Portrait #6: Musical Écran
Heading to the south of France for this week’s portrait to get you acquainted with Musical Écran, a festival created in 2015 focusing on music documentaries and organised each year in the beautiful Cinéma UTOPIA. With a programme made of premieres and exclusive screenings, an international competition and dj-set parties in a beautiful open air venue, Musical Écran is an 8 day-long event with 30 musical stories to experience on the big screens.
In addition to the main festival, the Musical Écran team works all year long with young people from middle and high school, detention houses and educational institutes to develop projects centered around music films and various themes such as feminism, LGBTQ+ identities…
➔ Next edition of the festival : September 5th-12th 2021
▷▷ One of Musical Écran’s favourite music films/documentaries of all time ?
“ Joy Division by Grant Gee.”
▷▷ One of the most memorable screenings organized by Musical Écran ?
“One that immediately comes to mind was during the last edition of the festival when we screened “Kinshasa Beta Mbonda” by Marie-Françoise Plissart. The audience gave a huge round of applause at the end. You could feel this amazing energy in the room and everyone was so happy to have experience this film together. “Kinshasa Beta Mbonda” won the audience award that year. We love when our audience gets out of the screening rooms feeling strong emotions and powered up by what they’ve experienced at the festival.
▷▷ The music film/doc the Musical Écran team would love to see being made ?
“Dance mania history (Detroit) or any seminal house/techno labels (Metroplex, KMS, Planet E) or a doc about Bernard Estardy, the genius producer of experimental 70’s pop music and his CBE studio.”
▷▷ One music film/doc that didn’t get as much praise as it should have according to the Musical Écran’s team ?
“Imagine Waking Up Tomorrow and All Music Has Disappeared by Stefan Schwietert with Bill Drummond which we screened in 2016.”
▷▷ A music film/doc of your country you really enjoyed lately.
“Daniel Darc / Pieces Of My Life by Marc Dufaud and Thierry Villeneuve, an oustanding music doc about French poet/singer Daniel Darc. The directors of the film attended and won the audience award that year.”
▷▷ In one word what does the MFFN mean for you ?
“ Togetherness”
➔ Musical Écran on Facebook : Musical Ecran – Festival de documentaires musicaux
➔ Musical Écran on Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/musical_ecran/