PARALLEL PLANES – A DOCUMENTARY ESSAY ABOUT INDEPENDENCE AND MUSIC
“Parallel Planes” is a documentary film portraying 12 American musicians. It is a journey between genres, an essay on free thinking and an intimate look at how 12 critical players relate to the potential of music.
This film is a proof that music reminds us how and why we criticise politics and society and that our different ideas are bonded to each other.
with: Michael Gira (Swans, Young God Records), Mick Barr (Orthrelm, Ocrilim, Octis), Justin Pearson (The Locust, Swing Kids, All Leather), Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat, Fugazi), Valentine Falcon (Get Hustle), Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu), Anna Barie (These Are Powers), Weasel Walter (Flying Luttenbachers), Jenny Hoyston (Erase Errata), Alap Momin (Dälek), Greg Saunier (Deerhoof), Otto von Schirach
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This film pays homage to the American DIY spirit and the diversity of the US musical landscape outside the commercial music industry. While many other music films never make it beyond hero worship, director Nicole Wegner consistently maintains eye level with her twelve interview partners, who include Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat, Fugazi), Michael Gira (Swans) and Valentine Falcon (Get Hustle). What they all have in common is that they couldn’t care less about marketing strategies and target group orientation as they gleefully hack the music industry and play by their own rules. Though the film shows extremely diverse musical styles, there is a general agreement to see the DIY idea as the most important legacy of punk and the starting point of self-empowerment and resistance.
Like a certified mixtape, “Parallel Planes” combines old and new songs, really clever thoughts about making music and personal insights to generate a narrative that resembles an open building kit of ideas from which everyone who wants to take things into their own hands can help themselves. Using gaudy cut-up elements and references to video clip aesthetics, the film develops a drive which might even lead the viewer to rush out of the cinema with a project of their own in mind and simply start on it …
Luc-Carolin Ziemann
