Do It Again (documentary)
Encyclopedia
Do It Again is a 2009 documentary film
directed by Robert Patton-Spruill
and produced by Boston Globe reporter Geoff Edgers. The film follows Edgers on his quest to reunite British rock
band The Kinks
. Along the way he interviews several musicians and celebrities (including Sting, Zooey Deschanel
, and Clive Davis
), discussing with them the band's music and influence, as well as their sentiments towards a potential Kinks reunion. Shooting for Do It Again began in the spring of 2008, and it made its debut at the Rotterdam International Film Festival in January 2010. Do It Again showed at several film festivals around the world throughout 2010, and was picked up for broadcast on public television in late 2011.
, Peter Buck
, Zooey Deschanel, Clive Davis, Warren Zanes, and Robyn Hitchcock
.
Edgers eventually travels to London in an attempt to bring together The Kinks' original lineup: the Davies brothers, Pete Quaife
, and Mick Avory
. Edgers interviews Avory and visits the annual Kinks fan club convention at the Boston Arms pub, where he talks to former drummer Bob Henrit
. Ray Davies makes a surprise visit at the convention. He refuses to give an interview to Edgers and requests that the crew not film his performance with The Kast Off Kinks
.
Later, Edgers is informed that Dave Davies is willing to grant an interview. They meet at an undisclosed location outside London and discuss Dave's relationship with his brother. Dave comments that "I think Ray was probably happy ... for a whole three years in his life, and that was from the age of zero to three, when I wasn't there, and I think I kind of rained on his parade a bit ... I think sadly, it never went away." At the end of the conversation, Edgers and Davies play the song "Strangers" together. He then returns home to Boston. As the credits roll, Edgers and a classroom of children sing Weird Al Yankovic's parody of The Kinks' 1970 hit "Lola
".
, Jack White
, Eddie Van Halen
, and the band Green Day
. Edgers and Patton-Spruill consulted with writer Tom Perrotta
, Super Size Me
director Morgan Spurlock
, and Buffalo Tom's Bill Janovitz
.
, Cleveland International Film Festival
, Independent Film Festival of Boston
, Nashville Film Festival
, Taipei Film Festival
, Indianapolis International Film Festival
, and Pusan International Film Festival
.
, Austin
, Hawaii
, Connecticut
, Louisiana
, Oregon
, Wichita
and Atlanta. The broadcast debut is currently set for 9:00 p.m. on September 15th, 2011 on WGBH
Boston.
called the film a "crowdpleaser that will connect even with auds unfamiliar with the Kinks' legacy", and The Huffington Post
gave it a positive review, summarizing it as "a hilarious romp and clever distraction from a crumbling America and the middle class barbecue. In fact, this film is more. Like a sneaky octopus, it wraps you up, and when squeezing the laughter out of you, out flies a picture of your life." Shaula Clark of the Boston Phoenix gave Do It Again a negative review, but noted that "marvelous things occasionally happen — his off-the-cuff jam session with Sting is electrifying. And whether Edgers delights or horrifies you, you’ll likely spend the film muttering, 'I can’t believe he’s doing this.'" Sean O'Connell of Hollywoodnews.com noted that the film, "as all good docs do, draws us into Edgers' personal mission, and we suffer as this journalist deals with salary cuts at his unstable job and wince as Ray (and his publicity associates) plays hard-to-get with Edgers' dream. ... It's a rollicking trip through music history, and a worthy personal journey too many of us will be able to relate to."
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
directed by Robert Patton-Spruill
Robert Patton-Spruill
Robert Patton-Spruill is an independent film director, screenwriter, producer, and teacher. His company, FilmShack, is based in Boston. Spruill lives in Roxubury, MA with his wife and daughter...
and produced by Boston Globe reporter Geoff Edgers. The film follows Edgers on his quest to reunite British rock
British rock
British rock describes a wide variety of forms of music made in the United Kingdom. Since around 1964, with the "British Invasion" of the United States spearheaded by The Beatles, British rock music has had a considerable impact on the development of American music and rock music across the...
band The Kinks
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...
. Along the way he interviews several musicians and celebrities (including Sting, Zooey Deschanel
Zooey Deschanel
Zooey Claire Deschanel is an American actress, musician, and singer-songwriter. In 1999, Deschanel made her film debut in Mumford, followed by her breakout role as young protagonist William Miller's troubled older sister Anita in Cameron Crowe's 2000 semi-autobiographical film Almost Famous...
