Even before the critically adored, commercially popular Searching for Sugar Man and 20 Feet from Stardom gave way to countless copycats, the documentary field was deluged with attempts to excavate, polish, and in some cases restart the careers of musical also-rans and behind-the-sceners.
Kieran Turner's Jobriath A.D. is an exceptional example of this subgenre, a cubist portrait of an unknowable man and a dramatic whodunit about an artist-victim who died by a thousand cuts. Glam rocker Jobriath succumbed to AIDS in 1983, but most of Turner's interviewees agree that the former piano prodigy died a more significant death a decade earlier, when neither of his two albums managed to chart.
Though it's never explicitly presented as such, this comprehensiv...
Kieran Turner's Jobriath A.D. is an exceptional example of this subgenre, a cubist portrait of an unknowable man and a dramatic whodunit about an artist-victim who died by a thousand cuts. Glam rocker Jobriath succumbed to AIDS in 1983, but most of Turner's interviewees agree that the former piano prodigy died a more significant death a decade earlier, when neither of his two albums managed to chart.
Though it's never explicitly presented as such, this comprehensiv...
- 4/30/2014
- Village Voice
WWE Studios and Blumhouse Productions have struck a partnership on Incarnate whereby WWE star Mark Henry will play a cameo and the studio will help promote the film.
WWE Studios and Blumhouse Productions have struck a partnership on Incarnate whereby WWE star Mark Henry will play a cameo and the studio will help promote the film.
Brad Peyton directs the micro-budget thriller from a screenplay by Ronnie Christensen. Aaron Eckhart stars and Blumhouse finances with Im Global.
Universal will distribute in the Us and Blumhouse International handles international sales.
Factory 25 has acquired Kieran Turner’s music documentary Jobriath A.D. about the 1970’s glam rock musician Jobriath.
Variance Films has acquired Us theatrical rights to Eliza Hittman’s debut feature It Felt Like Love and has earmarked an early 2014 theatrical launch.
WWE Studios and Blumhouse Productions have struck a partnership on Incarnate whereby WWE star Mark Henry will play a cameo and the studio will help promote the film.
Brad Peyton directs the micro-budget thriller from a screenplay by Ronnie Christensen. Aaron Eckhart stars and Blumhouse finances with Im Global.
Universal will distribute in the Us and Blumhouse International handles international sales.
Factory 25 has acquired Kieran Turner’s music documentary Jobriath A.D. about the 1970’s glam rock musician Jobriath.
Variance Films has acquired Us theatrical rights to Eliza Hittman’s debut feature It Felt Like Love and has earmarked an early 2014 theatrical launch.
- 11/25/2013
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The seventies glam rock musician Jobriath who was known as "The American Bowie," "The True Fairy of Rock & Roll," and "Hype of the Year" has been rediscovered and profiled in Kieran Turner’s music documentary, "Jobriath A.D." The feature explores Jobriath, the first openly gay rock musician and his brief reign as a star before a publicity machined doomed his career leaving him to die in obscurity at the Chelsea Hotel as one of the first victims of AIDS. Henry Rollins (Black Flag) narrates the film which features the artists Jobriath influenced including: Marc Almond, Joey Arias, Jayne County, Joe Elliott of Def Leppard, Stephin Merritt of Magnetic Fields, Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters, Will Sheff of Okkervil River, and Justin Tranter of Semi Precious Weapons Factory 25 has acquired the film and will be releasing it digitally on December 10th via cable VOD, iTunes, Amazon Vudu, X-Box, Sony Playstation and other digital outlets.
- 11/25/2013
- by James Hiler
- Indiewire
Jobriath a.d.
Produced and Directed by Kieran Turner
Newfest 2012, Film Society of Lincoln Center
Screened on July 28, 2012
In 1974, Bruce Wayne Campbell, who legally changed his name to Jobriath Boone, attempted to be the first self-declared gay pop star. His recordings were hailed by a scant few reviewers and most critics were either moderately impressed or dismissive. Commercially, he failed miserably. Moreover, he became a laughing stock of the broader press corps, particularly because they had been mega-hyped by his manager, Jerry Brandt, to expect a pop music savior--so they were nearly universal with vicious and vitriolic ridicule of Jobriath. The gay press said just about nothing, due to the macho man "clone" craze at the time, and Jobriath’s florid style certainly didn’t fit in with that. He quickly faded from view, later reinvented himself as Cole Berlin, a sophisticated saloon singer, and passed on from AIDS in 1983. Over the years,...
