Community Corner
'Sound City' Rocks Napa Valley Film Festival
Film festival ends Sunday after a week of great weather and crowds at multiple venues.
PHOTOS BY AL FRANCIS AND KERI BRENNER
Musician Dave Grohl's documentary 'Sound City" started out as a history of a recording studio in Los Angeles but morphed into much more.
It became an anthem to music that comes direct from the human heart.
"In this age of technology, where anything can be manipulated to sound like anything, how do you retain the quality that sounds like people -- the human quality?" Grohl told a near-capacity crowd at the Uptown Theatre Napa Sunday.
It was the second time the documentary, part of the Napa Valley Film Festival, was shown in Napa. The first was in May during the Bottlerock Music Festival.
"It's the most amazing film ever," said Denise D'Amico of Mountain View, who said she was seeing "Sound City" for the second time on Sunday. "Dave Grohl is one of my favorite people.
"For anyone who cares about music, it really does give you a tutorial on how things are made and how they used to be made," said D'Amico, adding that she has also purchased the sound track from the film.
Marian Hubler, a concert producer for Marin-based nonprofit Bread and Roses, said the film illustrates the modern-day dilemma of "high tech vs. high touch" as it affects the music business.
Bread and Roses brings music to people confined in various institutions in the Bay Area.
"Music has an important ability to heal the human element of a person," Hubler said. "To harness that healing power and then use the power of technology to help convey it -- that's our challenge."
Sunday's screening was on the last day of the film festival, which opened on Wednesday.
Large crowds and lots of excitement have accompanied many of the films over the last five days -- and the impressive gala Thursday night might have been the grandest such event in recent Napa history.
At one of the festival venues in St. Helena, the Jarvis Conservatory, a large crowd came out Sunday morning. Films were also being shown at the Cameo Cinema in St. Helena.
A police escort accompanied a VIP inside a tinted windows SUV in St. Helena, according to photos by Napa photographer Al Francis.
Musician Dave Grohl's documentary 'Sound City" started out as a history of a recording studio in Los Angeles but morphed into much more.
It became an anthem to music that comes direct from the human heart.
"In this age of technology, where anything can be manipulated to sound like anything, how do you retain the quality that sounds like people -- the human quality?" Grohl told a near-capacity crowd at the Uptown Theatre Napa Sunday.
It was the second time the documentary, part of the Napa Valley Film Festival, was shown in Napa. The first was in May during the Bottlerock Music Festival.
"It's the most amazing film ever," said Denise D'Amico of Mountain View, who said she was seeing "Sound City" for the second time on Sunday. "Dave Grohl is one of my favorite people.
"For anyone who cares about music, it really does give you a tutorial on how things are made and how they used to be made," said D'Amico, adding that she has also purchased the sound track from the film.
Marian Hubler, a concert producer for Marin-based nonprofit Bread and Roses, said the film illustrates the modern-day dilemma of "high tech vs. high touch" as it affects the music business.
Bread and Roses brings music to people confined in various institutions in the Bay Area.
"Music has an important ability to heal the human element of a person," Hubler said. "To harness that healing power and then use the power of technology to help convey it -- that's our challenge."
Sunday's screening was on the last day of the film festival, which opened on Wednesday.
Large crowds and lots of excitement have accompanied many of the films over the last five days -- and the impressive gala Thursday night might have been the grandest such event in recent Napa history.
At one of the festival venues in St. Helena, the Jarvis Conservatory, a large crowd came out Sunday morning. Films were also being shown at the Cameo Cinema in St. Helena.
A police escort accompanied a VIP inside a tinted windows SUV in St. Helena, according to photos by Napa photographer Al Francis.
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