The rockumentary A Band Called Death has been picked up by Drafthouse Films and will be hitting theaters in North America this summer. The film, directed by Jeff Howlett and Mark Covino, will be screening in SXSW Film Festival’s 24 Beats Per Second category.
Death, for those not into 1970s punk bands, was made up of three teenage brothers from Detroit, Michigan. The group, one of America’s first punk bands, disbanded following personal and professional setbacks leaving “recordings lying dormant in an attic for decades.” But their music was rediscovered by record collectors and internet fans, and even Jack White is now into Death. In an interview with the New York Times, White had this to say about the group: “The first time the stereo played [Death] I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. When I was told the history of the band and what year they recorded this music, it just didn’t make sense. Ahead of punk, and ahead of their time.”
“Howlett and Covino’s film rewrites punk history and also transforms a better-than-fiction music story into a moving, emotional story,” stated Drafthouse Films Creative Director Evan Husney, announcing the acquisition. “We are thrilled to be introducing the legacy of Death to audiences around the country.”
The Plot:
Before Bad Brains, the Sex Pistols or even the Ramones, there was Death. Formed in the early ’70s by three teenage brothers from Detroit, Death is credited as being the first black punk band, and the Hackney brothers, David, Bobby, and Dannis, are now considered pioneers in their field. But it wasn’t until recently – when a dusty 1974 demo tape made its way out of Bobby’s attic nearly 30 years after Death’s heyday – that anyone outside a small group of punk enthusiasts had even heard of them. Equal parts electrifying rockumentary and epic family chronicle, the story of Death is one of brotherly love and fierce, divinely inspired expression.
