The documentary “Ain’t In It for My Health: A Film about Levon Helm” will be screened at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 6 in McEwen 011. The event is being sponsored by elondocs, the documentary filmmaking program in Elon University’s School of Communications.
The film centers on Levon Helm, who was the drummer and sometimes vocalist for the influential musical group The Band, which broke up in 1976. The film will be followed by a Q&A with the director Jacob Hatley, who Hatley recently spent three years documenting Helm’s current musical career. The documentary debuted at the 2010 South by Southwest film festival.
A synopsis of the documentary from levonhelmmovie.com reads: “Levon Helm finds himself thrust into the musical spotlight for the first time in a quarter century, but a Grammy nomination and ever-growing audiences force him to confront the dark times that have haunted him since The Band’s demise: throat cancer, bankruptcy, drug addiction and the tragic loss of bandmates Richard Manuel and Rick Danko. Win or lose, Levon is an artist who will not go quietly into the night.”
To watch a short clip from the film, click the following:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t8cssSH1Tg
To read and article about the film written by the filmmaker, click the following:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-hatley/aint-in-it-for-health-a-f_b_495545.html