About A Blog

About A Son Coming to Las Vegas, SF, Maine, Eugene & More; Coming Soon to DVD & Vinyl

Hey everyone,

Sorry we've been out of touch for a while.  Thanks to everyone who's been continuing to come out to the movie, particularly the folks in Canada and in Chicago who have been so supportive of the film.

There are a few more theatrical dates to let you know about:

UPCOMING SCREENINGS:

February 6, 2008 - Oakland Community College, Farmington Hills, MI
February 6, 2008 - International Film Series at UCB, Boulder, CO

Opens February 8, 2008:
LAS VEGAS, NV - Galazy Neonopolis
COLUMBUS, GA - Peachtree 8
EUGENE, OR - Bijou Art Cinemas

Feburary 9, 2008 - Space Gallery, Portland, ME
Febuary 13, 2008 - Cinema Arts Center, Huntington, NY

February 19 & 20 - Red Vic Movie House, San Francisco, CA

Finally, a couple pieces of important news.  First, Barsuk Records is releasing Kurt Cobain About A Son: The Original Score by Steve Fisk and Benjamin Gibbard later this month.  It will be available for download first, followed by a special limited edition vinyl release.

Second, for all of you who have been writing nonstop to ask (and even for those of you who've just been curious), the DVD for Kurt Cobain About A Son, featuring exclusive extras, will be available February 19 from Shout! Factory.

Thanks!

About A Son Now in SF, Berkeley, Minneapolis, Tucson - Coming to Oly, Austin, Portland, SD, Chicago and More

Kurt Cobain About A Son opened today in four new cities and we have several more lined up in our ongoing theatrical run.  Here's all the latest information on theaters.

NOW PLAYING

SAN FRANCISCO
LUMIERE THEATRE
1572 California Street at Polk
San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 267-4893

BERKELEY
SHATTUCK THEATRES
2230 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 464-5980 

MINNEAPOLIS
MINNESOTA FILM ARTS@THE BELL AUDITORIUM
10 CHURCH STREET
MINNEAPOLIS MN 55414
(612) 331-3134

TUCSON
THE LOFT CINEMA
3233 EAST SPEEDWAY
TUSCON AZ 85716
(520) 730-9155

COMING SOON

CHARLESTON, SC
TERRACE THEATER
1956 D Maybank Highway
Charleston, SC 29412
(843) 762-9494
Opens December 7

GREENSBORO, NC
CAROUSEL CINEMAS
1305 Battleground Avenue
Greensboro, NC 27408
(336) 230-1732
Opens December 7

OLYMPIA, WA
CAPITOL THEATER
416 Washington St. SE
Olympia, WA 98501
(360) 754-3635
Opens December 8 thru December 20

GRAND RAPIDS, MI
UICA FILM THEATRE
Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts
41 Sheldon Boulevard SE
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503
(616) 454-7000
Opens December 14

AUSTIN
DOBIE THEATRE
2025 Guadalupe Street
Austin, TX 78705
(512) 472-FILM
Opens December 21

PORTLAND, OR
HOLLYWOOD THEATRE
4122 NE Sandy Blvd
Portland, OR 97212
(503) 281-4215
Opens December 21

SAN DIEGO
THE KEN CINEMA
4061 Adams Avenue
San Diego, CA 92116
(619) 819-0236
Opens January 4, 2008

CHICAGO
THE MUSIC BOX
3733 N Southport Ave
Chicago, IL 60613
(773) 871-6604
Opens January 11, 2008

NOW PLAYING in Boston, Denver, Nashville, St. Louis, Salt Lake, Springfield, MO and continuing in NYC

About A Son expands to six new cities today, opening in BOSTON at the Kendall Square, DENVER at the Starz Film Center, NASHVILLE at the Belcourt, ST. LOUIS at the Tivoli, SALT LAKE CITY at the Broadway Centre Theatres and in SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI at the Moxie. 

Director AJ Schnack will be in attendance at evening screenings Friday, November 2 and Saturday, November 3 at the Tivoli in ST. LOUIS and at the evening screenings in SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI on Sunday, November 5.

