Le retour du vinyle

The vinyl record renaissance over the past decade has brought new fans to a classic format and transformed our idea of a record collector: younger, both male and female, multicultural. This same revival has made buying music more expensive, benefited established bands over independent artists and muddled the question of whether vinyl actually sounds better than other formats. Vinyl Nation digs into the crates of the record resurgence in search of truths set in deep wax: Has the return of vinyl made music fandom more inclusive or divided? What does vinyl say about our past here in the present? How has the second life of vinyl changed how we hear music and how we listen to each other?

Cold War Leningrad: In a culture where the recording industry was ruthlessly controlled by the state, music lovers discovered an extraordinary alternative means of reproduction: they repurposed used x-ray film as the base for records of forbidden songs. Giving blood every week to earn enough money to buy a recording lathe, one bootlegger Rudy Fuchs cuts banned music onto such discarded x-rays to be sold on street corners by shady dealers. It was ultimate act of punk resistance, a two-fingered salute to the repressive regime that gave a generation of young Soviets access to forbidden Western and Russian music, an act for which Rudy and his fellow bootleggers would pay a heavy price.

Joca, a 21-year-old, hosts a gathering with friends at his home. As a vinyl enthusiast, he showcases his collection and plays one of the records. His friends - Vitor and Rebeca - arrive, and conflicts arise. Vitor and Joca argue about Joca's record collection, leading to Rebeca feeling unwell. The next day, Joca wakes up with little memory of the previous day, finding a bottle of alcohol indicating excessive drinking. Before he can reflect on the night, he receives a mysterious delivery: a vinyl record. The record plays a bizarre song with warnings for Joca, but he doesn't take them seriously. Mysterious phenomena start occurring, leading to a mysterious revelation for the character.

Guerilla filmmaker Brendan Toller unleashes I NEED THAT RECORD! THE DEATH (OR POSSIBLE SURVIVAL) OF THE INDEPENDENT RECORD STORE, "an elegy for a vanishing subculture...a lively, bittersweet film that examines - with caustic humor, brutal candor, and, ultimately, great affection - why roughly 3,000 indie record stores have closed across the nation over the past decade," (Johnathan Perry, Boston Globe). A tour-de-force tale of greed, media consolidation, homogenized radio, big box stores, downloading, and technological shifts in the music industry told through candid interviews, crestfallen record store owners, startling statistics, and eye-popping animation. Fat cats or our favorite record stores? You decide. Featuring- IAN MACKAYE, NOAM CHOMSKY, MIKE WATT, THURSTON MOORE, LENNY KAYE (Patti Smith), CHRIS FRANTZ (Talking Heads), GLENN BRANCA, PATTERSON HOOD (Drive By Truckers), PAT CARNEY (Black Keys) , LEGS MCNEIL, BOB GRUEN, BP HELIUM, and many indie record stores across the U.S.

A documentary film in which a rock fan shows off his obsession and his memorabilia.

RPM music is a small shop in the centre of Newcastle selling vinyl records. Founded by former students, the shop has become a place for people with love of music to come, browse, chat and share their stories. These are some of them.

Vinyl

Ahto, armed with encyclopaedic knowledge and unbound love for obscure music, embarks on a journey to find the rarest vinyl records of the Soviet era.

A documentary that follows a middle-aged Azorean record obsessive who has lost the vinyl collection of his youth, and so seeks to reconnect with it through talking with the fellow island collectors he grew up with about the music scene of their wilder years.

"Vlada Goes to London" is a short student film exploring the strong-willed Vlada on her night shift as a pizza delivery girl in her desperate attempt to book tickets to London and fulfill her dream of being a DJ. The end of the night brings more challenges than she expects.

For the past year or so, brothers Jim and Steve Peters, both ordained ministers, have been traveling around the nation on a mission from God. Convinced that rock and roll is "one of the largest satanic forces in the country," they have been exhorting American kids to build bonfires of albums in public places.

IT CAME FROM AQUARIUS RECORDS tells the story about the San Francisco based independent record store, Aquarius Records. Having closed in 2016 after 47 years, this small apartment-sized store championed local, underground, independent, and challenging music to the masses - most memorably with their infamous bi-weekly, college essay-length, new-release lists. Six years in the making, interviewing collectors, musicians, and store owners, the film has a very personal angle, with lots of behind-the-scenes footage (and drama) that shows both the joy and excruciating stress that comes with running — and closing — a store like this, helped in no part by the changing city around them.

Teenage musicians travel to England's Spike Island in the hope of attending an outdoor performance by their favorite band, the Stone Roses.

In the conservative city of Munich, a local punk starts a record store. Inspiringly, the shop becomes a cultural hub for the worldwide punk community. BLACK WAVE is an intimate look at a resilient music scene set against the backdrop of today’s explosive politics.

Brick and Mortar and Love follows the story of ear X-tacy Records, the legendary record store in Louisville, Kentucky, as it struggles to survive in the changing music retail industry. In-depth interviews include owner John Timmons, staff at ear X-tacy, leaders in the record store industry and scores of independent record store owners from all over the US. These interviews look into the state of the independent record store, what services they provide and what is at stake if they disappear. Independent record stores are not just the place to buy a CD, they are cultural centers where music is learned, art is cultivated and they are vitally important to the communities that they serve.

A hospice nurse working at a spooky New Orleans plantation home finds herself entangled in a mystery involving the house's dark past.

Alex, a happy-go-lucky teenager finds himself falling into trouble, after breaking into the secret headquarters of a mysterious organisation, who mistakes him for a spy.

The film tells the story of Luiz Antônio, a clumsy radio presenter who, unexpectedly, finds himself in charge of a bankrupt and falling apart radio station. Relying only on his passion for rock'n'roll and a crazy team, he created one of the most emblematic radio stations in the history of Brazilian rock, Fluminense FM. Between guitar solos and signal interference, we follow the adventures and misadventures of Luiz who, on top of that, falls in love with a married announcer.

Small town record store owner Clark finds himself losing his grip on reality when a mysterious record opens his eyes up to an ancient evil beyond human comprehension.

When a teen hears a knock at the door late at night, they decide to go investigate.