News

U.K.-French film company Alief has pounced on the worldwide sales rights to “Luna Rosa: The 7th Ascension of Atabey,” the fourth feature by Puerto Rican multi-hyphenate Omar Rodríguez-López, frontman for Grammy-winning band, The Mars Volta.

“This is his most cohesive, fully narrative film yet,” Alief co-partner Miguel Angel Govea told Variety, adding: “Omar pulls a magic trick with his visually and aurally stunning film, managing to pull us in with striking images.”

A meld of sci-fi and dystopian genres, “Luna Rosa” is set in Borinquen, the Indigenous Taíno name for Puerto Rico. It follows Zur’na (played by Flora Sylvestre), who ventures into enemy territories controlled by American colonial forces in search of her missing brother. Through her journey, Rodríguez-López critiques the enduring effects of American imperialism, drawing on influences from classic Latin American cinema and cult B-movies. The result is a pulsating world filled with intricate rituals,...

The Mars Volta / At the Drive-In documentary, Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird, is now available to rent or buy via Amazon Prime, among other digital platforms. A physical release on DVD and Blu-Ray is coming February 25th.

The Nicolas Jack Davies-directed doc premiered at the Raindance Film Festival in October 2023, later receiving a theatrical release in late November 2024. It was then awarded Best Music Documentary at the 2024 IDA Awards in December.

Get Mars Volta Tickets Here

The film follows the musical journey of Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala with a fly-on-the-wall level of access, from their early days cutting their teeth in El Paso’s hardcore scene with At the Drive-In, to their legacy-defining work with The Mars Volta, including their personal fallout and reconnection.

Over the course of multiple decades, Rodríguez-López shot 100s of hours of footage documenting At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta,...

The Mars Volta / At the Drive-In documentary, Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird, is now available to rent or buy via Amazon Prime, among other digital platforms. A physical release on DVD and Blu-Ray is coming February 25th.

The Nicolas Jack Davies-directed doc premiered at the Raindance Film Festival in October 2023, later receiving a theatrical release in late November 2024. It was then awarded Best Music Documentary at the 2024 IDA Awards in December.

Get Mars Volta Tickets Here

The film follows the musical journey of Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala with a fly-on-the-wall level of access, from their early days cutting their teeth in El Paso’s hardcore scene with At the Drive-In, to their legacy-defining work with The Mars Volta, including their personal fallout and reconnection.

Over the course of multiple decades, Rodríguez-López shot 100s of hours of footage documenting At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta,...

At the heart of maximalist rock outfit The Mars Volta are two friends: guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López and vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala. The pair met as El Paso high-schoolers obsessed with punk music, and soon began a creative partnership that lasted through multiple bands, scores of albums and hundreds of explosive live shows.

The centerpiece of their creativity is a constant search for fresh sounds and ideas, and the new film about their friendship — “Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird” — pushes the music documentary format forward as well. The film, out in select theaters Wednesday via Oscilloscope Laboratories, was directed by Nicolas Jack Davies, who took the job as a fan of the duo’s work since their breakout as members of post-punk group At the Drive-In. The pair had been interested in telling their story via hours and hours of candid video footage Rodríguez-López had recorded since his childhood,...

The world of music documentaries is a complex one.

There are plenty of films covering the biggest artists in the world from Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé to Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, Hulu’s Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band and Martin Scorsese-produced Beatles ’64.

But under the surface, music like alternative music scenes themselves, there’s a phalanx of weird and interesting films about lesser known artists, where the story is often as strange and endearing as the artists. These often become the films that have longevity, from The Decline of Western Civilization to Dig!

This is where the Sound Unseen Film Festival comes in. Held in the Twin Cities across a variety of cinemas in and around Minneapolis, the festival showcases a slew of leftfield films from interesting directors and filmmakers such as Omar & Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird, Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted,...

The Mars Volta / At the Drive-In documentary, Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird, is receiving a theatrical release on November 20th, and an extended trailer can be streamed now.

The Nicolas Jack Davies-directed doc follows the musical journey and friendship of Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala, from their early days cutting their teeth in El Paso’s hardcore scene with At the Drive-In, to their legacy-defining work with The Mars Volta, and subsequent personal fallout.

Get The Mars Volta Tickets Here

“Their immense artistic success gave way to deep personal fissures that ended their musical partnership in 2013, and inflicted wounds that would take more than a decade to heal,” states the film’s press release. “Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird charts the duo’s intense and profound journey as they navigate success, addiction, tragedy, betrayal, forgiveness and, ultimately, redemption.”

Over the course of multiple decades,...

The Mars Volta / At the Drive-In documentary, Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird, is receiving a theatrical release on November 20th, and an extended trailer can be streamed now.

