Don't Knock the Rock 2024

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL:

The American Cinematheque is proud to present the return of Don’t Knock the Rock, a music-driven documentary and narrative film festival founded in 2003 by filmmaker Allison Anders (GAS FOOD LODGING, GRACE OF MY HEART, MI VIDA LOCA) and musician/music supervisor Tiffany Anders (RESERVATION DOGS, PEN15,  BEEF). Paying special attention not only to the icons and legends in music history but also to artists who blazed trails but may have fallen into obscurity, Don’t Knock The Rock brings fascinating stories both big and small for music and film lovers alike. The return of the iconic festival includes 3 LA premieres and 18 guests including filmmakers Andrew Reich, Issac Gale, Ryan Olson, Stuart Swezey, Ondi and David Timoner and Allan Arkush, musicians Jeff and Steve McDonald, Swamp Dogg, Moogstar, Dr. Jeri and more!

Spanning across seven decades and celebrating the consistent overlapping of film and music, ‘Don’t Knock the Rock’ opens with the LA Premiere of BORN INNOCENT: THE REDD KROSS STORY, a documentary determined to make the case for Redd Kross as the seminal West Coast band of the last half century, whose influence can be felt across a multitude of music genres. On opening night, filmmaker Andrew Reich will be joined by band members Jeff and Steve McDonald in-person for a Q&A following the screening, while filmmaker Andrew Reich will return to introduce the film prior to the film’s closing night showing.

Additional LA Premieres are SWAMP DOGG GETS HIS POOL PAINTED, which explores the life and friendship of cult musician Swamp Dogg and his housemates Moogstar and Guitar Shorty, followed by a Q&A with filmmakers Issac Gale and Ryan Olson and Swamp Dogg, Moogstar and Dr. Jeri; DORY PREVIN: ON MY WAY TO WHERE, a documentary exploring the complex life of Dory Previn, a pivotal contributor to Hollywood musicals who later became an influential cult singer-songwriter in her own right, and who in the wake of her schizophrenia diagnosis, came to revolutionize how we understand mental health. Filmmakers Julia Greenberg and Diana Dilworth will be participating in a post-screening Q&A to discuss the film, and Previn’s life, further.

Featuring more filmmakers and musicians, including filmmaker Stuart Swezey in-person for DESOLATION CENTER, the untold story of a series of Reagan-era guerrilla punk and industrial desert happenings in Southern California that are now recognized as the inspiration for Burning Man, Lollapalooza, and Coachella; filmmakers Ondi and David Timoner for DIG! XX, the 20th anniversary extended edition of the rock documentary DIG! which explores the intersection between art and commerce through the stories of friendship and rivalry of two bands and filmmaker Allan Arkush in-person for GET CRAZY, an anarchic comedy that brings the sex, drugs and rock ’n roll.

Films featured in the return of ‘Don’t Knock the Rock’ include JERRY LEE-LEWIS – TROUBLE IN MIND, an electrifying glimpse into the complex life and thrilling, unparalleled performances of one of rock & roll’s first great practitioner; SMITHEREENS, the 1980’s cult-classic which sees Susan Berman play a young woman who escapes her native New Jersey for the bright lights of New York City in order to reinvent herself and find the stardom she yearns for as a figure in the city’s exploding punk music scene; DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN, another film representative of Susan Seidelman’s layered portraits of women reinventing themselves; THIS IS THE LIFE, a documentary exploring “The Good Life” emcees and the alternative music movement they developed; THE PLASTIC DOME OF NORMA JEAN, a tragedy set in the magical pastoral Ozark countryside about a teenage girl struggling with compromising the future to attend to her Rock n’ Roll aspirations; and the festival’s namesake, DON’T KNOCK THE ROCK with legendary DJ Alan Freed, the classic story about a disc jockey doing his best to convince teenagers’ parents that rock n’ roll is harmless and that they shouldn’t ‘knock the rock.’