Bad Brains, Zappa, Melvins films set for Doc’n Roll Festival

A poster for the Doc’n Roll Film Festival 2016

Films about Bad Brains, Frank Zappa, the Melvins, Placebo and Sid Vicious are set to be screened at this year’s Doc’n Roll Film Festival in London.

The third annual Doc’n Roll Film Festival takes place in the capital from November 2 to 13 and will also show documentaries about Parliament/Funkadelic, The Orb, Gregory Porter, satanic black metal, Norwegian disco, Burmese punk as well as jazz stars Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon and Bill Evans.

Also being shown in a film called BANG! – The Bert Berns Story. It offers a look at the life of the producer Bert Berns and features appearances from Keith Richards, Paul McCartney and Van Morrison.

This festival features Q&As with filmmakers as well as a string of world premieres, European premieres and UK premieres.

Eight of the films premiered at this year’s Doc‘n Roll Film Festival have been shortlisted in a competition for the Best Music Doc 2016 prize, judged by a panel made up by Faye Milton (Savages) Simon Taffe (End Of The Road Festival), Liz Kershaw (BBC 6music), Steve Mason and filmmaker Dean Chalkley.

Colm Forde, Doc’n Roll’s Programmer, says: “Three years ago we set out on a passionate DIY mission to discover, support and champion under-the-radar independent music documentaries and present them to very keen, but largely ignored audiences.

“Considering the breadth and depth of musical heritage here, a UK film festival dedicated to this genre, was long overdue. So, I’m delighted to have secured such a rich and varied programme of premiere indie films from across the globe, for this, our third annual London edition.”

The festival kicks off with Gregory Porter Don’t Forget Your Music at BFI Southbank, featuring a Q&A with Porter himself and director Alfred George Bailey.

A trailer for the festival can be viewed below.

Tickets go on sale from October 3 (Monday) via the Doc’n Roll website, where the full running order and other information is also available.

Doc’n Roll Film Festival 2016 lineup

Gregory Porter Don’t Forget Your Music
Placebo: Alt. Russia
Blackhearts
Northern Disco Lights: The Rise and Rise of Norwegian Dance Music
BANG! – The Bert Berns Story
Sad Vacation – The Last Days of Sid and Nancy
The Royal Dutch Tour: Bonnie Prince Billy and The Cairo Gang
Cool Cats
Eat That Question - Frank Zappa In His Own Words
The Colossus of Destiny – A Melvins Tale
Tear The Roof Off: The Untold Story of Parliament/Funkadelic
HR “Finding Joseph I” (Bad Brains)
Lunar Orbit: The Orb
Bill Evans: Time Remembered
My Buddha Is Punk - Burmese Punk
Burn The Place You Hide: The St. Thomas Film
The Parkinsons: A Long Way to Nowhere

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Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.