Rewind and Play (2023)
Director: Alain Gomis Run Time: 65 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 2023
Starring: Thelonious Monk
Country: France, Germany
Language: French, English
About the film:
Official Selection, 2022 Berlin Film Festival
In December 1969, legendary jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk ended his European concert tour with a performance at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. Before the show, he was invited to appear on a French television program to perform and answer questions in an intimate setting. Using newly discovered footage from this recording, director Alain Gomis reveals the disconnect between Monk and his interviewer, Henri Renaud, whose unwittingly trivializing approach conveys the casual racism and exploitation prevalent in the music industry at large.
A fascinating behind-the-scenes documentary with extraordinary rarely-seen performances, Rewind and Play (2023) offers a unique opportunity to see Monk in a way that very few people did.
“A minor masterwork of historical investigation and a fervent tribute to the epochally great musician”
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker
About the filmmaker:
Alain Gomis is a Franco-Senegalese filmmaker. He studied art history at the Sorbonne in France, and made his directorial debut in 2002 with L’Afrance (2001), a film about the struggles of migrants in France which won a Silver Leopard award at the Locarno Film Festival. His second feature Andalucia (2007) was shown at the Venice Film Festival in 2012, followed by Aujourd’hui (2012), shown in competition at the Berlinale. He returned to the Berlinale with Félicité (2007). The film won him the competition’s Grand Jury Prize and represented Senegal at the Academy Awards where it was shortlisted for Best Foreign Language Film.
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