry.

Chicago Premiere
A Stroll Through the Park: An Asbury Symphony
Short Documentary / Sage Seb / USA / 19 min.
Cameras follow street artist Shepard Fairey through Asbury Park, NJ as he creates art for the All Tomorrow's Party music festival.

Steve Grand - "Back to California"
Music Video / Jason Knade / USA / 6 min.
The latest video from Steve Grand, Chicago’s gay country music sensation, explores the disillusionment of young adulthood and the intensity of adolescent friendship.

Lebanon Hanover - "Hall of Ice"
Diego Barrera / Chile, Colombia / 7 min.
Inexplicable rituals and ice-cold production highlight this video for British-German duo Lebanon Hanover.  

Chicago premiere
Derby & Groma
Short Documentary / Kara Blake / Canada, Argentina / 17 min.
Kara Blake pieces together the story of a vaudeville couple in Jazz Age Buenos Aires using photographs found in the street, archival footage, performance, interviews, and animation.

Millions of people have imitated his moves, but few know his name: Vincent Paterson, the choreographer to the stars. Paterson is responsible for some of the modern era’s most famous dances, including Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal,” Madonna’s “Blonde Ambition” tour, and the large-scale dances in Lars von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark. From the heights of stardom to the depths of despair, director Kersti Grunditz brings us along as Paterson tackles his biggest challenge yet, a massive Elvis-themed Cirque du Soleil show that will define—or end—his career.

PLAYING WITH:

Short Documentary - Who Shot Rock & Roll: The Film
Steven Kochones / USA / 37 min. 
Through conversations with photographers and musicians,Who Shot Rock & Roll explores the stories behind the most enduring photos in rock history.

To most of Cleveland, Maurice Reedus Jr. is “the Sax Man,” an iconic busker in flashy clothes who serenades passersby, rain or shine. They don’t know that he’s the son of a Grammy-winning musician, or that he narrowly missed stardom as part of an arena-headlining Motown band in the 1970s. But it all fell apart, and now Maurice is a sixty-year-old man wondering what went wrong. A surprising invitation to relive the glory days gives him one last chance to tell his hometown who he really is.
Q&A with Joe Siebert and producers

PLAYING WITH:

Chicago Premiere of 
Salarymen
Short Documentary / H. Paul Moon / USA / 5 min.
The Salarymen do spontaneous performances of sound art, mixing small objects with the noises of Washington, DC to make a different kind of urban music.

Voxbox Beatbox - "Vivi"
Music Video / Demetra Koris / USA / 3 min.
Chicago throat singing, beatboxing wunderkind Voxbox Beatbox makes everyone want to dance.

Rashid Masharawi (Laila’s Birthday) balances tragicomic absurdity with heartfelt affection for the land of his birth in this tale of two brothers who supply sound systems to events in the West Bank. They’re saving their money to emigrate to Canada and escape the intolerable conditions under occupation, including an Israeli rocket attack that took Samy’s hearing and killed Stereo’s wife. But as they near their goal, they’re increasingly torn apart by the thought of abandoning their homeland. In Arabic with English subtitles.

PLAYING WITH:

Music Video by Jon Langford - "Drone Operator" Hassan Amejal / USA / 6 min
Drone Operator celebrates our new low-risk stay-at home warrior class who rain down armageddon across the planet while never leaving the comfort of their office.

North American Premiere Short DocumentaryHidden Wounds Tomas Kaan / Netherlands, UK, Belgium, USA / 7 min
Pioneering Belgian rockers dEUS explore the horrors of post-traumatic stress disorder through the personal stories of twenty veterans of wars around the world.