Face the music

Jimmy Lindsey, otherwise known as Jay Reatard, died in his sleep Jan. 2010 due to cocaine and alcohol toxicity.

The rising Memphis punk musician’s death marks yet another talent lost in a long line of young artists. New York filmmakers Alex Hammond and Ian Markiewicz intended to profile the musician, but 2011’s music documentary, “Better Than Something: Jay Reatard,” serves as an eerie coda to Lindsey’s life.

A screening of the retrospective is a highlight of the 2011 Sound Unseen Festival, now in its 12th year. The film might represent a tired theme in rock, but the reality of Lindsey’s passing fascinates fans and moviegoers alike.

“The guy was a workaholic. He cared about music more than his own life. Performing, recording, interacting with fans and traveling — that’s what he wanted out of life,” Jim Brunzell, programming director of Sound Unseen, said.

Among the rare footage of Jay Reatard, Bruznell and the staff at Sound Unseen work to bring national independent films to explore sides to music the public rarely sees. Aging rock dads are the subjects of director Andrea Nevins’s “The Other F Word.” From Flea to Mark Mothersbaugh, Nevins portrays the ordinary pitfalls of fatherhood within the realm of rock and roll.

Rock ‘n’ roll

“You’re [at a concert] to be entertained by the music, the vocals, and the guitar: everything that surrounds a concert. A lot of the time we forget that a lot of these musicians have families and young kids,” Brunzell said.

“Better Than Something” and “The Other F Word” only represent two documentaries within Sound Unseen’s vast array of screenings.

“We’ve screened everything from a world premiere of an R.E.M. documentary to a Feist documentary,” Brunzell said. “And that was the U.S. premiere last year.”

Hole drummer Patty Schemel’s story, portrayed in “Hit So Hard,” follows her tumultuous heroin addiction during the band’s initial run in the ‘90s.

Close friends with Kurt Cobain, she even refused to be a part of his drug intervention in 1994. After 1998’s “Celebrity Skin,” Schemel left Courtney Love’s famed grunge band due to her increasing drug dependency.

In 2007, Schemel began digitizing her videotapes from her time in Hole. This led to director P. David Ebersole’s involvement in editing the intimate footage of Hole members Love, Eric Erlandson, Melissa Auf Der Maur and the late Nirvana singer, Cobain.

“I gave this very delicate material to a very close friend who could tell my story. All the difficult parts, that’s all part of it. I don’t have any regrets. It is what it is,” Schemel said.

During the grunge movement’s peak in the early 1990s, Schemel even lived with Love and Cobain in Hollywood.

“Making music and writing and performing — it was chaotic and amazing,” Schemel said. “It was just an amazing moment in time. It was unpredictable and at times potentially dangerous.”

Schemel’s story follows her eventual recovery after a period of self-destruction just as countless other rockumentaries. What sets “Hit So Hard” apart may be its inspirational, albeit gentle, addendum to a turbulent life of drugs and excess.

“It’s been really amazing to reconnect with my bandmates, to reconnect as an adult. We were all kids,” Schemel said. “Now I can have adult relationships with them.”

Whether Sound Unseen presents compelling tour footage from Sigur Ros’ U.S. premiere of “Inni” or Hole’s controversy-ridden history, audiences see sides to musicians rarely revealed.

“[With] a lot of music documentaries, you want to dig deep into the subject. You want to get to know about them as a person. Because that’s what they are first and foremost before they are a musician, group, or producer,” Brunzell said. “You want to know what makes them tick.”

Select Sound Unseen screenings:

“Better Than Something: Jay Reatard”

Tonight, 7 p.m.

Trylon Microcinema, 3258 Minnehaha Ave. S,
Minneapolis

“Inni”

Tonight, 9 p.m.

Ritz Theater, 345 13th Ave. NE, Minneapolis

“Hit So Hard”

(Q & A with Patty Schemel following screening)

Friday, 7 p.m. at Ritz Theater

“The Other F Word”

Saturday, 7:30 p.m. at Ritz Theater

Visit soundunseen.com for complete list of screenings