The new documentary “The Source Family” examines 70’s guru Father Yod, his gaggle of sister wives and obligatory Rolls Royce, and the dynamics of psychological manipulation. But unlike other cults we’ve come to know and love, this California group was much more out in the world, even launching a rock band of sorts. The New York Times ran a fascinating background story:

The commune’s house band, originally known as Father Yod and the Spirit of ’76, and later as Ya Ho Wah 13, recorded more than 60 full-length albums in 1973 and 1974, nine of which were sold commercially. Although they started off playing traditionally structured folk-rock, Father Yod soon goaded the band into focusing on what he called spontaneous music — a kind of improvised psychedelia distinguished by wantonly atonal bursts and groove-oriented jams. Ya Ho Wah 13’s recorded output from this era ranges from preposterous — as if a doddering older neighbor had wandered into garage-band practice, then started hollering and walloping a copper drum — to thrillingly unpredictable. There is squall, but there is beauty, too.

Gotta be honest with you . . . never heard of them. But according to the article the old vinyl is highly collectible.

The filmmakers nutshell the story thusly: “The Source Family’s outlandish lifestyle, popular celebrity-hangout restaurant, rock band, and beautiful women made them the darlings of Hollywood’s Sunset Strip; but their outsider ideals, controversial spiritual leader Father Yod, along with his 13 wives, instigated local authorities. They fled to Hawaii, leading to their dramatic demise.”

Running time 98 minutes, favorably reviewed in The New York Times.

Starts Friday, May 24th, Cable Car Cinema, 204 south main Street

The Rhode Island School of Design will present its Film/Animation/Video Festival from May 13th through 19th.  This year’s festival premieres the work of 49 RISD seniors.

The show opens on Monday, May 13th at 7pm with a gallery exhibit of interdisciplinary works downtown at 77 Eddy Street, 3rd Floor. The film screenings will occur at the Main RISD Auditorium at One Market Square, Tuesday through Saturday nights (May 14th through May 18th) at 7pm, and Sunday, May 19 at 2pm. (Complete screening schedule here.)

Admission to the gallery is free; tickets to the film screenings are $5 for general admission, $3 with a RISD ID (or other student ID). For advance ticket orders, email rpaiva@risd.edu with the desired date(s) and number of tickets.  All tickets are to be picked up and paid for at the door.

(4.27) The Rhode Island Film Collaborative presents the inaugural Rock & Reel music and video show at the Columbus Theatre Saturday night.

Nine teams of filmmakers were each paired with a local band to create a music video for one of their songs in one weekend. Come see their work and listen to live performances from the winning bands on Saturday, April 27th, at 9:30 in The Columbus Theatre, Providence, RI.

The evening will begin with performances by the winning bands, performances by local artists and the night will conclude with a showing of all nine music videos and awards.

The bands playing include Eric Barao whose new cd received a highly favorable review from me. I may not be completely unbiased, but I’m also not wrong. Don’t take my word for it, Power Popaholic loves these tunes, as does this guy. Also performing are Phil Ayoub and Jennifer Tefft.

(Photo by Frank C. Grace)

$12 door, 9:30pm, Saturday, April 27, Columbus Theatre, 270 Broadway

(4.27) Jump into the closet with R. Kelly Saturday night at the Cable Car Cinema.

Over the years, some audiences have hailed TRAPPED as the “Plan 9 From Outer Space of music videos,” while others have recognized it as the masterpiece from our generation’s greatest living R&B legend. But whichever camp you fall into, one thing is certain – there will be no better cinematic event this year than singing and dancing and playing with props in a theater full of other R. Kelly fans at the fully interactive R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet Sing-Along.

Props? What could possibly go wrong? But singing and dancing is good. (Someday someone should run this movie as a double-feature with “The Sing-Along Sound of Music” — Von Trapped in the Closet.)

9pm, Saturday, April 27, Cable Car Cinema, 204 South Main Street, 272.3970

The Fifth Annual SENE Film, Arts and Music Festival runs all week at various venues around town and in Warwick. (Go to the website for details and schedule, also Facebook.)

