MILFORD GRAVES FULL MANTIS

MILFORD GRAVES FULL MANTIS

    Price: $350.00

    Code: 2580

    Directed by Jake Meginsky
    Co-directed by Neil Young
    2018, 91 minutes
    Purchase: $350 | Classroom rental $125

    Milford Graves Full Mantis is a feature-length portrait of renowned percussionist Milford Graves, exploring his kaleidoscopic creativity and relentless curiosity.

    Graves has performed internationally since 1964, both as a soloist and in ensembles with such legends as Albert Ayler, Giuseppi Logan and Sonny Sharrock. He is a founding pioneer of avant-garde jazz, and he remains one of the most influential living figures in the evolution of the form.

    The film draws the viewer through the artist’s lush garden and ornate home, into the martial arts dojo in his backyard and the laboratory in his basement - all of this just blocks from where he grew up in the housing projects of South Jamaica, Queens. Graves tells stories of discovery, struggle and survival, ruminates on the essence of 'swing,' activates electronic stethoscopes in his basement lab to process the sound of his heart, and travels to Japan where he performs at a school for children with autism, igniting the student body into an ecstatic display of spontaneous collective energy.

    Oscillating from present to past and weaving intimate glimpses of the artist’s complex cosmology with blistering performances from around the globe, Milford Graves Full Mantis is cinema full of fluidity, polyrhythm and intensity, embodying the essence of Graves’ music itself.



    Subjects & Collections



    Festivals & Awards

    WINNER - Independent Vision Jury Prize - Sarasota Film Festival 2018
    WINNER - Best Documentary - Oak Cliff Film Festival 2018
    OFFICIAL SELECTION - International Film Festival Rotterdam 2018
    OFFICIAL SELECTION - SXSW Film Festival 2018
    OFFICIAL SELECTION - CHP:DOX 2018
    OFFICIAL SELECTION - Sheffield Documentary Film Festival 2018
    OFFICIAL SELECTION - Art of the Real 2018





    Further Reading

    For Milford Graves, Jazz Innovation Is Only Part of the Alchemy - The New York Times

    Trailer


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