In addition, the film continues at the IFC Center in NEW YORK CITY, playing late night screenings on Friday and Saturday night.

Boston Globe Review: A Gripping, Minimalist Marriage of Sound and Image

From Joan Anderman at the Boston Globe:

In AJ Schnack's new movie about Kurt Cobain, we don't see Kurt Cobain. There's no explosive concert footage of Nirvana, no critics debating rock history, or old friends remembering when. There's only Cobain's voice, disembodied and hovering like a ghost over an impressionistic montage of logging trucks and teenagers in Aberdeen, Wash., the musician's hometown, seedy bars and filthy apartments in Olympia, Nirvana's birthplace, and the gray skies and bright lights of Seattle, where Cobain went to become a rock star. Not nearly as reluctant a rock star, we learn, as the Cobain mythology would lead us to believe.

"We learn" is the operative term here. "Kurt Cobain About a Son" is a lovely piece of filmmaking, a gripping, minimalist marriage of sound and image. But Schnack's real stroke of genius was leaving out nearly everything you expect to get in a rockumentary about a tragic hero. Cobain's life and death, by his own hand, in 1994, have been probed and analyzed in so many ways by so many observers it's a revelation to simply listen to the man talk.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Review: The Definitive Homage to Cobain

From Joe Williams at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

GRADE: A

"Kurt Cobain: About a Son" is haunted by a teen spirit, the soul of a boy who would grow into a rock legend and die by his own hand at age 27. We never see an image of Cobain until the closing moments of this extraordinary documentary, yet his voice in a series of audio recordings suffuses beautiful images of the place that produced him and inspired his art.

It was a commercial and artistic risk to make a movie about a rock star and never show his face or play his music. But the courage of the director's convictions is the definitive homage to Cobain, a restless ghost who refuses to stay locked in a heart-shape box.

Washington Post Review: A Must - Beautiful, Poetic and Honest

From Ann Hornaday at the Washington Post:

It's hard to believe that a film could be made about Kurt Cobain that would have something of value to add to his already over-mythologized life and death, but "Kurt Cobain About a Son" is just that film, as important for what it reveals about a seminal and grievously misunderstood artist as for how it rejuvenates a moribund documentary form.

AJ Schnack, working with 25 hours of interviews conducted in 1992 and 1993 by Michael Azerrad for his Nirvana book "Come as You Are," has made something beautiful, poetic and honest in "About a Son," a film narrated by Cobain himself as he shares with Azerrad his happy years growing up in Aberdeen, Wash.; his natural affinity for art and music; his early ambition (and abiding love of a slick pop hook); and finally the paralyzing stomach pain that he claimed drove him to self-medication with heroin. Continually throughout these candid, if self-serving, monologues, Cobain, who died in 1994, returns to the primal wound of his life: his parents' divorce when he was 8, which brought his childhood idyll to a sudden and searing end.

As Cobain speaks, gorgeous images of Aberdeen -- as well as Olympia and Seattle, where Cobain eventually lived -- play across the screen, while the music that influenced him (Queen, Mudhoney, Scratch Acid) makes up a soundtrack that doesn't feature one Nirvana song. The result is a film exponentially more vivid and absorbing than the garden-variety rock-doc or biopic. "About a Son" is a must for anyone who still loves Cobain, or still has hope for cinematic portraiture.

About A Son Opens Friday in Washington DC & Amherst, MA; Continues in NYC

Kurt Cobain About A Son continues to come to more US cities tomorrow when it opens tomorrow in WASHINGTON DC at the E Street Cinema and in AMHERST, MASS at the Amherst Cinema Arts Center.  In addition, the film has been held over for a 4th WEEK at the IFC Center in New York City.

If you are in PHILLY or SEATTLE, tonight is your last night to see the film so head out to the Ritz at the Bourse or the Landmark Varsity.

Next week, the film opens in Boston, Denver, Nashville, St. Louis, Salt Lake City and Springfield, Missouri.

