Coming Soon to
Cine
Coming Soon to
Cine
Carnival
a film by Jim Herbert
Limbo District:
Dominique Amet: Vocals/Keyboard
Jerry Ayers: Percussion/Vocals
Kelly Crow: Guitar/Vocals
Tim Lacy: Guitar/Vocals
Davey Stevenson: Bass
Craig Woodall: Vocals/Keyboard
Limbo District in Carnival:
Dominique Amet: Ballerina
Jerry Ayers: Clown
Kelly Crow: Juggler
Tim Lacy: Somnambulist
Davey Stevenson: Bull Fighter
Craig Woodall: Ringmaster
Ciné will be hosting in collaboration with ATHICA, an art exhibit on the Ciné gallery wall an exhibit of limited reprints of Marlys Cox’s iconic photos and Bill Georgia screened posters.
Proceeds go from the sales will go to benefit the Chunklet Music Preservation Project, a Georgia based non-profit 501(c)3.
The landmark movie Athens GA: Inside/Out was the first to aggressively announce the town’s unmatched musical presence to a wider audience. Pylon. Love Tractor. The B-52s. R.E.M. The names that were tossed around in the movie have endured, but the most glaring missing piece of the Athens puzzle is the band that’s featured for less than 30 seconds in the movie: Limbo District.
By the time Inside/Out was released, Limbo District had been broken up for several years and were already considered a mystery. The nod-and-wink crowd of Athens who saw them knew how good they were, but for those that weren’t around in 1981, there was nothing to check out. Zero. No limited run records to stumble across in local cut out bins, no mythical demo tapes, no boombox recordings. Nothing.
The brief clip of Limbo District from Inside/Out was taken from a movie titled Carnival that was filmed in 1982 at a countryside lake outside of Athens. Filmed by UGA art professor Jim Herbert, Carnival serves as his debut music video. The original premise, a 1920’s era German Expressionist Circus respite during their travels across the European countryside, was hatched between the band and Atlanta photographer Marlys Lenz Cox. Cox’s theatrical photographic style shows in the photos. From that day, Marlys chose five photos to hand color. Along for the ride that day was Jim Herbert who brought his camera to film and offer additional direction to the fit, sensual and malleable musical cast.
Herbert’s film style in Carnival is a provocative pastiche of projected Marlys Cox slides shown over blankets compiled with additional moving footage shot from the day — a style Herbert calls “re-photography." Apart from a cast consisting of the band in lavish costumes and a lovely horse named Augie, Marlys and her husband Eric make abrupt cameos in the film, as well. The band’s costumes, each crafted by the band and Marlys Cox, offer oblique criticisms of the member’s respective role within the band. The clown, the mime, the ringmaster, the juggler, the ballerina, the bull fighter.
By the time Jim Herbert’s Carnival was ready to show to unsuspecting audiences in Athens and Atlanta in March and April of 1983, Limbo District was a band was on the brink — broken hearts, heroin, deportation. Shortly after that screening, Limbo District was no more. As time would prove, mystery and intrigue surrounded the band.
After recently writing, designing and self-publishing two books of Georgia-centric music ephemera in less than a year (Plus One Athens and Atlanta, repsectively), noted Chunklet “Janitor of the Year” (for 27 years running) and life-long music fan, Henry Owings decided to do something about the glaring mystery of Limbo District. As one of the producers on the famed Athens band Pylon's box set on New West Records, Henry felt confident that if anybody could conjure the spectre of Limbo Distict, it would be him. And well, here we are. Forty years to the month that Carnival was screened, and Athens gets to witness a cinematic miracle.
This special screening at Ciné will be a night celebrating Jim’s masterpiece film. The original 16mm master tapes were spotlessly digitized by UGA Special Collections. The audio, originally recorded by Mitch Easter at his soon-to-be-famous Drive-In studio in Winston-Salem, has been remixed by David Barbe and mastered by Jason Nesmith at Chase Park Transduction. Video edited by Ian Cone.
In addition to the remastered Carnival, an additional four reels of Herbert material from that day will be shown along with uncovered additional studio recordings that Limbo District made between 1981 and 1982. And as if that wasn’t enough, there will be a Q&A with Jim Herbert hosted by Richard Fausett from the New York Times about the film, the band and that particular day.
Athica will be hosting a pop-up art exhibit in the lobby where there will be limited reprints of Marlys Cox’s iconic photos and Bill Georgia screened posters. Proceeds go to benefit the Chunklet Music Preservation Project, a Georgia based non-profit 501(c)3.
Images courtesy of:
Bill Georgia and Marlys Lenz Cox by permission of the Chunklet Music Preservation Project