On Wednesday, the Brooklyn Tea and Coffee House will feature live music and a music video event.

The Columbus Theatre on Broadway has screenings on Friday starting at 2pm with the last one starting at 8:30pm, and again on Saturday starting at 11am.

Then at 9:30pm on Saturday night, in the main auditorium of the Columbus Theatre, the Rhode Island Film Collaborative presents the Rock & Reel “Local Music Video Screenings & Awards Presentation” featuring live performances by the featured musicians: Phil Ayoub, Jennifer Tefft, and Eric Barao.

Then head to the Cable Car Cinema on Sunday; screenings start at noon with the last starting at 5pm.  Filmmakers will be in attendance.

(4.21) This is why we need the Cable Car Cinema; they do fun things, like throw a party, with food and live music, and have records for sale to celebrate a movie about records for sale. “Last Shop Standing” is a British documentary new to the U.S.

“Last Shop Standing” takes you behind the counter to discover why nearly 2000 record shops have already disappeared across the UK. The film charts the rapid rise of record shops from the 60′s through the 80’s, the influence of the chart, the underhand deals, the demise of vinyl and rise of the CD as well as new technologies.

Hear from record shop owners, music industry leaders, and musicians including Paul Weller, Johnny Marr, Norman Cook, Billy Bragg, Nerina Pallot, Richard Hawley and Clint Boon as they all tell us how the shops became and still are a part of their own musical education, a place to cherish and discover new bands and new music.

The Rocket Fine Street Food truck will be outside from 5pm on, whilst inside the schedule runs like this:

5pm to 7pm — Area record store vendors (In Your Ear, What Cheer, Armageddon, Analog Underground, and Johnny Maguire of the RI Antiques Mall) will be set up in the cafe.

5:30pm to 6:30pm — Short live music sets from Ted Widmer (former presidential speechwriter and Lord Rockingham of the Upper Crust), Keith McCurdy (of Vudu Sister, accompanied by violin and stand-up bass), the Sugar Honey Ice Tea, and Brian Webb, under the screen in the theater.

7pm — First screening of the film (run time 50 minutes).

Live acoustic music and an all-vinyl DJ spinning in the theater between showtimes.

9:30pm — Second screening.

Sunday, April 21, Cable Car Cinema, 204 South Main Street

Heads up, if you think you see someone who looks like Mark Ruffalo, it might be Mark Ruffalo. Movie folk will be filming in and around the city for the next six weeks. Ruffalo (best Hulk ever) and Zoe Saldana play the leads in “Infinitely Polar Bear” written and directed by Maya Forbes; her credits include “The Larry Sanders Show” so that’s good enough for me. According to the Providence Journal,

The film, set in 1978, follows the story of a manic-depressive father trying to take care of his two young daughters while his wife works on her MBA. Zoe Saldana plays Ruffalo’s wife.

Judging from “The Avengers” Ruffalo can do bipolar; he’ll just have to dial it down a notch (“Hulk sad”). And let’s hope the girls will not be precocious wiseasses who teach their father how to live and love again. Also in the film is Keir Dullea of “2001: A Space Odyssey” fame.

Unknown whether Haddad’s is actually involved with the production although they seem to be the go-to can-do people.

(4.9) Head down to the Empire Black Box Tuesday for a presentation by artist Xander Marro followed by a screening of the gig poster documentary “Just Like Being There.” About the film:

In the gig poster community, artists such as Daniel Danger and Jay Ryan prove that creating artwork is a way of life, more than just a career. These artists are at the forefront of an expansion of the gig poster genre. MONDO’s reinvigoration of ‘the film poster as an art form’, and Gallyer 1988’s theme based exhibits are only two ways in which this artwork is reaching a greater public.

Xander Marro is one of the founders of the Dirt Palace — a feminist art collective in Providence, and a former managing director for AS220. Her work has been included in MoMA’s book ‘Modern Women’, the 2010 deCordova Biennial, and in RISD’s ‘Wunderground’ exhibit which included over 2000 screen-printed posters for performances, art exhibitions, and community events held in Providence from 1995 to 2006. Her work includes installations, posters, zines, performance, and film.

