Jem Cohen Movies
- 2008
This avant garde release documents an unusual performance staged and mounted at the 2007 Vienna International Film Festival. As part of that event, organizers invited the iconoclastic filmmaker Jem Cohen to create an evening of film with live musical accompaniment. To fulfill this request, Cohen compiled a series of archival sequences pulled from the annals of history (much of it in black and white), and used the footage in question to meditate on the eerie parallels between the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the years just prior to World War I, and the early 21st century United States as its global hegemony began to come to a sudden and alarming end given the failing economy, outsourcing of industry and the blunders of the Bush administration. In devising this theme, Cohen culled inspiration from the novels of Joseph Roth, particularly his 1933 The Radetzky March. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- 2006
The Ex are an anarchist musical ensemble from the Netherlands who started out as a ragged punk rock band in 1979. However, over the course of more than a quarter-century, the Ex evolved into a group that still embraced the rabble-rousing political principles of punk, but took in a broad musical palate that includes improvisational music, avant garde noise, ethnic music from around the world and politically-slanted folk music while combining both acoustic and electric instruments (and sometimes expanding into a band comprising twenty players). Collaborating with musicians as celebrated and diverse as Sonic Youth, Tortoise and the Mekons, the Ex are a gifted and thoroughly uncompromising group, and when they came to New York City for a series of shows, filmmaker Jem Cohen brought along a film crew to capture the band's performances on film. Building A Broken Mousetrap is a documentary which combines the Ex's energetic live concert with footage that explores the parallels and contrasts of life in New York City with the band's home base of Amsterdam. Building A Broken Mousetrap was screened in competition at the 2007 Silverdocs Film Festival, where it was shown with Blessed Are The Dreams Of Men, a short subject by Cohen scored by Andy Moor of the Ex. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- EX
- 2006
Noted experimental/documentary filmmaker Jem Cohen directed this impressionistic short subject. Blessed Are The Dreams Of Men blends images of people drifting into sleep during a long train ride with an ominous musical score from Andy Moor, suggesting a dangerous voyage into unknown territories. Featuring no dialogue or narration, Blessed Are The Dreams Of Men was screened at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival and 2007 Silverdocs Film Festival in tandem with Building A Broken Mousetrap, Cohen's documentary on Dutch musical collective the Ex, whose members include Andy Moor. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- 2006
Instrument and Benjamin Smoke director Jem Cohen wander the streets of New York City with a spring-wound 16mm Bolex camera to explore the varied moods of the massive metropolis in a film that features dream-like footage of Brooklyn and Manhattan as well as shots of the ticker tape parade thrown for astronaut John Glen. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- 2005
- Add Hubert Selby Jr: It'll Be Better Tomorrow to QueueAdd Hubert Selby Jr: It'll Be Better Tomorrow to top of Queue
Hubert Selby Jr. was a powerful and influential literary figure whose best-known novels, Last Exit to Brooklyn and Requiem for a Dream, dealt with the dark underside of life in a way that was bleak and often shocking, but also laced with compassion and understanding for the tortured lives of his characters. Selby only completed the eighth grade when he became a merchant marine and contracted a severe case of tuberculosis from infected cattle. While Selby survived thanks to bootleg antibiotics, he lost a lung and had to give up his physically punishing work at sea. Selby took up writing and developed a unique style that helped make his first novel, 1964's Last Exit to Brooklyn, a critical success and a controversial best-seller. However, Selby developed a massive appetite for alcohol and drugs which derailed his career, and by the time he published his second book, 1971's The Room, Selby was all but forgotten. However, Selby's work developed a passionate following in Europe, and was rediscovered in the United States after a successful film adaptation of Last Exit to Brooklyn was released. Hubert Selby Jr.: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow is a documentary which explores the life and work of this unlikely literary icon, and features extensive interviews with Selby as well as his friends and admirers. Interview subjects include Lou Reed, Henry Rollins, Richard Price, Nick Tosches, Ellen Burstyn, Darren Aronofsky, Uli Edel, Amiri Baraka, and Jerry Stahl. Robert Downey Jr. serves as narrator. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robert Downey, Jr., Hubert Selby, Jr., (more)
- 2004
The man-made landscape of the post-millennium world is seen through two very different sets of eyes in this experimental feature from filmmaker Jem Cohen. Tamiko (Miho Nikaido) is a woman in her early thirties who works for a Japanese steel-manufacturing firm. Tamiko is involved in a major international research project in which she's studying "entertainment real estate," which means she spends her days exploring shopping centers, hotel complexes, and theme parks, and reports back on what she discovers. Meanwhile, Amanda Timms (Mira Billotte) is a teenage runaway from Middle America who, after using up her nest egg (her mother's credit card), is holing up in an abandoned building near a huge shopping center. Amanda spends her days working odd jobs in the retail stores and fast food joints near her "home," and in her spare time, videotapes her surroundings for the benefit of her sister as she adds stream-of-consciousness narration. Designed to create a framework for informally shot "street footage" Cohen had collected over a period of six years, Chain was executive produced by Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto of the independent rock band Fugazi, who collaborated with Cohen on Instrument, a film about the band's eventful history. Chain also features an original score by the Canadian experimental music ensemble Godspeed You Black Emperor! ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Miho Nikaido, Mira Billotte, (more)
Noted documentary filmmaker Jem Cohen (along with Peter Sillen) directs this look at Benjamin, a Southern, gay, HIV positive, drug-addicted drag queen who led the blues-punk band "Smoke." Born Robert Dickerson in 1960, Benjamin played punk in Atlanta's grungy Cabbagetown section before fronting the queer-core band Opal Foxx Quartet. Thereafter, he began experimenting with such decidedly unpunk instruments as banjos and cellos and formed Smoke. As Cabbagetown lost its edgy spirit during the 1990s -- thanks to the yuppie-friendly condo boom -- so did Benjamin lose his fight against AIDS. He died of the disease early in 1999. This film was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
Fugazi was arguably the most important and influential underground rock band of the 1990s. While their fierce indie punk ideals dictated that they deliberately stay under the mass media radar (the group declined to do interviews with the mainstream press and requested that critics buy their albums rather than sending out free copies), the band's powerful music (muscular but inventive hard rock that showed the influence of the space of dub reggae and the propulsive energy of hardcore) and uncompromising lyrical stance (songs that clearly if undogmatically dealt with racism, sexism, economic injustice, and a wealth of other political and social concerns) made many converts. Without the benefit of commercial radio play, MTV exposure, or coverage in most major music magazines, Fugazi managed to sell over 200,000 copies each of such albums as Red Medicine, Steady Diet of Nothing, and Repeater. In addition, the band, which once described its approach as "revolution through example," was among the most strongly principled in rock; Fugazi released its recordings through its own label, refusing many blank-check offers from major labels, and would play only all-ages venues with a ticket price of five dollars, while the group's concerts in their hometown of Washington, DC, were either benefits for community action groups or free shows usually affiliated with political causes. Filmmaker and photographer Jem Cohen was friendly with band members Ian McKaye and Guy Picciotto before they formed Fugazi, and early on began documenting the group's performances on film and video. Instrument was compiled from ten years' worth of footage of Fugazi on and off stage, performing at venues both large and small, working in the studio, discussing their work (one revealing interview comes from a public access television show done by high school students), and sometimes displaying their oft-ignored sense of humor. Directed by Jem Cohen in collaboration with the members of Fugazi, Instrument was his first feature film. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
This collection of short films from Cohen include Never Change and Love Teller. ~ Rovi
