sweet, thanks for that. wish i could go!

I hope they release it on video/dvd eventually...

im sure they will...

amy

xxx

In another highly anticipated music documentary, Scot Barbour's "Malfunkshun" serves as a love letter to obscure musician Andrew Wood. As the charismatic lead singer of Mother Love Bone, Wood was a huge influence on the Seattle music scene, but died of an overdose in 1990, just before the band's debut album was to be released. Band members Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament went on to form Pearl Jam, but Barbour makes sure that Wood's story is not forgotten - told here with captivating home movies, unreleased songs, and heartfelt interviews with family and friends.

http://www.indiewire.com/movies/movies_050407doc.html

Looks like I'll be able to see it!! (See the listing below!)

Later this month, the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival takes Toronto by storm for its 12th year, running April 22 - May 1. Many of the 100+ films featured in the festival are world premieres, and although there isn't space to cover all the gems here, a small selection of the more anticipated docs include "The Cross and Bones," "Homemade Hillbilly Jam," and "Malfunkshun."

quote:

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Originally posted by: Sarah
"FYI:
From http://www.hotdocs.ca/festival_freescreen.cfm... A little added info for Malfunkshun being shown at the Hot Docs fest in Toronto... Late start time, but unbelievably, a free screening... From checking out the website, it doesn't seem to be running as part of the regular pay-per-movie/pay-per-day blocks.
Saturday, April 30 - Bloor Cinema, 11:30 pm
MALFUNKSHUND: Scot Barbour (USA, 2005, 90 min.)Mother Love Bone lead singer Andrew Wood died shortly before his influential Seattle band's first album was released, but his life and music still inspired the 'grunge' scene.
Also an updated official movie site: www.malfunkshun.com"

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Hi everyone! Went to the Malfunkshun screening here in Toronto on Saturday night... Pardon how late I am with my review/thoughts! As I told Kaddi, I was well into writing something up when I got home the other night, but I erased it by mistake! I'll do my best to remember as much as I can!

I saw a "work in progress" version of the film, but it was very well done. This was basically the finished product, all things considered, though it was apparent that minor glitches needed to be worked out -- namely some rough edits, and some audio problems at times -- but these didn't detract from the experience much at all. I am already looking forward to the day I can own a copy of the film on DVD. It was absolutely wonderful. It wasn't a glossed-over look at a rock star in his halcyon days. There is tons of info on Andy's childhood and his time in Malfunkshun. A lot of people (myself included) seem not to pay much attention to stories of Andy pre-Mother Love Bone, so this movie is essential from the standpoint that it will tell you everything and more you've ever needed, wanted to, or should know. Let's just say that if a movie like this were to have been made about Eddie, Kurt Cobain or one of the more famous Seattle lead singers, people would be praising it as the best thing ever and this documentary would be HUGE. Scot Barbour deserves a lot of credit for the research that went into this movie, the amount of archival material he tracked down, and most of all (IMHO) for never failing to show all aspects of Andy's life -- the good, the bad and the ugly. Footage and content-wise, we get everything here from Andy's baby pictures, to songs from all "eras" of his career, to dozens of home movies, to his drug rehab records. This is the all-inclusive look. If you're at all a fan of music documentaries or even just a casual fan of Andy or Mother Love Bone, you MUST see it. On a lighter note, you have to give a nod to the time period in which MLB existed and need to have sense of humour about the history of a couple of certain PJ members before seeing this. There are some downright ridiculous outfits on display, and I don't just mean the sweetly comical moments of Andy in full makeup or dressing in drag. On quite a few occasions, I heard muffled chuckles in the audience when late '80s Jeff appeared onscreen.

Scot Barbour was in attendance; he introduced the film, thanked us for coming, and said that we were the largest audience to have seen it thus far. Most people got up and left during the end credits, however those of us who stuck around were treated to a short Q&A session... I asked a ridiculously wordy question that I can barely remember that this point - in a nutshell, I wanted to know about his experience making the film from both the standpoint of being a fan and being a documentary filmmaker. He said he doesn't really think of himself as a documentary filmmaker, but obviously, when he was doing the interviews, he wasn't conducting himself as a fan. He said he was hoping to make a movie that would portray Andy as "humanly" as possible and to convey the essence of Andy through the film. Mr. Barbour added that there were some things he found out during the making of the movie that "broke [his] heart as a fan".

Other tidbits that came out of the Q&A session...

- Scot has been working on the film for 10 years and funded it by selling his Harley and then selling his Mustang.

- The people who were in the film have seen it and "loved it".

- The version that will be aired at ArcLight in Hollywood will be slightly different that the version screened that night in Toronto, however the "story" of the film is essentially finished at this point. Scot mentioned future changes would include improving some aesthetics and adding more music. The final finished product will air at the world premiere in Seattle in June, of which he said "I expect it to be 'an event' when it's screened in Seattle".

- Scot gathered the archival footage and tapes mainly through Andy's family, however he was also tipped off to a lot of "lost" Andy material based on a name mentioned by Xana LaFuente and Chris Cornell. Scot tracked this source down and they "literally had Andy's stuff lying around in their basement".

- Scot and Stone Gossard are working on putting together a proper boxed set of Andrew Wood material, which could include solo tracks, Malfunkshun and missing Mother Love Bone tunes.

- The "someone" who stuck the Temple of the Dog sticker on his jacket at a party in San Francisco (as mentioned in the movie previews) was none other than Jeff Ament!

**PLOT/CONTENT SPOILERS, IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER**

- Jeff and Stone first took notice of Andy at a Malfunkshun gig and were initiallt skeptical, but Jeff says he was won over when Andy got up and strutted across the bar... Jeff and Andy then went on to work together at the infamous coffee shop JA used to work at, with Andy taking a job as a cook and Jeff pulling espresso.

