The Revenge Of The Mekons
- Category: Artists
- Published on Tuesday, 23 August 2011 09:36
- Written by Mario
- Hits: 294
Additional Info
Sure most of you will know The Mekons - now an independent film produced and directed by Joe Angio is going to tell their story. At the moment Joe is funding the budget for this film project on Kickstarter - with huge success. I talked to him about the film and his further plans...
50K MUSIC: I guess there's no need to introduce The Mekons here. But what is the Revenge of the Mekons all about? Please tell us something about your project.
Joe: The film is an attempt to share with a wider audience the story of a band that I believe has a remarkable story — and one that's all the more remarkable because of the fact that they never "made it." Especially since they're a band that has such a devoted following (not to be confused with large following!) and one that enjoys something close to unanimous critical support. In fact, I've thought long and hard about this and I have been unable to identify another band where there's such a huge gulf between the level of critical acclaim and widespread indifference, certainly in regard to the numbers of records they've sold over the years. It's appalling, really!
So the film tells a number of stories. On one level, it depicts the day-to-day process of a working band, one that must overcome enormous hurdles just in order to work, first, there's the sheer number of them (8); then, toss in the geographical obstacles: three live in London, one in Devon (in southwestern England), one lives in NYC, two in Chicago and one in LA — it's a small feat just for them to be able to gather in one room, let alone set aside time to write, record, tour, especially when they all have to scrape by with jobs of one sort or another and some of them have families to support. So that's one thing.
Another aspect of the film deals with the Mekons as visual artists. They were born, more or less, as an art collective from the start (and before the term was fashionable, I may add) and through the years, have had art exhibitions — as Mekons, in collaboration with others (for example, their mid-90s collaborations with Vito Acconci and Kathy Acker) and, in the case of Jon Langford and Eric Bellis (Rico Bell), as working solo painters. I'm intrigued by the fact that if they feel a group painting exhibition better conveys what they want to say than an album, then that's the form it takes.
The questions that drive the entire film are How do you keep a band together for so long, especially one that has seldom been able to make a living from their work and, more important, Why do they bother?
And last, and certainly not least, there's this amazing body of work that I want to introduce to a wider audience in the hopes of helping them get the attention they deserve.
50K MUSIC: Where does the idea for this film come from?
Joe: The answer to this probably lies in the answer to the previous question, but at the base level, I just really wanted to do a music documentary. I'm a huge music fan and when I was thinking about bands or performers who had a story that I felt was worth telling, the Mekons just jumped out at me. And to reiterate a point from above, I find the fact that they're somewhat obscure after all these years intriguing. Nothing against the recent documentaries on people like Dylan, Springsteen or the Page/Jack White/Edge film, but we always see films on the "winners"; I'm more interested in—well, not the losers, but those who continue to work in the trenches.
50K MUSIC: How are The Mekons involved in this project apart from starring in the film of course?
Joe: They've been incredibly supportive and cooperative. They still have their Socialist inclinations from way back at University in Leeds, where the core of the band studied under these Marxist art professors, so they had to agree unanimously to do the film with me, which, thankfully, they've done. They've let me shoot whatever I want.
50K MUSIC: You almost reached your goal of 20,000 $ on Kickstarter (Note: as I'm writing this post the project has actually reached a budget of nearly 25,000 $). What will the budget be spent for?
Joe: Pretty much every dime from Kickstarter will go toward the edit: paying for an editor, renting a facility. I still need more — I really need an archival researcher to come on board before long — but this will help us go a long way toward getting a rough cut together.
50K MUSIC: What are your further plans once the film project is finished?
Joe: Presumably you mean with this film… I'll submit it to film festivals and really try to work that hard. Regional film festivals have become an important cog in the indie film machine, especially since the theatrical market is so competitive and over-saturated. If I can raise enough awareness for the film on the festival circuit, I will hopefully have a big enough market to support the DVD release. There will undoubtedly be some online component, which from the amazing initial response to the Kickstarter campaign has proven, can be quite effective for projects like this. Time will tell!
50K MUSIC: How can we support you spreading the word for your project?
Joe: Well, by spreading the word! Seriously, every enthusiastic blog, every forwarded email, every forwarded Facebook/Twitter post — they add up. I'm seeing that now with Kickstarter.
50K MUSIC: Anything I have forgot to ask but is important to know.
Joe: Can't think of anytihng, but if you do, don't hesitate to ask.
About Joe Angio:
Joe Angio is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and magazine editor. He is currently in production on Revenge of the Mekons, a feature-length film chronicling the career of the beloved British punk-country band. His previous film, How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It), a biographical portrait of Renaissance Man Melvin Van Peebles, played in numerous international film festivals, including Tribeca, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Melbourne. The film was the opening-night presentation at the 2005 Full Frame Documentary Festival and was awarded both the Lancia (jury) Award and Audience Award at the 2006 Biografilm Festival in Bologna, Italy, as well as Best Documentary Feature at the Festival Internacional de Cine Las Garzas 2006 in Panama City, Panama.
Angio is also the co-producer, -director, and -editor (with Joel Cohen) of the documentaries More than a Game (1991), a 50-minute film on playground basketball in Chicago, and A Feast of Fools (1987), a 25-minute film on the clash of cultures at New Orleans’s Mardi Gras. More than a Game has been broadcast in more than 25 countries and A Feast of Fools was awarded Best Documentary at the Festival of Illinois Film & Videomakers.
Angio is the former editor-in-chief of Time Out New York magazine, where he started in 1998 as executive editor. While at Time Out, Angio was nominated for three National Magazine Awards by the American Society of Magazine Editors and, in 2006, was awarded a gold medal for cover design by the Society of Publication Designers and was cited for Best Service Cover by the Magazine Publishers of America. Prior to Time Out, Angio was the articles editor at NBA Inside Stuff (1996–98) and the managing editor of Vibe (1995–96). Angio started his magazine career in 1993 as an associate editor at Men’s Journal.
From 1983 through 1991, Angio was a newswriter, assistant director, and associate producer for SportsChannel, Chicago. From 1989–91, he was also a producer and Video Correspondent for The 90’s, a PBS magazine-style program that featured the work of independent filmmakers from around the world.
Angio was born in Chicago and graduated from Milwaukee’s Marquette University.