Opening Friday in Philly, Held Over in NYC & Seattle, Special Screenings in Philly, NYC & SF

Kurt Cobain About A Son will open this Friday in Philadelphia at the Ritz on the Bourse.  Director AJ Schnack will be in attendance for the evening screenings on Friday, October 19, including a special conversation with Philebrity's Joey Sweeney.

Says Shaun Brady of the Philly City Paper:

RECOMMENDED!  (Director AJ) Schnack refuses to indulge in Ken Burns-y photo montage to illustrate his subject; Cobain's visage doesn't appear until the closing moments, and then only in images of Nirvana onstage, the same way he burst into public consciousness. Instead, the director accompanies the singer's disembodied musings with modern images from the places where the singer lived, depicting the landscape of a life. The cumulative effect sketches Cobain as someone singularly ill-equipped for fame, and his alternately exhausted, whiny and contemplative answers refuse the romanticization that's been thrust upon him.

AJ Schnack will also be in New York City on Saturday afternoon for a Q&A following the 4:05 PM screening at the IFC Center, where the film has been held over for a third week. 

The film has also held over in Seattle at the Landmark Varsity.  Head on out this weekend if your in the area.

Finally, this Saturday night, there's a special advance screening of the film at the Delancey Screening Room in San Francisco, courtesy of your friends at Noise Pop.

New Theatrical Dates: Olympia! Atlanta! Tucson! Chicago!

Still more cities confirmed for our ongoing theatrical run.  Please note - some of the dates have shifted in the incredibly busy fall movie season.  Please check with theatres for times and box office information.  Look for still more dates to be announced in the coming weeks. 

Now Playing:

New York City
IFC Center

Seattle
Landmark Varsity

Los Angeles
Fairfax Cinemas

Pasadena
Academy Cinemas

Coming Soon:

Philadelphia
Ritz at the Bourse Theatre
Opens October 19
Director AJ Schnack in Person on 10/19

San Francisco
Noise Pop Special Advance Screening
The Delancey Screening Room
One Night Only - Saturday October 20

Washington DC
E Street Cinema
Opens October 26

Amherst, MA
Amherst Cinema Arts Center
Opens October 26

Bellingham, WA
Pickford Cinema
4 Days Only!  October 27 - October 30

Boston (Cambridge)
Landmark Kendall Square
Opens November 2

Denver
Starz Film Center
Opens November 2

Nashville
The Belcourt
Opens November 2

St Louis
Landmark Tivoli
Opens November 2

Salt Lake City
Broadway Centre Cinemas
Opens November 2

Springfield, Missouri
Moxie Cinema
Limited Engagement - Opens November 2

Wilmington, NC
Cucalorus Film Festival
One Night Only - November 9

Columbia, SC
Nickelodeon Theatre
Opens November 9

Omaha, NE
Film Streams at the Ruth Sokolof Theater
Opens November 9

Atlanta
Plaza Theatre
Opens November 16

San Francisco
Landmark Lumiere Theatre
Opens November 30

Berkeley, CA
Landmark Shattuck Theatres
Opens November 30

Austin, TX
Dobie Theatre
Opens November 30

Tucson, AZ
The Loft Cinema
Opens November 30

Olympia, WA
The Capitol Theatre
Six Nights Only - Opens December 8

Coming in December (Dates/Times TBA)
Chicago
The Music Box

About A Son Opens in Seattle & Pasadena, Continues in NY, LA

About A Son opens in Seattle today for a week-long run at the Varsity Theatre.  Author/Interviewer and Co-Producer Michael Azerrad will be in attendance for the 7:10 PM screenings on Friday and Saturday, along with photographer Charles Peterson and composer Steve Fisk.

Meanwhile, the film continues its run at the IFC Center in New York and in Los Angeles, it moves from the Nuart to two theaters - the Academy in Pasadena and the Fairfax Cinemas in Los Angeles (just across the street from CBS Television City).

Next Friday: Philadelphia.