, and Clive Davis
Clive Davis
Clive Davis is an American record producer and music industry executive. He has won five Grammy Awards and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer. From 1967 to 1973 he was the President of Columbia Records. He was the founder and president of Arista Records from 1975...
), discussing with them the band's music and influence, as well as their sentiments towards a potential Kinks reunion. Shooting for Do It Again began in the spring of 2008, and it made its debut at the Rotterdam International Film Festival in January 2010. Do It Again showed at several film festivals around the world throughout 2010, and was picked up for broadcast on public television in late 2011.
Plot
Geoff Edgers is a reporter for the Boston Globe. Facing a mid-life crisis, he decides to embark on a quest to reunite his favorite band, The Kinks. Founded in 1964 by oft-feuding brothers Ray and Dave Davies, the group split in 1996 due to creative tension and poor record sales. Edgers travels around America, interviewing and gaining the support of several personalities, including Sting, Paul WellerPaul Weller
Paul Weller is an English singer-songwriter. Starting with the band The Jam , Weller then went on to branch out musically to a more soulful style with The Style Council...
, Peter Buck
Peter Buck
Peter Lawrence Buck , is an American rock guitarist who is best known for playing in and co-founding alternative rock band R.E.M....
, Zooey Deschanel, Clive Davis, Warren Zanes, and Robyn Hitchcock
Robyn Hitchcock
Robyn Rowan Hitchcock is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. While primarily a vocalist and guitarist, he also plays harmonica, piano and bass guitar....
.
Edgers eventually travels to London in an attempt to bring together The Kinks' original lineup: the Davies brothers, Pete Quaife
Pete Quaife
Peter Alexander Greenlaw "Pete" Quaife was an English musician, artist and author. He was a founding member and the original bass guitarist for The Kinks, from 1963 until 1969....
, and Mick Avory
Mick Avory
Michael Charles "Mick" Avory is an English musician, best known as the longtime drummer and percussionist for the British rock band, The Kinks, joining them shortly after their formation in 1964 and remaining with them until 1984, when he left amid creative friction with guitarist Dave Davies...
. Edgers interviews Avory and visits the annual Kinks fan club convention at the Boston Arms pub, where he talks to former drummer Bob Henrit
Bob Henrit
Bob Henrit is an English drummer who has been a member of several musical groups, including Buster Meikle & The Daybreakers, The Hunters, Unit 4 + 2, The Roulettes, Argent and The Kinks....
. Ray Davies makes a surprise visit at the convention. He refuses to give an interview to Edgers and requests that the crew not film his performance with The Kast Off Kinks
The Kast Off Kinks
The Kast Off Kinks are a band composed of members formerly in the British Invasion band The Kinks. They mostly tour Europe and attend reunion for fans and for charity, such as the Leukemia Research Fund...
.
Later, Edgers is informed that Dave Davies is willing to grant an interview. They meet at an undisclosed location outside London and discuss Dave's relationship with his brother. Dave comments that "I think Ray was probably happy ... for a whole three years in his life, and that was from the age of zero to three, when I wasn't there, and I think I kind of rained on his parade a bit ... I think sadly, it never went away." At the end of the conversation, Edgers and Davies play the song "Strangers" together. He then returns home to Boston. As the credits roll, Edgers and a classroom of children sing Weird Al Yankovic's parody of The Kinks' 1970 hit "Lola
Lola (song)
"Lola" is a song written by Ray Davies and performed by The Kinks which details a romantic encounter between a young man and a transvestite he meets in a club in Soho, London....
".
Production
"Do It Again" was filmed over a period of two years, largely in Boston but with shoots also in London, New York and Los Angeles. The film was edited by Emerson graduate Brad Allen Wilde, one of Patton-Spruill's former students, and more than a dozen other Emerson students were involved in its production. During filming, Edgers requested interviews with more than 60 musicians and was rejected by over 50, including Aimee MannAimee Mann
Aimee Mann is an American rock singer-songwriter, guitarist and bassist.-Early life:Aimee Mann grew up in Bon Air, Virginia, graduated from Open High School in 1978 and attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, but dropped out to sing with her first punk rock band, the Young Snakes...
, Jack White
Jack White (musician)
Jack White , often credited as Jack White III, is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and occasional actor...
, Eddie Van Halen
Eddie Van Halen
Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
, and the band Green Day
Green Day
Green Day is an American punk rock band formed in 1987. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool...
