Andrew Bird: Fever Year

A Wegawam Music Co. production. Produced, directed by Xan Aranda.With: Andrew Bird, Jeremy Ylvisaker, Michael Lewis, Annie Clark, Martin Dosh.Xan Aranda's docu on unclassifiable singer-songwriter-composer Andrew Bird follows the indie artist around the difficult 165-stop concert tour. Reticent about his private existence, Bird eagerly discourses on his music, they readily confesses is his existence. Greater than other activities, Aranda's docu concerns process -- not just a linear one from genesis to performance, but open-ended, jazz-like experimentation where "final form" ought to be avoided. Generously sampling Bird's unique plans, utilizing their intellectual humor, folk tempos, complex structures, whimsical whizzing and signature pizzicato violin, "Fever" should rock the faithful and uninitiated alike. The docu opens and among Bird's intricate, multitrack solo performances, happens cluttered with audio switchers, wires and rotating horn sound system while he orchestrates recorded playbacks along with his foot, works round the violin or guitar, sings and whistles. Round the tour, these one-guy gigs alternate with ensemble dates featuring drummer Martin Dosh (another loner music artist whose introversion Bird identifies with), guitarist Jeremy Ylvisaker and bassist Michael Lewis, Bird clearly finding equal satisfaction in interaction. In using the different stages of creation, Aranda takes her signal from her subject, trading minimal in time it studio, whose microphones Bird describes as "the worst possible audience." At his family's bucolic farm, however, which Bird has transformed in to a soaring, airy studio space, he composes, prerecords loops and rests up from tiring, if inspiring, tours. Sooner or later Aranda slips in grainy clips of earlier tours before Bird's music needed off(2007's "Armchair Apocrypha" offered greater than 100,000 copies), when he drove around in the van playing to "the identical 40 people" in cafes and bars. Though wider fame came worries of sameness and staleness. Bird's need to stay fresh keeps him constantly testing out tunes, welcoming glitches and defects, and writing nothing lower to make sure that she or he must constantly chase the ghost of his original concept. But this obsession, this deep nervous about rote repetition, also serves to stimulate, driving Bird to totally explore the choices as soon as. The docu title's "fever" reference proves literal, Bird suffering chills and flushes daily, leading to philosophical musings round the relationship of creativity to physical discrepancy. The tour finishes getting a tendon injuries that leaves him limping to the level. But what shapes the film might be the background music, delivering a wealthy continuum that very easily includes every facet of the expansion, the amounts usually running inside their whole, overlaid on subsequent shots despite the digital camera cuts. Technical credits stick out, the compositional and color balance in the image matching a topnotch appear mix.Camera (color, HD), Aaron Wickenden, Peter Gilbert, editors, Liz Kaar, Angelo Valencia music, Andrew Bird appear (DTS), Anne Hanson, Jennifer Brandel, Zach Goheen, Michael Slaboch. Examined at NY Film Festival (Special Events), March. 2, 2011. (Also in Vancouver Film Festival.) Running time: 81 MIN. Contact Boyd van Hoeij at news@variety.com