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Jeanie Finlay has just made a feature length documentary called Sound it Out about the last independent record shop left on Teesside. Tom Barker had the pleasure of meeting her before the screening of her film at York City Screen on 9th November.
You premiered Sound it Out at this year’s SXSW festival, how was it? What was the reception like?
It was amazing, the people were queuing round the block for the film. And because it was Texas you can drink an eight dollar milkshake while you watching a film. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, which we were hoping for of course. Because SXSW is a music and film festival it just seemed the perfect place to hold the world premiere of Sound it Out.
It seems very much a community driven film, where you have local bands on the soundtrack and interviews with the shops regulars. Are you therefore surprised at the widespread critical success of the film?
Yes, yes and yes! It wasn’t a film that was made with a great master plan. At first I thought I would just sell it out of Tom’s (the owner of Sound it Out Records) shop. It is a film that I knew I could make on my own without a broad telling me what to do and I knew I could make it on a micro-budget.
How do you think the cuts in arts funding will affect places like Teesside culturally?
I can’t comment on Teesside specifically. But in Nottingham, where I now live, a lot of things have been ruined quite instantly. The Tory Government have slashed money for some really culturally important things. I mean at the moment the total funding for the arts is less than one per cent of the funding to the NHS but because it’s not about saving lives they think it can easily be cut. We are not a country that manufactures anymore, but what we are is leaders in world culture. To stab it in the heart is the ultimate act of a clown called David Cameron. He’s a short sighted idiot, he really is. I was worried about crowd funding the film because I did not want to be associated with his “big society” or any of his ideas because that man is a cancer. I’m sorry but I just hate David Cameron so much.
There is an interesting piece in the film where you shoot people’s faces in close up while listening to a piece of music. Why did you decided to do this?
Well I made art work for galleries for years and this film started as an art work called Please, please, please let me get what I want. In this piece I wanted to get people to perform the song of their life on karaoke. I filmed a lot of people doing karaoke and then I started asking them what the song meant to them. I released it was filming people listening to music that was key.
It says on your website that Sound it Out is crowd funded. What is this?
Yeah, it’s crowd funded so 437 people have backed the film in its various stages. So the idea is that if they help us making the film then they can have a DVD or a record or a YouTube dedication to them. It’s just if everyone helps a little bit then we get there and it has helped me make a film that I otherwise could never have made independently.
What future projects are you working on?
I’m making a documentary for BBC Scotland and BBC Storyville called The Great Hip Hop Hoax. It’s a feature about two Scottish rappers who everyone thought sounded like a rapping Proclaimers. They reinvent themselves as sort of California Home boys. The pair live a lie but get a record deal with Sony. They live a lie yet manage to get a record deal with Sony for 5 years with fake identities and accents. It’s a film about lying but it is also about fame, the people who want it and the people who wanted it and now have to live with it.
Check out The Yorker tomorrow for a review of Sound It Out
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