La Blogothèque Showcase – Take away Shows

Thu 05 Apr 2012, 7 pm
Screening Room, Goethe Institut

From the organizer:

The Onion Cellar and Hanoi Doclab are proud to present an official La Blogothèque showcase, screening 17 of their Take Away Shows.

In 2006 Chryde (La Blogothèque’s founder) and French filmmaker Vincent Moon started ‘Take Away Shows’. Armed with the most basic of equipment: a camera and a mic or two (no, no tripod), the pair went around filming whichever bands and musicians happening to be in Paris at the time.

The concept was simple: bands played, La Blogothequè filmed. Sessions would take place in various locations, most of the time out on Parisian streets, but also on buses, in the metro, in parks, restaurants (or as they are called in France, bistros – bee-stroh), parking lots, friends’ apartments, bookshops, along the Seine or across Montmartre, etcetera – always before the eyes of amusing onlookers, and always done in a single take.

Well complimenting the filming, the music is mostly improvised, honest, raw and down-to-earth, though its artistic value could never be hidden. Together, visuals and sounds invoke the same lovely collage feel so well conjured up by films like Paris Je T’aime or Amélie, wrapped in a spontaneity influenced by new-wave and guerrilla filmmaking.

Later on, La Blogothèque would branch out and did sessions in other cities and countries, but there is something about the Take Away Shows that make them instantly recognizable in an age when mainstream music videos all look the same and tiringly artificial. Until now there have been at least 300 sessions, with contribution from a wide range of artists:Beirut, Arcade Fire, Fleet Foxes, Sigur Rós, Caribou, Mojave 3, Stuart Staples (of Tindersticks), Keren Ann, Bon Iver, Yann Tiersen, The National, and many many others…

Note: Ho Chi Minh City screening to be confirmed. For more information please go to facebook.com/theonioncellar or email [email protected]

Free entry.