SU ATX, the Austin leg of the Sound Unseen Film + Music Festival, will be rocking AFS Cinema starting tonight for the fifth – and, for the foreseeable future – final time.
Sound Unseen director Jim Brunzell was very open about the imminent hiatus. After 17 years working on the festival, “I need a break,” he told the Chronicle.
During those years, the festival has expanded from its original home to add showings and offshootss in Austin and Rochester, Minn. With the original fest reaching its 25th anniversary this year, Brunzell and programming director Rich Gill started having serious discussions about the next step. The festival has relied on volunteers, and with Brunzell wanting to commit more time to his own position as Director of Festivals for Dark Star Pictures, “we just thought it was a good time to take a break.”
Sound Unseen was originally founded in 1999 in Minneapolis as a hybrid film-and-music festival, with movies centered around sound and performances tied to the titles on the screen. It was actually Brunzell (who was then head programmer at aGLIFF) who brought the fest to Austin in 2020 as a virtual spin-off to the Minneapolis original, before adding an in-person component in 2021. Now the fest returns, starting tonight, with three nights of screenings at AFS Cinema.
The festival begins at 7:30pm tonight, Dec. 12, with a special screening of Linda Perry: Let It Die Here. Documentarian Don Hardy (Pick of the Litter) is back on the music track again after his 2015 study of strangeness, Theory of Obscurity: A Film About the Residents with a look at the era-defining career of the writer-producer behind decades of smash hits from artists to Pink to Cheap Trick, Pitbull to Ariana Grande.
The fest gets Texan Friday night with Bastards of Soul (7:30pm), a look back at how the Dallas band was poised for global success, only to have it ripped away by the double-tragedy of the pandemic and the death of lead singer Chadwick Murray. This special screening will feature a Q&A with director/producer Paul Levatino and editor/cinematographer Zack Tzourtzouklis, and Brunzell called the topic “something you don’t see often as a band. … Do you move forward, do you quit, do you keep the music alive?”
Saturday marks the biggest day of the fest, with a triple bill kicking off at 4pm with Takin’ Care of Business. In which filmmaker Tyler Measom looks beyond all the rock & roll tropes for his study of Randy Bachman, the Canadian rock legend behind the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive. This isn’t a film about celebrity, but instead about the “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” singer’s 45-year hunt for his missing 1957 Gretsch 6120 guitar.
After a two-hour block of music shorts – all either from Texas or making their Texas debut – Sound Unseen wraps with one of the most eagerly awaited local music docs in years. There have been plenty of films about storied Austin venues (Nothing Stays the Same: The Story of the Saxon Pub, Honky Tonk Heaven: Legend of the Broken Spoke), so it’s about time that the old Back Room, the center of Austin’s metal scene, gets its day on the screen with Bloody and Bruised: The Untold Story of the Back Room.
Director J. Budro Partida (who will be in attendance with other crew members for a Q&A) charts the history of the legendary metal club. For 33 years it was the essential stop for all things heavy touring through Texas for 33 years, with legendary sets by Alice in Chains, Danzig, Pantera, unofficial house band Dangerous Toys, the first ever Austin gig for Marilyn Manson, a 2 Live Crew riot, and an all-ages Tool show when no one knew who they were. “It’s the perfect film for Sound Unseen to show of Austin music and what it was,” said Brunzell. “It’s a slice of life, it’s nostalgia for a lot of people.”
So what next for Sound Unseen, after the last frames flicker and the reverb fades on this year’s festival? “We definitely want to keep the name active.” Brunzell said. There will still be the monthly screenings in Minneapolis, and there are already discussions about special one-off screenings in Austin moving forward, But for now, he’s just concentrating on this encore performance.
Sound Unseen Film + Music Festival runs at AFS Cinema, 6259 Middle Fiskville, Dec. 12-14. Tickets and info at soundunseen.com/austin.
This article appears in December 6 • 2024.