Produced and Directed by Kieran Turner
Newfest 2012, Film Society of Lincoln Center
Screened on July 28, 2012
In 1974, Bruce Wayne Campbell, who legally changed his name to Jobriath Boone, attempted to be the first self-declared gay pop star. His recordings were hailed by a scant few reviewers and most critics were either moderately impressed or dismissive. Commercially, he failed miserably. Moreover, he became a laughing stock of the broader press corps, particularly because they had been mega-hyped by his manager, Jerry Brandt, to expect a pop music savior--so they were nearly universal with vicious and vitriolic ridicule of Jobriath. The gay press said just about nothing, due to the macho man "clone" craze at the time, and Jobriath’s florid style certainly didn’t fit in with that. He quickly faded from view, later reinvented himself as Cole Berlin, a sophisticated saloon singer, and passed on from AIDS in 1983. Over the years,...
- 8/10/2012
- by Jay Reisberg
- www.culturecatch.com
NewFest, New York’s Lgbt film festival, returns this year with bicoastal fortification, its programming taken over by the folks at L.A.’s Outfest, whose motive for the merge is to foster a national queer arts entity. But is the alliance holy? With Outfest having just wrapped its 30th anniversary, an 11-day event that boasted nearly 150 titles (including Ira Sachs’s Keep the Lights On, Jonathan Lisecki’s Gayby, and David France’s riveting Act Up doc, How to Survive a Plague), NewFest has the not-so-faint whiff of an afterthought, its 18-feature lineup looking more like the subpar cache of a scavenger than a carefully curated medley. The only films that seem to leap out as hot tickets are Yossi, Eytan Fox’s tender sequel to Yossi and Jagger; Cloudburst, a geriatric lesbian dramedy with Brenda Fricker and Olympia Dukakis; I Want Your Love, Travis Matthews’s arthouse-porno expansion of his 2010 short; and Four,...
- 7/28/2012
- by R. Kurt Osenlund
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
London Lesbian and Gay Film festival
It may be something to do with his extraordinary stage moniker – somehow redolent of Goliath and Job – that Bruce Campbell aka Jobriath has maintained a tenuous foothold in pop culture, somehow remaining a name to conjure with, unlike the legions of has-beens and never-wases who litter the rock'n'roll stage. Of course, Jobriath was something special, even by the standards of rock loserdom: hyped to the max in 1974, signed – apparently – to a massive contract, given a billboard in Times Square for his debut album, and then promptly became an epic commercial disaster.
Jobriath was swiftly relegated to a footnote after punk rock detonated in the mid 70s, mostly for intrigued David Bowie fans mildly insulted by such an apparently flagrant act of copyism. (At least, that's how it looked to the likes of me, a decade or so later.) But give any act long enough,...
It may be something to do with his extraordinary stage moniker – somehow redolent of Goliath and Job – that Bruce Campbell aka Jobriath has maintained a tenuous foothold in pop culture, somehow remaining a name to conjure with, unlike the legions of has-beens and never-wases who litter the rock'n'roll stage. Of course, Jobriath was something special, even by the standards of rock loserdom: hyped to the max in 1974, signed – apparently – to a massive contract, given a billboard in Times Square for his debut album, and then promptly became an epic commercial disaster.
Jobriath was swiftly relegated to a footnote after punk rock detonated in the mid 70s, mostly for intrigued David Bowie fans mildly insulted by such an apparently flagrant act of copyism. (At least, that's how it looked to the likes of me, a decade or so later.) But give any act long enough,...
- 3/29/2012
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Billed as the 'new Bowie', Jobriath exploded onto the glam rock scene in the 1970s – and then disappeared. Marc Almond salutes a personal hero
Britain in the early 1970s was going through a depression: the naive dreams and optimism of the 1960s had soured and evaporated; life was filled with drudgery, strikes, power cuts and unemptied bins. Against this colourless backdrop, glam rock emerged, sprinkling glitter over the grime. And its gods – Marc Bolan with his cosmic love songs, Bryan Ferry with his glamorous cinematic sleaze – reigned supreme. David Bowie was busy transforming the musical landscape.
