Soundoc
Introduction
A Tribute to Don Letts
Soundoc

Introduction
How many different forms and shades does the concept of resistance have?
However much you go round the question and however much you try to make it an evanescent or banal concept, resistance is always a healthy political attitude.
This year, the panorama on music in Soundoc embraces scenes and artists that resist to the globalization of taste, the little variety and the attraction of the mainstream circuit, but also the standardization of niches. Musicians who resist outside the major record industry or who simply have never even thought of entering it. From the radical everyday routine of a cult musician like Mark Stewart, to the various political and vital variations of the Straight Edge, we sneak into the low profile existence of the pioneer of electronic music Delia Derbyshire, we listen to a free jazz orchestra which has resisted for 50 years or the mysterious sounds of 13 Ethiopian tribes who are still far from globalization, and discover the secrets of Japanese performers who flee melody and the consumer society of Tokyo or follow the hypnotic rhythm of a single instrument that relates the philosophy of an entire tradition amongst the many that are unknown to the West.
In parallel, directors who are seeking their path on the sidelines of the film industry, who work for years in order to fulfil their projects, are self-produced, optimize very low budgets and live their own utopias in the most realistic way possible.
Cristina Caon
In collaboration with
media partner


A Tribute to Don Letts
In 1980 the cover of Black Market Clash, a shot of him facing an array of riot police during the race riots of Notting Hill make of him an icon of the challenge to the establishment and of the indissoluble link between social commitment and certain music.
But Don Letts had already begun to propagate his peaceful contribution to cultural integration from the turntables. In the mid-seventies, opposite Sex, Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, the young Letts ran a second-hand shop, the Acme Attractions from which emanated powerful dub and reggae beats, interrupted here and there by the cried of the Stooges and of the MC5. Black rhythms were just starting to snake their way among the emaciated London punk scene. Working as a DJ at the Roxy club in the fateful year 1977, Letts devoted himself to research and to the dissemination of music, born from his Jamaican origins and from a healthy curiosity about the fertile London scene from which will shortly emerge the heavenly bedlam that Simon Reynolds defined as post-punk.
Director of videoclips and documentaries, DJ, a member of bands like Basement 5, Big Audio Dynamite, and Screaming Target, Don Letts never stopped. His documentaries use mainly classic structures, mostly distant from authorial forms, which always put people and their stories at the forefront. Interviews, rare archived materials and original footage link together to tell the stories of key figures and moments of the counterculture. The voices of many different people who entrust their memories and thoughts alternate in this film, just as his mixes are combined pieces that transcend the barriers of time and genre.
Soundoc pays tribute to the work of Don Letts by inviting him to present four of his best documentaries, including the Italian premiere of Strummerville, to the public at the Milan Film Festival.
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Carnival! Don Letts, Uk, 2010, 47' |
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Punk: Attitude Don Letts, Uk, 2005, 90' |
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The revolution will not be televised - A Film about Gil Scott Heron Don Letts, Uk, 2003, 60' |
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Strummerville Don Letts, Uk, 2010, 54' |

Soundoc
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On/Off: Mark Stewart by TØny Schifer, Germany/UK, 2009, DV, 90' |
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Changgo by Sandra Staffl, Germany, 2009, Super 16mm, 31' |
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The Delian Mode by Kara Blake, Canada, 2009, 16mm, 25' |
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EDGE - Perspectives on drug free culture by Marc Pierschel, Michael Kirchner, Germany, 2009, miniDV, 83' |
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Points on a space age by Ephraim Asili, Usa, 2008, miniDv, 33' |
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Staring into the Sun by Olivia Wyatt, Ethiopia, 2009, mini DV e DVD, 61' |
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We don't care about music anyway by Cédric Dupire, Gaspard Kuentz, France, 2009, HD, 80' |








































