The 6th annual CIMMFEST, a four-day celebration of culture and good times that raced up and down Milwaukee Avenue last weekend, lived up to its growing reputation as a must-attend national event for music and film fans.
“The whole vibe of mixing music with movies is perfect,” said LA filmmaker Martin Shore. “These guys have it. They know what they’re doing and this is going to be a force to be reckoned with.”
Shore’s feature documentary, “Take Me to the River,” screened Sunday night. It covers the evolution of the Memphis music scene that started in the early sixties, when Booker T & the MG’s backed an incomparable list of chart topping soul singers before making a string of their own hits.
Watching from the audience were Memphis singer/songwriter William Bell and Chicago singer Otis Clay, both of whom were featured in the movie.
Then Booker T himself, also on hand for the show, kept the crowd grooving with a late night performance at the City Winery.
The multi-disciplined, pan-generational throwdown was one of many that combined the festivals coveted genres.
On Thursday night, Chicago drummer Jimmy Chamberlin of the Smashing Pumpkins joined guitarist Scott Lucas of Local H and jazz bassist Matt Ulery to perform a live film score for “Battleship Potemkin” at the Double Door.
At the same time, trippy Hoboken feedback trio Yo La Tengo played the Concord Music Hall a few blocks up Milwaukee Avenue.
The sensational overload was typical of the fest’s schedule, which included numerous industry panels Saturday and Sunday.
During the “Chicago is F***ing Awesome” panel at the Logan Theatre Lounge on Friday, director John McNaughton described the sub-zero Chicago dawn years ago when he was “hauling lumber out to a truck” at a Burger King remodeling job.
“I’m gonna be a movie director one day,” he vowed to himself.
Writer/director Wendy Jo Carlton, whose online romantic comedy series, “Easy Abby,” boasts more than 15 million views, explained the process of connecting with local musicians to complete the soundtrack for the show’s first season during the “Rocking Music, Rolling Film” panel at Collaboraction on Sunday morning.
“I just make a list: here’s what I’m looking for, here’s what I think could work,” she said. “And then sometimes you apply that after you get your responses of ‘yes we’ll do it’ because this was… We didn’t have the budget,” she continued.
“These are mostly all signed folks who have several albums out.”
During the show’s awards ceremony Saturday night at the 1st Ward, CIMMFEST associate director Dave Moore described the festival’s dedication to bringing world music and film to Chicago fans.
“We’re building a community that’s wonderful,” he said.
Then he introduced George LePauw, president and artistic director of the International Beethoven Project, who treated the crowd to a flawless 15-minute rendition of all three movements of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata.”
See and hear festival highlights here.
