Las Vegas Weekly

June 17, 2008 · 5:06 PM

Sonic Youth documentary a largely staged affair

By Allison Duck

Michael Albright was just a twinkle in his parents’ eyes when Sonic Youth first hit the scene in 1981. Albright, who directed and edited the documentary Sonic Youth: Sleeping Nights Awake,was a long-term substitute teacher when he began working on Project Moonshine. This organization offers high school students a creative outlet by giving them the chance to film documentaries on issues of importance in their community. Albright led a group of seven high school students who filmed a documentary about Sonic Youth when they came to their hometown of Reno on the 4th of July in 2006.

The film feels more like a concert recording than a true documentary because it is probably 90 percent concert footage with a few band interviews interspersed. The camera angles used by the cinematographers did offer unique vantage points, allowing viewers to feel like they had backstage passes.

They were able to get a little amusing social commentary on the times from the band during the show when the band revealed their worries about Paris Hilton’s upcoming musical debut. The band said that each day on the tour bus felt a little bit like the movie Groundhog Day as they awoke in a new city to do the same thing again. Each scene in the movie sort of felt like that too, as the band launched into yet another jam with little commentary.

The band said it just felt right having amateur filmmakers tell their story since they thought of themselves as untrained musicians. The filmmakers’ lack of experience showed through in the shaky camera work. Some of the concert footage, all shot in black and white, seemed like an epileptic seizure waiting to happen because of all the strobe lights on stage. They should perhaps consider a motion sensitivity warning like the film Cloverfield employed.

Albright and his cinematographers took questions at the end of the screening, and all agreed that though they had been familiar with Sonic Youth prior to this project, they were all influenced by meeting them. The music connected with them in a whole new way. Allana Noyes, a cinematographer, said, “A lot of their ideals of finding your own place in punk music … and doing it yourself … is something that speaks true to the project that we’ve created.”

Project Moonshine has offered these students a foot in the door of the film industry. They have taken the film to festivals across the country and several in Europe, with mostly positive responses, though they seemed thrilled to have a chance to debut their work in their home state at CineVegas.

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