Complete Unknown is an unreleased Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

-themed documentary film that screened at film festivals in Canada and the U.K. in 2003 and 2004. It was co-directed by Canadian filmmakers Griffin Ondaatje and Craig Proctor and features their comically circuitous pilgrimages with cameraman Simon Dragland to Hibbing, the Cafe Wha?

Cafe Wha?

Cafe Wha? is a club in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, New York City that has been home to various musicians and comedians. Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen, The Velvet Underground, Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys, Kool and the Gang, Peter, Paul & Mary, Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, Joan...

, Big Pink and other Dylan landmarks. En route the filmmakers discuss and debate the finer points of Dylan's artistic legacy while frequently disagreeing on camera over the direction the film should take (hagiographic v. iconoclastic). The film also features Super 8 home movie footage shot by the McGarrigle Sisters at the infamous Newport Folk Festival

Newport Folk Festival

The Newport Folk Festival is an American annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the previously established Newport Jazz Festival...

 in 1965 when Dylan first "went electric" and an interview with the audience member who shouted "Judas" during the controversial Manchester Free Trade Hall

Free Trade Hall

The Free Trade Hall, Peter Street, Manchester, was a public hall constructed in 1853–6 on St Peter's Fields, the site of the Peterloo Massacre and is now a hotel. The hall was built to commemorate the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. The architect was Edward Walters The hall subsequently was...

 concert in 1966.

Interviews with musicians Billy Bragg

Billy Bragg

Stephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...

, Steve Earle

Steve Earle

Stephen Fain "Steve" Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and Texas Country as well as his political views. He is also a producer, author, a political activist, and an actor, and has written and directed a play....

, Odetta

Odetta

Odetta Holmes, known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a human rights activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals...

, Martin Carthy

Martin Carthy

Martin Carthy MBE is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon and later artists such as Richard Thompson since he emerged as a young musician in the early days...

, Bruce Cockburn

Bruce Cockburn

Bruce Douglas Cockburn OC is a Canadian folk/rock guitarist and singer-songwriter. His most recent album was released in March 2011. He has written songs in styles ranging from folk to jazz-influenced rock to rock and roll.-Biography:...

, Kate and Anna McGarrigle

Kate and Anna McGarrigle

Kate and Anna McGarrigle, were a pair of Canadian singer-songwriters from Quebec, who performed as a duo until Kate McGarrigle's death on January 18, 2010.-Profile:...

, Jane Siberry and The Be Good Tanyas

The Be Good Tanyas

The Be Good Tanyas are a Canadian traditional music group, whose influences included folk, country, and bluegrass. The style of music they performed can be referred to as alt-country or Americana.-Career:...

; filmmaker Gillian Armstrong

Gillian Armstrong

Gillian May Armstrong is an award-winning Australian director of feature films and documentaries.- Career :Born in Melbourne, Victoria, Gillian Armstrong grew up in the eastern suburb of Mitcham. She graduated from Swinburne Technical College in 1968 where she studied theatrical costume design and...

; writers Robert Creeley

Robert Creeley

Robert Creeley was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school's. He was close with Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, John Wieners and Ed Dorn. He served as the Samuel P...

, Jonathan Lethem

Jonathan Lethem

Jonathan Allen Lethem is an American novelist, essayist and short story writer. His first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was published in 1994. It was followed by three more science fiction novels...

, Michael Winter, Robert Morgan and Robert Fulford; as well as academics such as Stephen Scobie

Stephen Scobie

Stephen Scobie is a Canadian poet, critic, and scholar.Born in Carnoustie, Scotland, Scobie relocated to Canada in 1965...

, Graeme MacQueen and Rob Bowman

Rob Bowman (music writer)

Rob Bowman is a contemporaneous Canadian professor of ethnomusicology and a music writer. He currently lives in Toronto with both his children....

 are a central component of the documentary. But the film also relies on the expertise of anonymous and "uncredentialed" fans in attempting to arrive at a comprehensive assessment of Dylan's abiding cultural impact.

The soundtrack features Earle, Siberry, The Tanyas, Age Aleksandersen and Al Tuck

Al Tuck

Al Tuck , is a Canadian songwriter and folksinger, originally from Prince Edward Island. He has spent much of his career based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia.-Biography:...

.

The film premiered at the 2003 Atlantic Film Festival

Atlantic Film Festival

The Atlantic Film Festival is an international film festival held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.Held annually, the ten-day celebration of film and video from Atlantic Canada and around the world is committed to screening an inspiring and engaging collection of films and videos from Canada and the...

 and played the Calgary Film Festival and the Birmingham Screen Festival. It was also selected for Detroit Docs and pre-selected for Sundance

Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...

 and Cannes

Cannes

Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....

.

External links

• Globe and Mail feature
• http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v5/content/subscribe?user_URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2FArticleNews%2FTPStory%2FLAC%2F20030617%2FRVONDA%2F%2F%3Fquery%3Ddylan&ord=2254925&brand=theglobeandmail&force_login=true
• The Independent
  The Independent
  The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
  
  reference
• http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20040311/ai_n12773372