SPOTLIGHT ON CANNES 2021: DIRECTORS' FORTNIGHT — NEPTUNE FROST —Saul Williams / Anisia Uzeyman

NEPTUNE FROST

"Neptune Frost is the love story between an African intersex runaway and a coltan miner, and the virtual marvel born as a result of their union."

Anisia Uzeyman & Saul Williams

"Anisia Uzeyman is a Rwandan born actress, playwright, and director. As an actress, Anisia starred in Alain Gomis’ Tey and Guetty Felin’s Ayiti, Mon Amour.  Her experimental film Dreamstates premiered in 2016 and was shot entirely on Iphone."

"Saul Williams is an American poet, musician, and actor. He made his debut in Marc Levin’s 1998 Camera D’Or film Slam – which he co-wrote and starred in. Neptune Frost is his first feature."

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.

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KEELEY COMPRESSOR REVIEW

I've never been big on guitar pedals. Less is more, or so I believed until I started working on my sound for my solo Bossa Nova guitar gig. I was already getting the right amount of reverb tone from my Sadowsky SS-15 through my AER Compact 60 (set on the second setting), but something was missing.

If you're playing solo chord/melody guitar, you need a robust sound that sits in a close but dynamic range. I currently play with a custom set of Tomastik-Infeld flat-wound strings (.015, .017, .019, .027, .035, and an .050 on the bottom). It came to me that a compressor might be the key to even out some of the discrepancy between strings. A Keeley compressor was the first thing that came to mind.

So, I reached out to the kind folks at Keeley to see if a review model was available. A week later I was in business. I've always hated having to fiddle with any extra power cords, so I undid the four screws on the bottom of the Keeley Compressor Plus, inserted a fresh 9 volt battery, and started playing around with the settings. Pretty quick I cranked up the Sustain, Level, Blend, and Tone knobs all the way with the unit set on Humbucker, and viola, I had the sound I was looking for. 

I was certain that the 9 volt battery wouldn't last a week with my daily practice schedule, but it's been three months on the same battery and the Keeley is going strong. It doesn't seem to matter if you leave it "on" because no charge seems to pass through it when the amp is turned off. The unit is very sturdy, looks great, it's the right size, and yes it's the only pedal I use. 

I had a feeling that this would be the right choice, but the Keeley Compressor Plus has exceeded my expectations. If you're ever in Peekskill on a Sunday, you can check out my solo Bossa Nova with some great food, beer, and atmosphere at Birdsall House Craft Beer Gastropub's lovely patio dining between noon and 3pm (so long as the temperature is above 66 degrees), and you'll get to hear the Keeley in action. Indeed, I'm using it on my version of Doralice, which you can hear in the video above.

Many thanks to great people at Keeley. My guitar life is still as stripped down as can be, with the only pedal I need. Cheers!

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.

This website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

FOCUS ON CANNES 2019: JEANNE —BRUNO DUMONT

"A musical that tells Joan of Arc’s story through her victorious battles against the English, court case and death, burnt at the stake."

Man alive! 

Dumont is one of Cinema's most inventive, and innovative, auteurs. Dumont's films transport the viewer to unknown yet familiar dramatic realms where magical realism thrives. "Jeanne" sees Dumont stepping into a musical dialectic that is certain to vibrate with universal energies. As thematically oblique as Dumont's films ("Camille Claudel 1915" or "Slack Bay") might seem on the surface, you can savor filmic satire as theatrically fresh and politically relevant as anything the Group Theater did in American in the '30s. 

Lise Leplat Prudhomme promises a breakout performance in the title role. "Jeanne" is being screened in the festival's Un Certain Regard section.

"Bruno Dumont directed his first feature film at the age of thirty-eight: La vie de Jésus(1996), shot in Bailleul, where he was born. This film earned him immediate acclaim: it was selected for the Director's Fortnight, winning a Caméra d'Or Special Mention. Creating demanding, singular and raw works of cinema, Bruno Dumont returned to Cannes in 1999, in Competition, with L'humanité. He was awarded the Grand Prix and a double Best Performance prize for two of the films non-professional actors."

"Bruno Dumont moved away from Northern France to shoot Twenty-nine Palms in the Californian desert, a road movie that was selected for the Venice Mostra in 2003. In 2006, Flandres, a harsh film about the devastation caused by war, received the Grand Prix at the Festival de Cannes." 

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon. Thanks a bunch pal!