Taking a breather between acts? Head to *The Mockingbird Cinema* within the Custard Factory over the festival to keep your wind-down stimulating. We have the perfect line up of films to keep your energies high, including screenings of The Ballad of Shirley Collins ahead of her Sunday performance, and The Witch to give you a taste of the haunting sounds of Mark Korven’s apprehension engine…
Friday
Studio 54 | Director Matt Tyrnauer
Matt Tyrnauer’s thrilling and definitive documentary captures the delirium — and the dark side — of the legendary New York disco. Studio 54 was the epicenter of 70s hedonism–a place that not only redefined the nightclub, but also came to symbolize an entire era. Its co-owners, Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell, two friends from Brooklyn, seemed to come out of nowhere to suddenly preside over a new kind of New York society. Now, 39 years after the velvet rope was first slung across the club’s hallowed threshold, a feature documentary tells the real story behind the greatest club of all time.
Saturday
The Ballad of Shirley Collins | Director Rob Curry & Tim Plester
Shirley Collins is widely regarded as the 20th century’s most important singer of English traditional song, Alongside her sister Dolly, she stood at the epicentre of the folkmusic revival during the 1960s and ‘70s. However, in 1980 Shirley developed a disorder of the vocal chords known as dysphonia, which robbed her of her unique singing voice and forced her into early retirement. Granted intimate access to recording sessions for Shirley’s first album of new recordings in almost four decades, and featuring contributions from (amongst others) the comedian Stewart Lee and David Tibet of Current 93, what emerges is a meditative and carefully textured piece of portraiture.
The Witch | Director Robert Eggers | Composer Mark Korven
In honour of hosting Mark Korvens first UK performance at Supersonic Festival we thought it was only fitting to do a late night screening of this exquisitely made and terrifying horror film. The age-old concepts of witchcraft, black magic and possession are innovatively brought together to tell the intimate and riveting story of one family’s frightful unraveling in the New England wilderness circa 1630.
Upon threat of banishment by the church, an English farmer leaves his colonial plantation, relocating his wife and five children to a remote plot of land on the edge of an ominous forest — within which lurks an unknown evil. With suspicion and paranoia mounting, family members accuse teenage daughter Thomasin of witchcraft, charges she adamantly denies. As circumstances grow more treacherous, each family member’s faith, loyalty and love become tested in shocking and unforgettable ways.
Don’t miss Korven’s live performance with his Apprehension Engine on Sunday.
Sunday
Betty – They Say I’m Different | Director Phil Cox
Funk Queen Betty Davis – controversial music and cultural pioneer, wife and muse of Miles Davis, who disappeared mysteriously from the music scene 35 years ago, returns in her life story documentary.
Funk Queen Betty Davis changed the landscape for female artists in America. She “was the first…” as former husband Miles Davis said. “Madonna before Madonna, Prince before Prince”. An aspiring songwriter from a small steel town, Betty arrived on the 70’s scene to break boundaries for women with her daring personality, iconic fashion and outrageous funk music. She befriended Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, wrote songs for the Chambers Brothers and the Commodores, and married Miles – startlingly turning him from jazz to funk on the album she named “Bitches Brew”. She then, despite being banned and boycotted, went on to become the first black woman to perform, write and manage herself. Betty was a feminist pioneer, inspiring and intimidating in a manner like no woman before. Then suddenly – she vanished.