The Nicolas Jack Davies-directed doc follows the musical journey and friendship of Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala, from their early days cutting their teeth in El Paso’s hardcore scene with At the Drive-In, to their legacy-defining work with The Mars Volta, and subsequent personal fallout.

Get The Mars Volta Tickets Here

“Their immense artistic success gave way to deep personal fissures that ended their musical partnership in 2013, and inflicted wounds that would take more than a decade to heal,” states the film’s press release. “Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird charts the duo’s intense and profound journey as they navigate success, addiction, tragedy, betrayal, forgiveness and, ultimately, redemption.”

Over the course of multiple decades,...

Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird, which first premiered at South by Southwest in March, is heading to select theaters nationally on Nov. 20 via Oscilloscope Laboratories. The documentary focuses on bandmates and friends Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s lives and musical partnerships in seminal bands including the Mars Volta and At the Drive-In. The Nicolas Jack Davies-directed documentary incorporates thousands of hours of footage culled by Rodríguez-López.

The new trailer Rolling Stone exclusively premieres here gives a peek into the musicians’ four-decade musical partnership and friendship,...

“Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird,” a documentary about the creative partnership between Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala, has been acquired by Autlook for global rights.

The film, which is getting its U.S. premiere at this year’s South by Southwest festival, focuses on the duo behind the influential rock bands the Mars Volta and At the Drive-In. Nicolas Jack Davies directed the film, which was produced by Johann Scheerer of Clouds Hill Films in association with Pulse Films. Rodríguez-López also scores the doc.

Per a press release, the film “shows the iconic duo’s journey from the hardcore scene in El Paso, Texas, to rock and roll acclaim; from growing up as minorities to their rise to success; from struggles with loss, addiction and Scientology to their blazing comeback. A depiction of love, death, and inspiration — with a soundtrack that has defined a generation.”

The documentary also has a unique format,...

March fest announces multiple competition sections.

SXSW announced on Wednesday that Netflix series 3 Body Problem from Game Of Thrones co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss is the festival’s opening night TV premiere, while Universal’s action comedy The Fall Guy with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt is the centrepiece screening.

Top brass at the Austin, Texas, festival (March 8-16) also unveiled feature and short competitions and Midnighters and Global sections, as well as select titles from other categories and Xr Experience for the 31st edition.

Headliners selections include world premieres of Pamela Adlon’s Babes starring Ilana Glazer,...

Christian Cooke’s directorial debut ‘Embers’ is among the world premieres.

The UK premieres of Jack Huston’s Day Of The Fight and Isabel Coixet’s Un Amor will respectively open and close the 31st Raindance Film Festival, which will take place in London from October 25 – November 4.

Day Of The Flight launched in Horizons at Venice earlier this month, It is the directorial debut of UK actor Huston and stars Michael Pitt, Ron Perlman and Joe Pesci in a story about a once-renowned boxer on his first day out of prison.

Coixet’s latest feature Un Amor stars Lai Costa...

The 31st edition of London’s Raindance Film Festival will open with the U.K. premiere of British actor Jack Huston’s directorial debut “Day of the Fight.”

The film comes to Raindance fresh off its Venice debut, where Huston was honored by Variety as a breakthrough director.

The story of a once-renowned boxer who takes a redemptive journey through his past and present on the day of his first fight since he left prison stars Michael Pitt alongside a cast including Ron Perlman, Joe Pesci, and a cameo from Steve Buscemi.

The U.K. premiere of Isabel Coixet’s “Un Amor” will close the festival after it bows at San Sebastian. Based on Sara Mesa’s bestselling novel, Laia Costa plays a young woman who escapes her stressful life in the city and relocates to rural Spain. When she accepts a disturbing sexual proposal, it gives rise to an all-consuming and obsessive passion.

Event to run on YouTube from May 29 to June 7 and will screen 31 features and 72 shorts.

Thirty-one features will screen at We Are One: A Global Film Festival, the free event set to kick off this week on YouTube with programming curated by more than 21 A-list festivals including Cannes, Toronto, Venice, Berlin, London and Tribeca.

The festival is set to run from May 29 to June 7 and will screen new and classic films.

The programme, announced on Tuesday (May 26) by Tribeca Enterprises and YouTube, includes Venice 2018 selection Beautiful Things by Giorgio Ferrero, and Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy (2013) by Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit,...

Reggae and punk icon Don Letts reminisces about the emergence of Jamaican music in the U.K. in a clip from the documentary Rudeboy: The Story of Trojan Records. Following a year on the film festival circuit, the film is now available on digital streaming services.

“Black and white kids were united through their love of music and style; invariably, a lot of that music was the Trojan stuff,” Letts said of the famed Jamaican label that boasted artists like Jimmy Cliff, the Upsetters, the Maytals, Desmond Dekker and more.