Category: On the Road

The Library of Congress to screen The 78 Project Movie, and a new acetate from Louis Michot, Corey Ledet & Ashlee Michot

The Library of Congress will host a screening of The 78 Project Movie and live recording event as part of its Botkin Lecture Series.

On September 5th a great dream of ours will come true as we screen The 78 Project Movie and cut a record live at the Library of Congress. Over the two years since we began working on the film, we’ve had the privilege to visit the Library’s American Folklife Center in Washington, DC and its Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation in Culpeper, VA, where we were shown Alan Lomax’s Presto, his correspondence and actual acetate recordings, and given a glimpse into the work the truly amazing folks at the Library do to preserve America’s musical treasures. We’re honored to be able to return to the Library’s historic halls to present our film and to use our Presto to record a 78.

The 78 Project: Documenting Historic Sound in the Contemporary World Botkin Lecture & Screening of The 78 Project Movie
The Library of Congress
Friday, September 5th 2:00 – 4:30pm
Mumford Room, 6th Floor, James Madison Building
Independence Avenue, between 1st and 2nd Streets Washington, DC

 

Louis Michot told us that what he loved about French music was that everyone playing was driving the same rhythm and the same melody together at the same time. A community of song.  We had driven to the Michot family home in Arnaudville, LA last August, and in the course of a hot and happy afternoon, recorded Louis with his wife Ashlee and their friend and musical collaborator Corey Ledet for The 78 Project Movie. The trio cut a 78 of the traditional Cajun dance-ending song “’Trape mon chapeau,” fiddle, accordion and guitar working together the whole way through to forge a powerful, cohesive feeling into the song.  Compelling imaginary dancers to crowd together on the floor and enjoy the last joyful moments of the party.

The 78 Project Movie is Now Screening in Theaters Nationwide

You can bring The 78 Project Movie to a theater near you!


Beginning this September we’re taking The 78 Project Movie on a road trip (much like the way we shot it!), appearing live at screening events in more than 20 cities around the country.

Don’t see a screening near you? Through a partnership with Theatrical On Demand® distributor Gathr Films, individuals like you are now able to bring The 78 Project Movie to your local theater!

Community is at the heart of The 78 Project Movie, and we’re excited to be able to use Gathr’s innovative system to share the film with you and your friends in the same grassroots spirit in which it was made.

Take a look at the screenings list in our sidebar to see if there’s already a nearby screening or special event planned. If not, go to our hosting page to request one or join our team and become a host.

Our Chicago premiere and a jazzy new 78 from Adam Levy & Gaby Moreno

Our excitement is growing as August gets closer. Especially now that it will bring our Chicago premiere! The 78 Project Movie will screen on August 16th and 17th at Chicago’s Music Box Theater as part of its Summer Music Film Festival.

Tickets are available now. And we’ll be there for a Q&A at both screenings, if you’d like to say hello. Or sit next to us. We’d love that.

Music Box Theater
Summer Music Film Festival
August 16 & 17, 2014
Chicago, IL
Purchase tickets

On a day when the road was at its most challenging, when long drives, short batteries, fried tubes and a weary Presto threatened to dampen the spirit of our California adventure, Adam Levy and Gaby Moreno righted everything immediately with their unmitigated joy. Their happy collaboration on “After You’ve Gone” turned the trials of the day into the perfect evening to create a perfectly beautiful record.

Sounds of Summer: A screening at the Jacob Burns Film Center and a new 78 from Sea of Bees

Exciting news seems to come with each new day at The 78 Project this summer. We’re overflowing with updates and music to share with you.

This week we’re happy to announce that The 78 Project Movie will screen on August 18 at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, NY as part of their Sounds of Summer series. And we’ll be there to answer questions and swap stories! Tickets are available now through the Jacob Burns Film Center website:

Jacob Burns Film Center
Sounds of Summer
August 18, 2014 7:30 pm
Pleasantville, NY
Purchase tickets

Though her song explores a weighty subject, Sea of Bees is a person of celebratory spirit. Which makes her 78, “In My Time of Dying” – recorded for The 78 Project Movie at her home in Sacramento – feel like the perfect acetate to accompany this happy news.

