The Oswego Film Group (OFG) presents a free screening of two critically-acclaimed documentaries, Anvil! The Story of Anvil and Heavy Metal Parking Lot at 7 PM on Wednesday, November 4. The films will be shown in the Campus Center Auditorium (118) on the SUNY Oswego campus. The double feature kicks off File Under: Eclectic, the film group’s series of and about music.

A scene from "Anvil! The story of Anvil"

When Canadian schoolmates Steve “Lips” Kudlow and Robb Reiner were teens, they decided their destiny was rock. They formed the heavy metal band Anvil, releasing an influential album and touring the world in the early ‘80s. One of Anvil’s British teenaged fans, Sacha Gervasi, was devoted enough to sign up as an Anvil roadie. Soon though, his musical tastes changed and he stopped following the band. Years later, Gervasi reconnected with Anvil and found that, despite having fallen off the music industry’s radar long ago, Kudlow and Reiner’s band continued to soldier on. Gervasi’s film, Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2007) presents the story of this tenacious band’s all-out effort to reclaim their place in the rock limelight. The film has been praised by The (London) Times as “the greatest movie ever made about rock ‘n’ roll”.

A scene from the film "Heavy Metal Parking Lot"

In 1986, filmmakers Jeff Krulik and John Heyn took their cameras to a suburban Washington DC arena parking lot to interview the crowd congregating before a Judas Priest concert. Heavy Metal Parking Lot, the short film that resulted, created an underground buzz for years as fans copied the videotapes and passed them on, fans that included bands like Nirvana and directors such as Sofia Coppola. Heavy Metal Parking Lot inspired a series of Parking Lot films and a television series from the directors, as well as video takeoffs by everyone from the Backstreet Boys to Lady Gaga—but there’s nothing that comes close to the original.

A discussion of the films will follow the screenings.

The Oswego Film Group (formed in 2005) is dedicated to bringing quality independent film to Oswego and fostering a community of interested film goers. For more information, please visit OFG’s blog: http://oswegofilmgroup.wordpress.com/ or e-mail the film group at oswegofilmgroup@yahoo.com.

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Happy New Year to all of our readers in the tri-county region!
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