- Most Mother Love Bone material was Andy/Stone collaborations... Later in the film, all of the former MLB members note that ego was one of the things that broke up the band and that intraband tensions were definitely around during the time MLB was being regarded as "the next big thing".

- The band spent many quality hours playing ColecoVision football.

- Andy's mother acknowledges that she and Andy's father were likely alcoholics and says that there was a lot of tension, yelling and anger in the family. We also meet Andy's brothers, Brian and Kevin. All three Wood boys suffered from drug addiction for stretches of their lives; Kevin (now a cabbie and musician) saying that for a while, he and Andy went with it as they thought it was "part of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle", while Brian lived on the street during his battle with drugs. Both Kevin and Brian are now clean.

- The relationship between Andy and Xana: All parties acknowledge he essentially worshipped her, and they are/were completely and deeply in love. However, we also learn they had a considerable amount of "knock 'em down, drag 'em out" fights, with actual physical violence. Another interesting but unfortunate thing to note is that Xana says she and the band often clashed over the severity of Andy's drug use, saying that he would come home begging and pleading to her and in terrible shape, while he would make a point of being as well as possible in front of the band and would tell them he was fine. Xana contests that they never saw Andy in as bad shape as she did, while Jeff says that "there was a lot of he said, she said," and "Of course, you're gonna side with your buddy." In turn, I wondered how many bridges had been burned between Xana and the Wood family, as she says that during the relationship, whenever she was over at their house, "all they wanted to talk about was the record deal". The movie doesn't take sides on any of these issues, thank goodness, but it's absolutely honest and fascinating stuff.

- Someone (Andy's mom, if I recall correctly) gets off the following classic line about Andy's friendship with Chris Cornell... "If one of them was a girl, they would've been in love!" Chris describes taking Andy in as a roommate and talks about recording demos together. We see some actual cassettes, with Andy's labeling on each side, as Chris mentions that as far as he knows, the tapes are probably destroyed or lost at this point. Later, as the night of Andy's death is recounted, Chris talks of how the family waited for him to return from a tour and visit the hospital before pulling Andy off life support.

- The "L'Andrew" nickname is believed to have come from a combination of Tom Landy (legendary coach of Andy's favourite team, the Dallas Cowboys) and a line from Star Trek.

I really can't say enough about the film, and at the same time, I don't wanna give away any more than I have.... Again, if you have even a casual interest in Andy's work and life, the history of the Seattle scene, etc. GO SEE THIS! I had a terrific time at the Toronto screening, and all thanks to Scot Barbour for putting together such an excellent film.

Sorry for not getting back to you 'til now, but I've read a little about the L.A. screenings and saw there was a lot of interest in it. Glad you had such a good time and that so many people were enthusiastic about it. It's an amazing movie... Dunno about you, but I can't wait for the chance to see it again!

That's awesome that Kevin was the special guest. Was Scot Barbour there as well?

June 4th premiere in Seattle... Wil you be there, monoxyde?

I think it's really cool that you have such close contact with Joe Abrams! If it's not too personal, please let us know -- once you see the movie -- if that affects your feelings about the film. I can't imagine actually knowing someone who appears as part of a biopic.

A recent Malfunkshun review with an interesting perspective... From the Sept. 13th edition of the Seattle Weekly:

Malfunkshun: The Andrew Wood Story
Runs Fri., Sept. 16–Sun., Sept. 18, at Northwest Film Forum

I used to buy lattes most days from two future grunge gods, Jeff Ament and Andy Wood, then supporting their habits by pulling espresso at Raison d'Être. Ament's habits were music and sports; Wood's were music and heroin. After Wood became the first grunge OD at 24 in 1990, the Mother Love Bone bandmates with whom he scored the first six-figure grunge contract, Ament and Stone Gossard, helped launch Pearl Jam and also teamed with Chris Cornell to record the tribute album Temple of the Dog.

Now there's a cinematic tribute to Wood, Scot Barbour's moving, sometimes rocking documentary Malfunkshun, named after the dysfunctional singer's first band, born in his parents' Bainbridge Island basement. It captures the spirit that distinguished Wood from Ament: Ament had some ambition, but he ducked fame when he later scored artistic success. Wood wanted the spotlight, then, now, and forever. This kid was a one-man Seattle Scene, even when the audience at the Central was six people.

In Malfunkshun, Ament, Gossard, Cornell, Kim Thayil, and MLB/Pearl Jam manager Kelly Curtis, now reflective middle-aged rich men, muse fondly and thoughtfully on Wood's personal magnetism and mystifying demons. Wood also gets to testify in old interview clips—hiding behind a big frog doll and an inadequately self-protective carapace of off-center humor.

Performance clips show how utterly he lacked the curious anti-fame puritanism that afflicted so many Seattle musicians. Malfunkshun nicely captures his punkish, puckish, Kiss-ified dandyism and the dreamy, wandering-in-the-melodic- wilderness quality of his imagination. Instead of Eddie Vedder's simply guttural growl, he had a glammier persona and a voice slightly like Cornell's—soaring, with a sob. The "Crown of Thorns" he sang of in his great song, immortalized on Cameron Crowe's Singles soundtrack, was subtler than his successor Vedder's infectious angst. Not simply the Australopithecus Eddie Vedder, he was grunge's lost genius, its Thomas Chatterton, the symbol of sensitivity and infinite promise snuffed in its first bloom. The film helps conveys why he inspired Seattle's scene.

The last time I talked to Wood, I was complaining about a Helmut Newton book about bound women. How snottily egomaniacal, how loud, how nasty this guy Newton's pictures are, I said. "Yeah, but you're looking at 'em," Wood snapped. He would be utterly delighted that people are still looking at him now. (NR) TIM APPELO