Saturday, September 12, 2009

Review: Barry Levinson Presents The Band That Wouldn't Die

TIFF has a programme every year called Mavericks.  Each screening typically includes some short film or film clip followed by an extended live on-stage conversation with a director or some important figure.  A couple years ago, I saw my first Mavericks screening with Bill Maher.  Maureen has a thing for Barry Levinson, so when she found out that he'd be speaking on stage, we locked in.


Unfortunately, as we approached the line, I mean queue, a TIFF volunteer informed us that Barry Levinson would not be making it to the screening after all.  Oh, and who was this Barry Levinson guy anyway?  (she was young) We debated exchanging our tickets for another screening, but in the end we decided just to stick with it.  If nothing else, perhaps we'd like the film.  Barry, by the way, is apparently busy filming You Don't Know Jack, a made-for-TV movie about Jack Kevorkian, so I guess that's important.


The film itself, The Band That Wouldn't Die, is one of 30 documentaries commissioned by ESPN for it's 30 for 30 series.  They sought 30 film makers to produce documentaries on sports subjects that touched them personally. They begin airing in October, so if you have cable, you can see this one for free in a few weeks or so.


Barry is a native of Baltimore, which one doc subject described as "the traffic jam between New York and Washington D.C.".  For his story, he chose Baltimore's loss of the Baltimore Colts football team in 1984 and the effort by the team's marching band to bring an NFL team back to the city.  He found some interesting stories, from covert operations to hide marching band uniforms in a mausoleum, to the head of the marching band hocking his wife's wedding ring to buy drum heads.


The one-hour doc was enjoyable enough, and I learned a lot about that whole ruckus that I didn't notice so much when I was busy finishing up my time at J.B. Young Junior High.


Barry's absence was noticeable, but they did manage to scrap together a couple producers for a Q&A afterward.  And, being the nice people that they are at the festival, they're letting us turn in our ticket stubs for another screening of our choice.  My imdb rating: 6/10.

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