Photos: David Klayton

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All images: Amina Nolan

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Day one

Liberal Arts

Sundance kicked off with Josh Radnor’s Liberal Arts (check out our interview with the film’s director and star here), a sweetly touching campus romance about a 35-year-old who falls for a student when he returns to his old college. Fans of Garden State, listen up: the new Zach Braff has arrived. This time it’s the guy from How I Met Your Mother.

Indie darling Elizabeth Olsen stands out for transforming a cookie-cutter role as naïve college student Zibby into something altogether more compelling. But from the buzz at the festival – in the ladies’, at least – it seems like Josh has a few admirers of his own. Good to know that sometimes the nice guys do win.

Day two

The festival’s second day felt a little like watching The Wire boxset on the big screen. First, creator David Simon popped up in hard-hitting documentary The House I Live In, and then Baltimore’s mean streets made an appearance in coming-of-age drama LUV.

The House I Live In

If you condensed the HBO epic into a two-hour documentary, you might come up with something like The House I Live In. A sprawling, take-no-prisoners documentary that traces America’s failed war on drugs, it took director Eugene Jarecki years to make.

“I slammed my head into the wall for years, “ the veteran filmmaker told Wonderland. “Morning, noon and night, like I’d never made a movie before.” The sheer amount of effort shows – by the end of the film, you’re ready to take to the streets. No wonder Jarecki was later swarmed by people demanding to know what they could do to help.

LUV

LUV is a no less gritty proposition, though first-time director Sheldon Candis puts a romantic spin on it. “It’s a tragically optimistic love fable between a boy and his uncle,” he says. The director drew on his own childhood in Baltimore for the drama, following shy 11-year-old Woody as he gets schooled in the art of hustling from his ex-con uncle (played by Common).

The film occasionally stretches the limits of credulity by indoctrinating Woody into a life of crime in under 24 hours, but a coming-of-age story ultimately lives and dies by the strength of its child actor. Luckily, Rainey, all wide-eyed vulnerability, is a revelation here.

Shut Up And Play The Hits

After all that inner-city angst, thank the indie gods for Shut Up And Play The Hits, the LCD Soundsystem doc that got people clapping along in the cinema. Fans piled into the sold-out screening for its British premiere to watch the concert film of the beloved rock band’s final gig at Madison Square Garden.

“The day we did the location scout at Madison Square, Bon Jovi were in there and they had everything – cranes, dollies – the exact way we didn’t want to shoot our show,” says director Will Lovelace.

Instead, Lovelace and co-director Dylan Southern gave their crew handheld cameras and instructed them to film the concert as if they were experiencing it as fans.

The gambit pays off handsomely. Shut Up And Play The Hits is as close to being at an LCD gig as you’re ever going to get, with the added bonus of backstage footage and close-ups of Petunia, frontman James Murphy’s French bulldog. (Cutest rock pet ever? We think so.) No wonder the crowd kept cheering long after the lights went on.

Words: Zing Tsjeng

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Pictures: Amina Nolan

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You got your hands of a broader range of technology for Future This’s edit. How do you think this has progressed the sound?

The way we approached songs was slightly different this time around. We wrote the album a lot quicker because we knew that we were gonna work with a producer. We didn’t get too mad into what every high-hat was gonna sound like, for example. We also got really into the soft synth sound and different programmes and pro-tools.

Did you feel you had less to prove with this record?

The first record didn’t set the world on fire – we had something to prove to ourselves with this one, really. We wanted to up our game, up the production. The first record was quite hard to play live – it was droney and slow, and we wanted to make a much more upbeat, positive album this time around.

You mentioned a hip-hop influence with it. How do you feel this manifests itself in the music?

I kind of wish I’d never said that because it immediately set us off on the wrong foot – I don’t know whether people were expecting Illcommunication, Massive Attack or Linkin Park [laughs. A lot]. The statement came from the fact that we knew we didn’t want to use live drums and we didn’t wanna use guitar – all the tracks are built around a drum break or a programmed beat. The last thing we wanted to do was write an indie rock or electropop record. I wanted to get as far away as I could from that.

The title is pulled from an 80s skateboard company’s logo, and the artwork reflects that. Were you consciously referencing the era?

We were referencing this photographer called Glen E. Friedman, who did a lot of early Dogtown skate pictures, early Beastie Boys and Public Enemy photography. Then with Krink’s work, the dripping paint, I kind of wanted it to be a statement: we’re kind of going over everything, painting it afresh and recasting it.

What are The Big Pink’s records of the year?

I’m not sure if it influenced our sound, but while writing this record we were definitely listening to House of Balloons by The Weeknd a lot. I loved it because it was quite dirty, filthy, yet…

…has a production sheen.

Exactly. A really original production sheen, but was hazy and druggy too.

I really loved the Zomby record, Dedication, too.

What’s Christmas gonna be like for The Big Pink this year? Will you be buying each other presents?

Me and Robbie do exchange gifts, yeah. I did it as a joint present as it was his birthday yesterday. I don’t know what to get him this year, though. Last year I got him a guitar pedal – I’m usually quite selfish with gifts.

What did he get you?

I can’t remember, but the last present he bought me was an enormous, novelty-sized record. Like a 72 inch, or something: an antique that they used to play on Phonograms.

I bet you’re excited to find out what you’ve been given this year…

Yeah, it’s always fun…

The Big Pink

Words: Jack Mills

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