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What: Music documentary “Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus”
When: Saturday, June 14, at 3 and 7:30 p.m.
Flat Top Reed precedes evening show at 6 p.m.
Where: Avalon Theatre, 645 Main St.
Cost: Adults $8; Students, seniors $6.50; Members $5.50
Info: 242-2188
When: Saturday, June 14, at 3 and 7:30 p.m.
Flat Top Reed precedes evening show at 6 p.m.
Where: Avalon Theatre, 645 Main St.
Cost: Adults $8; Students, seniors $6.50; Members $5.50
Info: 242-2188
The film “Searching for the Wrong-eyed Jesus” is a road trip through the heart of the American South with alternative country artist Jim White.
Driving his battered 1970 Chevy Impala, White travels from the backwater swamps to the backwoods mountains, interviewing a string of characters, creating a portrait of an area where, according to local musician John Anglim, “American music started.”
“The movie is filled with the most amazing characters,” Anglim said. “ ... characters that might have existed 200 years ago, funny offbeat characters.”
Watching the movie is like going back in time, to the beginnings of country music, Anglim said. “Before commercialism, before it found its way out of the mountains and the valleys, and into the towns. When things get too produced or commercialized it loses its soul.”
Along the journey, viewers are treated to live performances by White, and other alternative country artists like The Handsome Brothers, Johnny Dowd, David Johansen and 16 Horsepower — all filmed on location without any fancy equipment, remixing or overdubbing.
“It’s blues, but not blues you’ve ever heard before,” Anglim said. “It’s roots music.”
The film won best documentary at the Seattle Film Festival and has been featured at several international film festivals.
Gretchen Reist, executive director of Cinema at the Avalon, viewed the documentary at the Denver Film Festival and was eager to bring it to the Avalon when it became available for distribution.
The film is about music, the oral tradition and the culture of the South, Reist said.
Other scenes include a performance with old time banjo player Lee Sexton, interviews with preachers from rockabilly and gospel churches, and “gritty and profound” stories by Southern writer Harry Crews.
The film’s title, “Searching for the Wrong-eyed Jesus,” implies White’s own story as he searches for the “meaning of faith in the modern world in the haunting atmosphere of the South.”
Reist wanted to do a live music tie-in with the film by inviting the popular local band Flat Top Reed, who will perform a one-hour set before the evening show.
Flat Top Reed is comprised of John Anglim and Paul Harshman, who will be joined Saturday by percussionist Danny Arellano.
“We love Cinema at the Avalon, and we’re big fans of this movie, so it will be fun to take the stage with some roots and blues music to celebrate the south, where American music was born,” Anglim said.
Reach Sharon Sullivan at ssullivan@gjfreepress.com.
Driving his battered 1970 Chevy Impala, White travels from the backwater swamps to the backwoods mountains, interviewing a string of characters, creating a portrait of an area where, according to local musician John Anglim, “American music started.”
“The movie is filled with the most amazing characters,” Anglim said. “ ... characters that might have existed 200 years ago, funny offbeat characters.”
Watching the movie is like going back in time, to the beginnings of country music, Anglim said. “Before commercialism, before it found its way out of the mountains and the valleys, and into the towns. When things get too produced or commercialized it loses its soul.”
Along the journey, viewers are treated to live performances by White, and other alternative country artists like The Handsome Brothers, Johnny Dowd, David Johansen and 16 Horsepower — all filmed on location without any fancy equipment, remixing or overdubbing.
“It’s blues, but not blues you’ve ever heard before,” Anglim said. “It’s roots music.”
The film won best documentary at the Seattle Film Festival and has been featured at several international film festivals.
Gretchen Reist, executive director of Cinema at the Avalon, viewed the documentary at the Denver Film Festival and was eager to bring it to the Avalon when it became available for distribution.
The film is about music, the oral tradition and the culture of the South, Reist said.
Other scenes include a performance with old time banjo player Lee Sexton, interviews with preachers from rockabilly and gospel churches, and “gritty and profound” stories by Southern writer Harry Crews.
The film’s title, “Searching for the Wrong-eyed Jesus,” implies White’s own story as he searches for the “meaning of faith in the modern world in the haunting atmosphere of the South.”
Reist wanted to do a live music tie-in with the film by inviting the popular local band Flat Top Reed, who will perform a one-hour set before the evening show.
Flat Top Reed is comprised of John Anglim and Paul Harshman, who will be joined Saturday by percussionist Danny Arellano.
“We love Cinema at the Avalon, and we’re big fans of this movie, so it will be fun to take the stage with some roots and blues music to celebrate the south, where American music was born,” Anglim said.
Reach Sharon Sullivan at ssullivan@gjfreepress.com.
