Music Films at the Nashville Film Festival

The Nashville Film Festival (NaFF), scheduled for April 18-25 at Regal Green Hills Cinema, will offer numerous music-related films. Here are a few of the highlights, as well as a list of the major features which will be shown before their national release. See the complete line up at nashvillefilmfestival.org.

Select Music Films

Beware of the Dogs (Director: Jeff Kennedy) The Sheepdogs were thousands of dollars in debt and struggling to break out of their native Saskatchewan when their demo won a contest that landed them on the cover of Rolling Stone. Featuring Kid Rock and Jimmy Fallon and live performances by the band. World Premiere.

FOLK (Director: Sara Terry) FOLK follows singer-songwriters of different ages Raina Rose, Hilary Claire Adamson and Dirk Hamilton. World Premiere.

Good Ol’ Freda (Director: Ryan White) Freda Kelly, The Beatles’ loyal secretary, tells her stories for the first time in 50 years.

Jim Lauderdale: The King of Broken Hearts (Director: Jeremy Dylan) Grammy-winner Lauderdale is an Americana stalwart. His story is told through interviews with him, Elvis Costello, Buddy Miller, John Oates, Jerry Douglas, and many more.

Muscle Shoals (Director: Greg ‘Freddy’ Camalier) Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Percy Sledge, Gregg Allman, Clarence Carter, Etta James, Alicia Keys, Bono, and others bear witness to the importance of the ‘Muscle Shoals Sound’ and FAME Studios.

Music Wood (Director: Maxine Trump) Famed guitar-makers travel to remote Southeast Alaska to negotiate with Native American loggers.

This Ain’t No Mouse Music! (Director: Chris Simon, Maureen Gosling) Chris Strachwitz (Arhoolie Records) takes viewers on a hip-shaking stomp from Texas to New Orleans, Cajun country to Appalachia, searching for the musical soul of America.

Very Extremely Dangerous (Director: Paul Duane, Nation: Ireland) Jerry McGill slipped from a rock ’n’ roll career into a life of crime, robbing banks and running from the FBI while touring and appearing in movies.

Presentation Films

Opening Night Selection (April 18): Mud (Director: Jeff Nichols) – Starring Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Paul Sparks. An outlaw on the run searches for his true love and a clean getaway.

Closing Night Selection (April 25): Unfinished Song (Director: Paul Andrew Williams) – Starring Terrence Stamp and Vanessa Redgrave, this film about seniors joining a singing group led by a charming and youthful director is said to make viewers laugh and cry.

Dead Man’s Burden (Director: Jared Moshe) – Starring Clare Bowen (from Nashville TV show). Set in New Mexico during the Civil War, this violent Western depicts a family in the lethal grip of its own civil war.

Hits from the Sundance Film Festival: The Kings of Summer, Sightseers, The Spectatular Now and Stories We Tell.

Academy Award Nominee for Best Foreign Film: Kon-Tiki.