OUR CINEMA COULD BE YOUR LIFE: Films from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 at Showroom Cinema
Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor
This April, Showroom Cinema looks back on the music of the American Indie Underground, helping tell the story of a group of bands that came from nowhere to reshape the musical landscape. Through a selection of documentaries and fiction features, a new film season — Our Cinema Could Be Your Life — moves from punk and hardcore to alt-rock, Riot Grrrl, and Grunge, charting the explosion of the American underground music scene from 1981-1991.
Scheduled from Friday 5 – Sunday 7 April, the three-day season takes inspiration, and its title, from Michael Azerrad’s book ‘Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Underground 1981-1991′. The book explored the unexamined influence of thirteen bands that changed the landscape of alternative music forever, including Black Flag, Minor Threat, The Replacements, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Mudhoney, and Fugazi.
It’s fitting then that Azerrad will be in attendance for a Q&A following the season’s opening night presentation of We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen, Tim Irwin’s 2005 documentary on 80s punk band the Minutemen — one of the thirteen bands included in Azerrad’s book.
The opening night also marks the 30th anniversary of the death of legendary Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain. Azerrad wrote the only only authorised biography of the band, ‘Come as You are: The Story of Nirvana’.
it’d be criminal to celebrate this music without a party, so Showroom have put together a Saturday night TEEN AGE RIOT featuring music from bands included in the book
Other films featuring artists from ‘Our Band Could Be Your Life’ showing across the weekend include Jem Cohen’s highly acclaimed 1999 film about Fugazi, Instrument and 2021’s Freakscene: The Story of Dinosaur Jr, directed by Philipp Virus, brother-in-law to band-member J Mascis.
Meanwhile, 1991: The Year Punk Broke, featuring Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Babes in Toyland, Mudhoney and more will be followed by a virtual Q&A with its director David Markey. Of course, it’d be criminal to celebrate this music without a party, so Showroom have put together a Saturday night TEEN AGE RIOT featuring music from bands included in the book, films, and the wider alternative scene.
Closing Our Cinema Could Be Your Life is Cameron Crowe’s Seattle-set grunge-classic Singles. Directed by the former music journalist, the 1992 cult film features cameos from members of Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains, and original songs from Paul Westerberg of The Replacements, as it follows a group of twenty-something friends in search of love, sex and connection.
Tickets for the season can be bought individually, or for committed indie-heads, a season pass that will get you in to all of the screenings is available for a very reasonable £25.
