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Documentary SOUND AND CHAOS: THE STORY OF BC STUDIO to Make US Premiere 7/17 at Anthology Film Archives

By: Jun. 18, 2014
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"SOUND AND CHAOS: THE STORY OF BC STUDIO", the documentary celebrating Martin Bisi's legendary Gowanus recording studio, makes its U.S. premiere on July 17, 2014 at NYC's Anthology Film Archives.

BC Studio in Brooklyn's Gowanus neighborhood has a rich history. Founded by Martin Bisi, a New York indie rock performer and record producer who has been at a crossroads of indie, punk, avant garde, noire/cabaret rock, and electronic music since the early 80's, for over thirty years, he has worked with many influential musicians there, including Sonic Youth, Swans, Dresden Dolls, Cop Shoot Cop, John Zorn, Africa Bambaataa, Material/Bill Laswell, Boredoms, Herbie Hancock, Angels of Light, John Zorn, Foetus, Helmet, Unsane, Serena Maneesh, US Maple, Jon Spencer's Boss Hog, among others. From its early beginnings in the early '80s, when Bisi founded BC Studio with Bill Laswell, with money from Brian Eno, who subsequently worked on the album "On Land" there, to working with Laswell and the band Material, to recording Herbie Hancock's hit "Rockit", (the studio's first mainstream success, and the first popular song to feature a DJ and a turntable, utilizing "scratching"), Bisi has recorded across many genres, from experimental music, to hip hop and indie rock in the old factory building by the contaminated Gowanus Canal.

Now, to celebrate the iconic studio, filmmakers Sara Leavitt and Ryan C. Douglass are proud to announce the US premiere, after numerous international screenings, of their debut feature film, "Sound and Chaos: The Story of BC Studio" on July 17th at NYC's Anthology Film Archives (32 Second Avenue). There will be two screenings for the documentary, 7PM and 9PM. Here's a link for the screenings: http://anthologyfilmarchives.org/film_screenings/calendar?view=list&month=7&year=2014#showing-42844.

"Sound and Chaos: The Story of BC Studio" captures the history of the studio and the heralded works that were created there and includes interviews with musicians such as Michael Gira of Swans, Brian Viglione of the Dresden Dolls, Bob Bert, who played on Sonic Youth's Bad Moon Rising, Bill Laswell of Material, JG Thirlwell aka Foetus, Michael Holman of Gray (with Jean-Michel Basquiat) and creator of famed 1984 hip-hop TV pilot "Graffiti Rock". On a serious note, it also contemplates the future of the recording studio as it is squeezed in by the encroaching gentrification of the neighborhood and Bisi's fears that increasing property values will push out long-time renters and artists like himself.

Here's a link to view a trailer for "Sound and Chaos: The Story of BC Studio": http://www.soundandchaosfilm.com

Brooklyn-based Leavitt, who graduated from NYU with a degree in Film and Television, and works as a staff editor at Pilot, a television production company, and Austin native Douglass, who is a video editor in LA, started working on the documentary in April 2013. According to Sara, "We met Martin through a mutual acquaintance and were blown away by the wide variety of bands he'd recorded and important moments in music history that took place at his studio. At first we were going to make a short film about him, but everyone we interviewed had so many good stories to tell, that we realized that it would need to be a feature film to contain the scope of everything that has happened there." She continues, ""It was important for us to make this film because we wanted to bring attention to how many groundbreaking albums and important moments in music that happened at this studio."

As the home of the creation of countless indie, experimental and post-punk records, the film's directors felt it was important to document the story of the studio that gives musicians a place to go where they can be creative. "People love these artists and albums but have no idea about the history of where they were recorded. We wanted to give people a behind-the-scenes look at the studio where it's all come together," says Douglass.

From the early 80s until the present, where most recently Bisi has worked with innovative underground artists such as White Hills, EULA, Cinema Cinema, Pop. 1280, WOMAN and Psalm Zero, as Douglass says, "The fact that it's been a haven for artists for over 30 years is amazing. Martin and the studio are inseparable - you can't tell the story of one without the other."

For more information, visit http://www.soundandchaosfilm.com, http://www.martinbisi.com, https://www.facebook.com/soundandchaos or https://twitter.com/soundandchaos.




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