Seamus Murphy film with PJ: "A Dog Called Money"

[DrDark]

This certainly deserves its own thread. From Pollly's official web site:

"A Dog Called Money – a new film written and directed by photographer/director Seamus Murphy – is a uniquely intimate journey through the inspiration, writing and recording of PJ Harvey’s album, The Hope Six Demolition Project.

The feature documentary provides a glimpse into Harvey’s creative process, filming her in a London recording studio and during her travels with Murphy to Afghanistan, Kosovo and Washington D.C..

Seamus Murphy commented: “Polly and I know and trust each other. Enough for her to travel with me to Afghanistan and other challenging places, and for me to believe she’d bring back magic. She then invited me into a big white box behind one-way windows to film every moment of the recording of the songs she brought back. Individually and together, this is our response to what we encountered.”

Produced by Pulse Films, alongside Blinder Films and JW Films, A Dog Called Money is an Official Panorama Selection at Berlinale 2019, where it will receive its world premiere."


Premieres at the Berlin Film Festival, Feb 2019:
https://www.berlinale.de/en/presse/pres ... 47450.html
https://deadline.com/2018/12/berlin-pan ... 202522004/

Announced on Polly's official Instagram account:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Brk7Hz-gdXy/

Supposedly Seamus will post more pics:
https://www.instagram.com/murphyseamus3/

[Scuttlescub_51]

I hope they put out a trailer for the documentary soon.

[hopewell]

Screening times and venues for the Berlin Film Festival have been announced. It premieres on February 9th and will be shown six times:

https://www.berlinale.de/en/programm/be ... ning_dates

There is also a synopsis on the website:

A child curiously presses its face against the window of a car in which British musician PJ Harvey and photojournalist and filmmaker Seamus Murphy are sitting. They are in Kabul, Afghanistan, one of three destinations to which they are travelling; the others are Kosovo and Washington, D.C. Harvey is searching for inspiration; collecting impressions and words, observing, listening and absorbing. Her thoughts can be heard in voice-over. Hers is the chronicle of a stranger whose attentive gaze is directed towards the reality of everyday life in the places she visits. Inspiration turns into poetry, which gives rise to songs for her album ‘The Hope Six Demolition Project’. Back in London, Harvey records these songs with her band in a purpose-built studio which serves as a kind of peepshow, its one-way window allowing interested audiences to observe the process.

Seamus Murphy transposes Harvey’s search for inspirational material and her intimate creative process into an impressively poetic montage that never once divests the musician of her enigmatic aura. A Dog Called Money merges the filmmaker’s and the musician’s visions in an extraordinary symbiosis.

[brownbrown]

Yesterday I watched the film. It is such a great documentary. Not only because it is about Polly, but it is also about world politics and conflicts issues and how it affects an artist.

I think Seamus Murphy directed is really well. You can see contradiction between three countries but human is human everywhere.

During the film, Polly's voice over and talks about people they met and also her thought when they were travelling.

Film opens with very different vocal version of The Orange Monkey, it sounds like a different song. There are not any instruments just Polly's voice.

Polly is serious and also funny like every time with her attitude. Doing funny voices during recording.

Seeing her in Afghanistan walking in Kabul streets wearing winter clothes like a man and only you can see her face.

Also seeing her sitting on the floor with children, drinking tea and playing ethnic instruments is great. I admire her again for her artistic point of view.

There are different version of some songs but not whole songs. Some vocal and instrument practising.

Whole and same album versions of I'll Be Waiting, The Ministry of Social Affairs and Guilty are used. Versions are same but sound is more like a live version.

The great thing is there is full version of The Age of Dollar (I guess) and much of Homo Sappy Blues, gutiar version of A Dog Called Money John Parish singing and film ends with very very great acoustic version of Dollar Dollar.

Once again, I realised why I love Polly as an artist. She can leave all her ego and prejudice every time she does something.

This documentary helps to be witness how she really went those countries, experiencing everything.

When I read and heard everything about the album, it was a great thing but to see how it is produced with all of hard work, firstly Polly but also with all other people around her, is great.

[AineteEkaterini]

Thank you!

[bruise]

Yesterday I watched the film.

How did you manage to watch it before its premiere?

[brownbrown]

I completed my PhD in cinema and I am working in festival business so we generally have online encrypted links of the films before screenings.

[Cartman]

Will this ever be available to the general public?

[brownbrown]

The link that we received will be not I guess because distribution company told that the film will have screenings on various festivals during 2019 around the world. They might release DVD or digital version in late 2019.

[Hell and High Water]

Here's an excerpt from the film!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv14AaVbKFw

[TheNightingale]

Interesting excerpt (albeit already removed - managed to see it a day or two ago). I just hope the whole documentary has less of a vibe of a rich white lady walking incognito through an unprivileged areas and marveling at poverty. I'm more interested in the actual production process of the album than PJ's random thoughts about people at a Kabul street market.

[blackngreen19]

Interesting excerpt (albeit already removed - managed to see it a day or two ago). I just hope the whole documentary has less of a vibe of a rich white lady walking incognito through an unprivileged areas and marveling at poverty. I'm more interested in the actual production process of the album than PJ's random thoughts about people at a Kabul street market.

Haha, I agree! I wasn't blown away by the preview. Not a big fan of documentaries with voice-overs. I'd rather judge for myself and not be told how to interpret things. And thought her impressions were... exactly as you said... a rich woman only seeing poverty and ignoring the beauty.

But it's only one minute of a 90 minute documentary... completely taken out of context. Not even a real trailer. The review above makes me relieved to hear it's going to be much more than what that preview shows us.

[DrDark]

The clip still works on the festival's website:
https://www.berlinale.de/en/programm/be ... =201913695

[brownbrown]

In Kosovo, she enters an abandoned house (that same house you can see a short version in the video clip of "The Wheel") and she says "I am stepping their things in my expensive leather sandals" so I guess she knows she is outsider and also rich. Also in Afghanistan, she says in a house that "I hope we know when to leave" like in her poem called "The Guest Room" also referencing politics.

The documentary has linear editing. You see the story first and then how it became a song. For example, you see the woman walking with the keys and hear her story from Polly's voice and then you see making of "The Chain of Keys" or you see the boy who has a dog called money and then the making of "A Dog Called Money". The film is going like that for almost each song. However, some songs are missing.

When you see travelling parts, also you can realise how melodies of the songs created. Especially "The Ministry of Defence", "The Ministry of Social Affairs" and "The Orange Monkey".

She is doing what she did over twenty years I guess. She was telling the stories of love and one's personal life from her perspective and now she is telling the stories of other people using her obervation again.

Just to mention, there are scenes from Seamus Murphy's other travels such as Syria and Greece so it is a work of Seamus Murphy as much as Polly's I think.

Apart from Polly, the film is about awareness of others through scenes, music and words.

[DrDark]

Seamus's Instagram posted a new pic of Polly from Somerset House in 2015:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BtlaVjbApEo/