Boston Independent Film Festival: Nights of the Living Dead Punks

The Boston Independent Film Festival runs from April 25 through May 1. You can get tickets at their official site. Punk's Not Dead will screen on Thursday, April 26, at 10:00 pm at the Somerville Theatre and on Friday, April 27, at 9:30 pm at the Brattle Theatre.

Silver Jew will screen on Saturday, April 28, at 10:15 pm at the Coolidge, on Sunday, April 29, at 10:15 pm at the Coolidge, and Monday, April 30, at 9:00 pm in Somerville.

"Punk rock died when the first kids said, 'Punk's not dead. Punk's not dead.'" - Silver Jews, "Tennessee"

While we're excited by Fay Grim, the continuation of Hal Hartley's Henry Fool which screens tonight, the music documentaries at this year's Boston Independent Film Festival have us thrilled. The lyric above showcases our imagined connection between the documentary Punk's Not Dead and Silver Jew, the story of country-indie-rock-poet musician David Berman's trip to Israel.

Punk was difficult to describe and even harder to contain - at first. Now, "punk" - or, more accurately, the punk look - is sending products flying off the shelves. In the era of instant communication and niche marketing, all of us are convinced that we're special, unique, rebellious, even as we buy the same products everyone else is.

For that reason, Punk's Not Dead asks if the deceased founders of the punk movement would appreciate this swiping of their material. Some, like Johnny Rotten or Debbie Harry, have clearly benefited from the movement of punk into the mainstream. Others, like Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell, dove underground and stayed there. The last group - well, we don't know because they're dead.

Enter David Berman. His connections to Pavement and his band's critically acclaimed music kept him under the mainstream radar, other than news of a drug addiction and overdose. The same guy who sang that punk rock was dead was somewhat punk himself.

Hence, the documentary Silver Jew is a surprise. The underground Berman rises to the surface, getting clean, finding religion, and taking his band and a camera crew on a tour of Israel.

If you want a broader exploration of the Boston Independent Film Festival, Bradley has a sample schedule if you want to take in a movie a day.

Poster of Punk's Not Dead from IMDB. Image from Silver Jew's official website.