 

Hear Victoria Williams’ 78 recording of “Take This Hammer” – An exclusive from The 78 Project Movie

As we’ve traveled and shot, edited, finished and started to screen, lived and breathed The 78 Project Movie, just about every day of the process has felt momentous.

The record we cut with Victoria Williams, on the last night of our West Coast road trip, gives a perfect glimpse of one such unforgettable day. Luck and symmetry had helped us find her, and her enthusiasm imbued the evening, and the record, with a magical energy.

Victoria’s 78 recording of “Take This Hammer” is one of the many one-of-a-kind performances that you’ll be able to see when The 78 Project Movie screens this Fall at a theater near you. More on that soon. Until then, listen to the brand new 78 below.

Premiere Night at 78rpm: Listen to Kevin Russell’s “Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral” 78, recorded live at SXSW Film

Three weeks and 1,836 miles ago, The 78 Project Movie played for the first time on the big screen. It was the night we would have dreamed of, if we’d dared to, when we first began to edit together the hundreds of hours of footage we shot over the course of that life-changing year. The programmers and staff of SXSW were inspiring, and the hundreds of friends, family and festivalgoers who came to our four screenings showed us, our artists and our film incredible support. We’re so grateful to them.

Today we wanted to bring a piece of the evening to you, in the form of an acetate we cut right there on the SXSW stage at our movie premiere. Kevin Russell is a favorite son of Austin, TX, and we were honored to record him singing the lullaby that he has made a tradition in his family by singing it to each of his three children right after they were born.

Recorded live at the Vimeo Theater during SXSW Film Festival

We’re honored to be invited to show the film at more great festivals, starting in April in a city that has been integral to the film’s very existence, at the Nashville Film Festival. The 78 Project Movie will be showing in the Music Films / Music City Competition. Also in April, The 78 Project Movie will screen at Independent Film Fest Boston. Keep an eye on the festival websites for tickets, and let us know if you’ll be there!

Sign up for our email list in the homepage sidebar to get the latest news on upcoming screenings.  We’ll keep you in the loop.

Episode #20: Pause in Life’s Pleasures: Watch and hear Jubal’s Kin’s “Hard Times” – Recorded Live for One Million Square Feet of Culture in Miami

It was exciting to find Miami pulsing with one big musical heartbeat. It was rapid and strong and kept you moving through the long, warm days and nights of Art Week.The world was in town for Art Basel, and we were invited by IFP to cut a record as part of One Million Square Feet of Culture.

Having driven down from the snowy December of New York, we had a slower, more wintery feeling still pulling at us. And Jubal’s Kin, though they came from only as far north as Orlando, seemed to be feeling that pull, too. Three siblings, singing together, brought the tempo of the air outside down to a gentle, breathless thrum.

We left the Presto on to capture the audience’s applause at the end, the first sound they had dared to make in almost four minutes. They weren’t the only ones, all of Wynwood seemed enraptured for that moment. The planes that had been flying overhead constantly, the car horns that had blared all day, the hard drive of the dozen nearby DJ’s, were quiet for a spell.


Thank you to the tireless, amazing folks at IFP for curating such a beautiful event.

Fairer Than Day: Hear The Secret Sisters’ 78s “In the Sweet By and By” and “Little Again”

The Lindsley Avenue Church of Christ on a warm August day was ethereal, filled with morning light and the excitement of a new record about to be made. The Secret Sisters had a glowing loveliness brighter even than the stained glass as they warmed up to make their 78. While we set up, the girls took out the hymnal and sang their way through it.  They knew every song, and their voices from so many years of praise and practice, were like perfectly tuned church bells ringing from their happiness.

Lydia and Laura were raised in the church at home in Alabama.  So singing a hymn brought back memories of their childhood. But their flipside, “Little Again” is an even more personal tune, sung by the two little girls who grew up together, running in rivers, scraping their knees, and building a sweet sisterly closeness into a lifelong musical bond.

Thank you to the Lindsley Avenue Church of Christ in Nashville for generously letting us in and lending us their beautiful space.

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