Friday,
February 23 at 7pm
Director
Michael Galinsky in person
Half-Cocked
dir.
Suki Hawley, USA, 1994, video, 90 mins, b/w
 Made
in Louisville, Nashville and Chattanooga, Half-Cocked
follows a group of kids who steal a van full of
music equipment and pretend to be a band in order to stay on
the road. The film features Ian
Svenonius and members of Rodan
and The Grifters,
with music by Unwound,
Slant 6, Freakwater,
Versus, Polvo,
Smog, Helium
and others.
Radiation
dir.
Suki Hawley & Michael Galinsky, USA/Spain, 1998, video,
60 mins, color
Radiation,
like Half-Cocked, stars musicians and people involved
in the underground rock world basically playing themselves.
While it isn't a documentary, it's kind of a document, a film
that tries to capture the essence
of
what it's like to tour/live in that environment. Unai, the lead
actor in Radiation was a friend who had released records
for my band and had taken us on tour. On one tour, he suggested
taking Half-Cocked around Spain. I wanted to do more
than simply tour with the film again, so we came up with the
idea of making a film. – Michael Galinsky
Radiation
premiered at The
Sundance Film Festival in 1999 and went on to screen
at over 40 international festivals. Featuring cameos by acts
like Stereolab, Will
Oldham and Boston’s Come,
the film was hailed by music and film critics for its
accurate portrayal of life on the road.
from New
Yorker -
HALF-COCKED
This raw and moody drama from 1994 by the husband-and-wife team
of Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky (they co-wrote, she directed
and edited, he photographed, in appealingly grainy black-and-white)
captures a moment of grungy charm when independent art-rock
scenes were new and resolutely local. A quintet living in a
ramshackle house in Louisville get a gig at a local club, but
the show turns sour when the vain, pretentious glam-punk Otis
(Ian Svenonius) goes onstage and smacks Tara (Tara Jane O’Neil),
the quintet’s spiritual leader—and his sister—for spoiling his
encore. In revenge, Tara steals his van and equipment and drives
her band to Chattanooga, where they scuffle along on fear and
desperation. Though the aesthetic is rough-and-ready, Hawley
is a sincere and sensitive storyteller who brings the characters
to life with subtle, oblique touches that show who they are
without saying too much about them. Casting highly regarded
indie rockers and filling the soundtrack with their songs, Hawley
movingly roots their music in a way of life as well as in the
grimy urban landscapes they inhabit.— Richard Brody
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