The British music press of the time was a lads' domain, deeply homophobic; the rule was you had to be a serious musician who had paid some dues. Bowie, who had been reluctantly accepted, was becoming a phenomenon. Ferry's sci-fi, 1950s-inspired torch songs were considered fresh and alluring, played on a strange new electronic instrument called a synthesiser.
Britain in the early 1970s was going through a depression: the naive dreams and optimism of the 1960s had soured and evaporated; life was filled with drudgery, strikes, power cuts and unemptied bins. Against this colourless backdrop, glam rock emerged, sprinkling glitter over the grime. And its gods – Marc Bolan with his cosmic love songs, Bryan Ferry with his glamorous cinematic sleaze – reigned supreme. David Bowie was busy transforming the musical landscape.
The British music press of the time was a lads' domain, deeply homophobic; the rule was you had to be a serious musician who had paid some dues. Bowie, who had been reluctantly accepted, was becoming a phenomenon. Ferry's sci-fi, 1950s-inspired torch songs were considered fresh and alluring, played on a strange new electronic instrument called a synthesiser.
- 3/28/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
Billed as the 'new Bowie', Jobriath exploded onto the glam rock scene in the 1970s – and then disappeared. Marc Almond salutes a personal hero
Britain in the early 1970s was going through a depression: the naive dreams and optimism of the 1960s had soured and evaporated; life was filled with drudgery, strikes, power cuts and unemptied bins. Against this colourless backdrop, glam rock emerged, sprinkling glitter over the grime. And its gods – Marc Bolan with his cosmic love songs, Bryan Ferry with his glamorous cinematic sleaze – reigned supreme. David Bowie was busy transforming the musical landscape.
The British music press of the time was a lads' domain, deeply homophobic; the rule was you had to be a serious musician who had paid some dues. Bowie, who had been reluctantly accepted, was becoming a phenomenon. Ferry's sci-fi, 1950s-inspired torch songs were considered fresh and alluring, played on a strange new electronic instrument called a synthesiser.
Britain in the early 1970s was going through a depression: the naive dreams and optimism of the 1960s had soured and evaporated; life was filled with drudgery, strikes, power cuts and unemptied bins. Against this colourless backdrop, glam rock emerged, sprinkling glitter over the grime. And its gods – Marc Bolan with his cosmic love songs, Bryan Ferry with his glamorous cinematic sleaze – reigned supreme. David Bowie was busy transforming the musical landscape.
The British music press of the time was a lads' domain, deeply homophobic; the rule was you had to be a serious musician who had paid some dues. Bowie, who had been reluctantly accepted, was becoming a phenomenon. Ferry's sci-fi, 1950s-inspired torch songs were considered fresh and alluring, played on a strange new electronic instrument called a synthesiser.
- 3/27/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
BFI London's 26th Lesbian and Gay film festival opens tonight with a lineup that boasts at least a dozen feature films that could be marketed as mainstream. So why is it still a niche event?
Tonight sees the opening of the 26th Lesbian and Gay film festival at the BFI in London, making it one of the longest-running gay-focused events in the UK. I recall being there in 1988. As a young lesbian from the sticks I was bowled over by its sophistication, but could not for the life of me understand much of what appeared on the screen. All I can remember is being surprised at glimpses of sex and genitalia and confused about the artsy focus. Today it is more mainstream, and definitely more accessible with its feature-length dramas and political (rather than avant garde) documentaries about serious issues around the world, but it remains a niche interest within the film festival circuit.
Tonight sees the opening of the 26th Lesbian and Gay film festival at the BFI in London, making it one of the longest-running gay-focused events in the UK. I recall being there in 1988. As a young lesbian from the sticks I was bowled over by its sophistication, but could not for the life of me understand much of what appeared on the screen. All I can remember is being surprised at glimpses of sex and genitalia and confused about the artsy focus. Today it is more mainstream, and definitely more accessible with its feature-length dramas and political (rather than avant garde) documentaries about serious issues around the world, but it remains a niche interest within the film festival circuit.
- 3/23/2012
- by Julie Bindel
- The Guardian - Film News
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