Music Documentaries

I have always been a big fan of watching music documentaries like the "classic albums" series or any "making of" DVD. If you are the same then I have some exciting news for you...As a part of the Canadian International Documentary Festival or "Hot Docs" series this year which runs April 25 to May 5 you can catch a handful of music oriented documentaries.

The first one of note for me is "Finding the Funk". This doc is narrated by the very charismatic Questlove (drummer for The Roots and music aficionado) and aims to educate music lovers on where funk originated in the United States. The trailer goes on to explain that the doc is meant to shed light on the musical era between 60's soul and 80's hip hop.

The second film worthy of your time is "Muscle Shoals". This doc is about the legendary FAME studios founded by Rick Hall which is located in Muscle Shoals Alabama. FAME is legendary because of it's involvement and creation of many hit records during the last 40 years for artists such as Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and The Rolling Stones to name just a few. I highly recommend watching this one, I will be!

The last film I will mention to you is not about studios or making music but it is about the age old debate of how do musicians get paid for their work. "Downloaded" is the story of Shawn Fanning and his revolutionary creation - Napster. This one has a star-studded cast and could be either very interesting or very boring. The plus side is that you can get everyone's side to the debate. I'm betting the doc will be a good one.

These are only a couple of the documentaries featured this year, there's lots more that are associated with music so I recommend you check "Hot Docs" out for yourself:

http://www.hotdocs.ca/

Enjoy!