Music films take centre stage at Sydney Film Festival

A raft of eagerly-awaited music films and documentaries will make their debut at Sydney Film Festival, among them the Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard directed docu-fiction 20,000 Days on Earth about Nick Cave.

The film makes its Australian premiere at the Festival (June 4 to 15) months before its Australian release in the spring. It examines his on-stage image and the psychology behind his songwriting.

Other first-time screenings include documentaries Finding Fela! about Nigerian superstar Fela Kuti, New Zealand film maker Florian Habicht’s Pulp from one of the British band’s 2012 concerts, Down and Dirty’s insight to albino Texas guitarist Johnny Winter (also an international premiere), and the Lauryn Hill-narrated Concerning Violence about the African liberation struggles. Also of interest is Mike Myers’ Supermensch about US talent manager Shep Gordon and the Edwyn Collins story, The Possibilities Are Endless.

Music features making their debut in Sydney are John Ridley’s Jimi: All Is By My Side about pre-fame Jimi Hendrix starring Outkast’s Andre 3000 , Lenny Abrahamson’s Frank about an indie pop group trying to break the US market, the Beijing set Dancing In The Room by Chinese punk musician Peng Lei, indie pop musical God Help The Girl featuring music by Belle & Sebastian (whose singer Stuart Murdoch wrote and directed the film), We Are The Best about three 13-year old girls in early ’80s Stockholm who start a punk band, and Tamako in Moratorium, about a Japanese girl searching for life’s purpose and starring Atsuko Maeda of idol group AKB48.