I went to see Garry Beitel’s film The Socalled Movie when it premiered in Montreal a few days ago. A terrific evening: great film, great audience, all very Montreal. The post-screening Q & A was followed by a concert by the film’s main character, musician Socalled (aka Josh Dolgin) with his band.
Socalled is a truly original creator of hard-to-classify music which (to borrow a few lines from the press release) mashes up funk and hip-hop with Jewish klezmer. “Socalled is a pianist, singer, arranger, rapper, producer and composer – and also a magician, filmmaker and visual artist – a creative force who blasts through the boundaries that separate music of different cultures, eras and generations.”
Josh is funny, creative, touching, and unstoppable. Garry Beitel sees the star of his film as having “an amazing ability to take great music from the past and plug it into the current moment.”
The Socalled Movie is structured in neat little chapters, inspired by François Girard’s Thirty-two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993). In spite of this, the film has real unity and a dramatic arc that really works. During the Q&A, Garry said he felt this approach was appropriate because the main character is such a multi-talented chameleon: “Just when you think you’ve figured out who he is, you discover another dimension which challenges your perception.”
Seeing Garry’s film, I had a sense of a filmmaker having reached real maturity. Everything about the film breathes experience and long-standing collaborative relationships – notably with DOP Marc Gadoury and editor Dominique Sicotte, who both did fantastic work.
The film was produced by Barry Lazar (reFrame Films) and Ravida Din (The National Film Board of Canada.)
The Socalled Movie begins its cross-Canada theatrical run June 4 – 11 here in Montreal @ Cinéma du Parc (3575 Ave. Du Parc), and June 5 – 8 & 10 @ CinemaSpace, Segal Centre (5170 Cote-Ste-Catherine).
It opens in Quebec City June 4 @ Le Clap (2360 chemin Sainte-Foy) and plays New York City’s NewFest June 08 @ JCC in Manhattan (334 Amsterdam Avenue.)
Other release dates on the film’s blog here.
Thanks to Tobi Elliott for help with this post.