Now in its third year, the international Beat Film Festival of music documentary and new culture film-making will feature selected films from the festival at island’s open air film theatre. Films include: Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, on the life and times of the legendary urban activist Jane Jacobs; David Bowie: the Last Five Years, the story of the musician’s final years told by friends and creative colleagues; Northern Disco Lights, a film about the most influential Norwegian electronica artists who turned Skandinavian disco into its own brand, and also Daft Punk Unchained, the first and as yet only film telling the story of the French musical duo.
Admission is free of charge. The films are screened in their original languages with russian subtitles.
July 6, 8:00 pm
Citizen Jane: Battle For the City
A film documenting the battle between journalist Jane Jacobs, author of the book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, with property developer Robert Moses. The battle for Washington Square Park in New York chimes with the struggle to save Moscow’s Khruschev-era buildings, vividly illustrating the conflict between grassroots activism and a central planning regime that by no means always takes into account the interests of residents.
Directed by Matt Tyrnauer, 2016, USA, 2016, 92 min.
July 7, 8:00 pm
Daft Punk Unchained
Daft Punk are more than just a group — they are a cultural phenomenon. With album sales now topping 12 million, the duet hardly ever appears on television and never gives interviews. The documentary on the masked musicians combines archive footage of the band and interviews with their closest colleagues, including Giorgio Moroder, Pharrell Williams and Michel Gondry.
Directed by Hervé Martin-Delpierre, France, 2015, 60 min.
July 8, 8:00 pm
Northern Disco Lights
The Northern Lights, snow, fjords and electronica — this is the story of a group of teenagers from Tromsø who, compelled to write electronic music by the tedium of the arctic night, made Norway into one of the most important places on the musical map of Europe. With amazing drone footage and interviews with seventy performers, this film is a must for anyone interested in Scandinavian culture and the contemporary music scene in general.
Directed by Ben Davis, UK, Norway, 2016, 74 min.July 9, 8:00 pm
David Bowie — The Last Five Years
The last five years of David Bowie’s life saw one of the largest bursts of creativity of his entire career — in this short period, with no announcement or warning, he released two albums, shot dozens of music videos ans even staged a musical, all in an atmosphere of tight secrecy and against the backgraound of his struggle with illness. Rare documentary footage from the BBC makes this fim a unique chance to get to know the great musician better.
Directed by Francis Whately, UK, 2017, 90 min.
