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‘CONCERT FILMS ARE USUALLY SO ST ERILE'
Kaleem Aftab gets a rare audience with the man who once had ‘a beard like a Billy goat’ — Beastie Boy Buddhist and now movie mogul Adam Yauch.
eastie Boys bass guitarist and sometime rapper Adam Yauch (pictured. second from right) has once again ptit on his Nathaniel Hornblower disguise (red cttrly wig and lederhosenl
to direct .-lii'¢'.voni('.' I [Vile/ting Shot 'l'lml. ‘l)irect'. of
course. is something of a misnomer in this case as Yauch gave 50 lucky fans a camera and asked them to shoot the show. He mixed the fan footage in with footage shot from live cameras he‘d set up and then spent l8 months editing it all together.
Yauch got the idea to get fans to film a concert when he saw footage a fan had shot from the tnosh pit and thought it better than most efforts to try and capture music on screen. The 42-year-old says. ‘The footage was really amazing because I got to see the concert from a fans' perspective: the fact that it was handheld. at eye-level. seeing peoples' heads in the foreground and also the grainy quality. kind of made it feel more like you were at a concert. You really got the sense of the energy in the room. The way concerts are usually documented these days. they feel too
sterilised. too clean and you don‘t get the sense of
being in the room. For that reason I thought it would he a more interesting document of the show. Also it is kind of a cool idea to collaborate with the audience. To do something together.’
It's not just the directing side of Yauch that has always made him the most interesting of the classic B-Boys‘ trio of MC:\ (another Yauch pseudonym). Al) Rock and Mike i). It was Yauch who joined the punk band The Young Aborigines and persuaded them to change their name to Beastie Boys so they had the same initials as African American punk band Bad
44 THE LIST 6-30 Jo“ 2006
Brains. When the band subsequently signed to Def
Jam and shot to fame as a hip hop band. Yauch stood out by sporting a beard while the other members struggled to grow bum fluff. Drug addiction and excessive partying followed the success of 1994‘s l/l (‘ommunit'ution album. and when Yauch eventually kicked various habits be converted to Buddhism. The B-Boys then started concerts in support of Tibet.
()n reinvention. the only Brooklyn Beastie Boy says. ‘lt's interesting that when you see someone doing something that is taking a chance. or doing something that is a little further out from the norm. it is sort of refreshing.’
Yauch is able to wax lyrical about music: from punk to his dissolution with certain developments in hip hop. Yet it‘s intriguing that asking hint questions about filmmaking brings out more abstract and less thought out responses. For example. a question about his directing influences elicited the response. "l'hat‘s a tough question. Let me think about that . . . [long pause]. I can’t really think of one that had a direct influence on this tilm.‘
Music and hip hop are definitely his forte. though he reveals that. as yet. the B-Boys have no plans to make a follow up to their sixth album. 2004's 7}) the l’ll't’ Boroughs. ‘Not that w e‘re planning to split up.. he adds quickly. ()n the evidence of J‘H't’SUHN’ . . . there are still many more exciting things to come from them yet.
Awesome I Fucking Shot That is at Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 7-Thu 13 Jul only. See review, page 47.
Ilit >l<
THE BEST FILM 8. DVD RELEASES
* The Death of Mr Lazarescu Writer/director Cristi Puiu's outstandineg comic essay on dying alone in modern day Romania. A morbid gem. See interview and review. page 46. GFT, Glasgow from Fri 74 Jul.
* Offslde Jafar Crimson Gold Panahi's excellent comedy drama about a bunch of lranian women who just want the right to watch some football. See review. page 46. Fi/mhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 14 Jul.
ll! Atomleed Nicely perverse adaptation of Michel Houellebecq's novel. which compares favourably to Philippe Harel's 1999 adaptation of Whatever. See profile in listings and review, page 47. Selected review from Fri I 4 Jul.
* Dumplings Chinese filmmaker Fruit Chan's beautifully structured. mega sick exercise in bad taste and classic horror storytelling. See review. page 47. GFT, Glasgow from Fri 14 Jul.
=l= Fateless Long overdue (for a Scottish release). stunning Hungarian Holocaust drama based on Imre Kertesz's novel. See review. page 46. GFI', Glasgow from Mon 70—th 73 Jul only.
all Tell Them Who You Are Mark Wexler's moving and dislocated love letter to his father - cinematographer Haskell Wexler. GFT, Glasgow from Fri 7—Thu 13 Jul.
13 The Wlnd that Shakes the Barley Loach and Laverty insightful bare knuckle wrestle with the roots of Irish Republicanism. Selected release.
* Andrel Rublev Diamond amongst diamonds in an excellent new season highlighting the best films from 59 years of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Fi/mhouse. Edinburgh (Sat 75 Jul only).
* La Grande Bouffe More than welcome DVD release of Marco Ferreri's hilarious 1973 dirty movie. Out now (Nouveux Pictures).