Sounds Like Celluoid

Kudos are due to anyone willing to tackle creating a music-oriented film festival, but the organisers of Vancouver's Big Smash, which takes place from April 20 to 25, should be lauded particularly for great taste. The big showcase features diminutive star Paul Williams, who's presenting The Muppet Movie and Phantom of the Paradise, but the rest reads like a who's who from outsider music expert Irwin Chusid (who will introduce Esquivel: The King of Lounge) with docs on Roky Erickson, Albert Ayler and the new chronicle The Devil and Daniel Johnston. Add to that impressive list examinations of Nina Simone, Jeff Buckley, the Minutemen, Joe Strummer and Jamaican soundsystem culture. I'd line up to see The Other Universe of Klaus Beyer, a Beatles-obsessed, 54-year-old mentally challenged German man whose recreations of Beatles albums and films have made him the ultimate lo-fi outsider.