. Edgers and Patton-Spruill consulted with writer Tom Perrotta
Tom Perrotta
Thomas R. Perrotta is an Albanian-American/ Italian-American novelist and screenwriter best known for his novels Election and Little Children , both of which were made into critically acclaimed, Academy Award-nominated films...
, Super Size Me
Super Size Me
Super Size Me is a 2004 American documentary film directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, an American independent filmmaker. Spurlock's film follows a 30-day period from February 1 to March 2, 2003 during which he eats only McDonald's food...
director Morgan Spurlock
Morgan Spurlock
Morgan Valentine Spurlock is an American documentary filmmaker, humorist, television producer, screenwriter and journalist best known for the documentary film Super Size Me...
, and Buffalo Tom's Bill Janovitz
Bill Janovitz
Bill Janovitz is best known as the singer and guitarist of the alternative rock band Buffalo Tom.-History:After enrolling at the University of Massachusetts, Janovitz formed Buffalo Tom with fellow students Chris Colbourn and Tom Maginnis. A friendship with J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr...
.
Festivals
Do It Again premiered at the Rotterdam International Film Festival on January 28, 2010. Other notable screening locations included Full Frame Documentary Film FestivalFull Frame Documentary Film Festival
The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is an annual international event dedicated to the theatrical exhibition of non-fiction cinema. Each spring Full Frame welcomes filmmakers and film lovers from around the world to historic downtown Durham, North Carolina for a four-day, morning to midnight...
, Cleveland International Film Festival
Cleveland International Film Festival
The Cleveland International Film Festival, first held in 1977, is the largest film festival in Ohio. The 2010 festival featured over 300 films. Since 1991 the festival has been held at Tower City Cinemas in downtown Cleveland.-Roxanne T...
, Independent Film Festival of Boston
Independent Film Festival of Boston
The Independent Film Festival of Boston is a not for profit film festival in Boston, Massachusetts.- History :The Independent Film Festival of Boston was created in 2003 by the non-profit organization the Independent Film Society of Boston. The festival takes place each April in the Boston area's...
, Nashville Film Festival
Nashville Film Festival
The Nashville Film Festival , held annually in Nashville, Tennessee, is the oldest running film festival in the South and one of the oldest in the United States. In 2009, Nashville Film Festival received close to 2000 submissions from 86 countries, programmed nearly 260 films and had an attendance...
, Taipei Film Festival
Taipei Film Festival
The Taipei Film Festival 台北電影節 is a film festival promoted by the city of Taipei, Taiwan, the Republic of China, through the Taipei City Department of Cultural Affairs....
, Indianapolis International Film Festival
Indianapolis International Film Festival
-Mission & General Information:Founded in 2004, the Indianapolis International Film Festival seeks to create a shared experience by championing films that entertain, challenge and expand perspectives in Indianapolis and beyond...
, and Pusan International Film Festival
Pusan International Film Festival
Busan International Film Festival , held annually in Haeundae-gu, Busan , South Korea, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia...
.
Television
In December 2010 it was announced that a 57-minute cut of Do It Again had been accepted for US television broadcast on public television. Do It Again was picked up by stations in BostonBoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, Wichita
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...
and Atlanta. The broadcast debut is currently set for 9:00 p.m. on September 15th, 2011 on WGBH
WGBH
WGBH-TV, channel 2, is a non-commercial educational public television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. WGBH-TV is a member station of the Public Broadcasting Service , and produces more than two-thirds of PBS's national prime time television programming...
Boston.
Reception
Do It Again received generally positive reviews. VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
called the film a "crowdpleaser that will connect even with auds unfamiliar with the Kinks' legacy", and The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
gave it a positive review, summarizing it as "a hilarious romp and clever distraction from a crumbling America and the middle class barbecue. In fact, this film is more. Like a sneaky octopus, it wraps you up, and when squeezing the laughter out of you, out flies a picture of your life." Shaula Clark of the Boston Phoenix gave Do It Again a negative review, but noted that "marvelous things occasionally happen — his off-the-cuff jam session with Sting is electrifying. And whether Edgers delights or horrifies you, you’ll likely spend the film muttering, 'I can’t believe he’s doing this.'" Sean O'Connell of Hollywoodnews.com noted that the film, "as all good docs do, draws us into Edgers' personal mission, and we suffer as this journalist deals with salary cuts at his unstable job and wince as Ray (and his publicity associates) plays hard-to-get with Edgers' dream. ... It's a rollicking trip through music history, and a worthy personal journey too many of us will be able to relate to."