There are usually like two types of music documentaries – the ones that are about discovery, like Searching For Sugarman that won the Academy Award a few years ago for the story about this 60s folk singer who was huge in South Africa but unknown in America, or like the really great Band Called Death, about perhaps the first punk band in America, a group of African-America brothers—literally, blood brothers – from Detroit.
Or, music documentaries, like Spinal Tap spoofed, that document how some band completely implodes—drugs, death, whatever.
The Winding Stream is neither of those. This is a really sweet story; sort of Ken Burns PBS style.
What I like about this film is that it talks about where the music came from—from the farm, from this family—and there are no implosions; just a really wholesome, nice movie. Sort of like a warm cup of apple cider.
This article appears in Oct 8-15, 2014.
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Saw this last night – fascinating. I’m liking Phil on My Window- good medium for him.