Tickets available at the door: $3 AIGA members/$5 non-members. Open to the public. Refreshments, cash bar.

6pm, Tuesday, April 9, Empire Black Box, AS220, 95 Empire Street, facebook,

(4.2) One night only, “In Your Dreams,” a look inside the creative process. From New York Magazine,

In 2010 Nicks embarked on the recording of a new solo album, In Your Dreams, produced by former Eurythmics mastermind Dave Stewart. With cameras in tow, documentarian Stewart and diva Nicks set up shop in her home studio and reveal their collaborative creative process. Shifting dynamically among video formats, painstaking recording sessions and revealing interviews, this magic-tinged musical journey is a loving and tuneful portrait of the eternally bewitching Gold Dust Woman.

And congratulations to the Cable Car Cinema who have passed their Kickstarter goal and can now go digital and stay in the game. Also on the schedule this week Werner Herzog’s “Happy People,” and “Lore” has been held over.

“In Your Dreams,” 7pm, Tuesday, April 2, Cable Car Cinema, 204 South Main Street, 272.3970

FirstWorks presents a screening this Thursday of the 2005 BBC docu-drama “Riot at the Rite” followed by a panel discussion.

The premiere night of The Rite Of Spring was a seminal event in arts circles at the time of its debut in Paris in May 1913. The audience comprised a literal ‘Who’s Who’ of the arts world at the time – including Picasso, Proust, Cocteau, Gertrude Stein, Ravel and Debussy. Music and dance were never to be the same again. “Riot At The Rite” charts the preparations for the ballet in the weeks leading up to its premiere, and the ensuing riot that erupted during the performance.

The Guardian describes the original response to Nijinsky’s “Dance of the Adolescents”: After the strangest, highest and most terrifyingly exposed bassoon solo ever to open an orchestral work, the music becomes a sinewy braid of teeming, complex woodwind lines. “Then,” Stravinsky told his biographer, “when the curtain opened on the group of knock-kneed and long-braided Lolitas jumping up and down, the storm broke.”

Did Ravel become unraveled? Did Proust toss his madeleines? Was it really a riot?

Free and open to the public, 5:30pm to 8pm, Thursday, March 14, Metcalf Auditorium, RISD Chace Center, 20 North Main Street

He is also a nominee for ‘Best Song’ commonly known as ‘Worst Category.’ (The enormously successful Seth MacFarlane (BFA ‘95) is seen here in a RISD promo questioning at least one of his licensing decisions.) I love this guy and think he’s going to be great as host.

But a quote from him in this morning’s Parade caught my eye.

Asked what he thinks of Les Misérables, up for eight Oscars including Best Picture, he hmmms and deadpans, “I only watched the first four and a half hours. I’ll try to get through the next three and a half tonight.”

Many of this year’s movies had excessive running times — of course when Russell Crowe opens his mouth to sing, time seems to stop. These blockbusters devour screens at the theaters to such an extent that people who had no intention of enduring “The Hobbit” or “Les Miz” nonetheless find their own options limited by their mere presence. Oscar nominees “The Impossible” and “Bernie” came and went in a blink. Inexpensive digital movie-making shares the blame with the self-indulgent directors who can’t bear to edit one precious second of their endless footage.

Much has been made of the controversial beginning of “Zero Dark Thirty” but no one had prepared me for how boring it was. By the time that movie really gets interesting I was in a one hour energy hole and shifting in my seat. My pick for ‘Best Picture’ is “Argo” — running time exactly two hours.

(2.14) It’s the teeth isn’t it. I’m not sure why I picked this particular image (from The Maker by Christopher and Christine Kezelos) but not to worry, the fourth annual Providence Children’s Film Festival has a wide range of films, both animated and live action, appropriate for all age groups. The festival opens Thursday at the Metcalf Auditorium (in the Chace Center) with a reception at 6pm and a screening of “Alfie the Little Werewolf” at 7pm. Screenings start Friday at the Cable Car Cinema and run every day through the end. The RISD Auditorium will have screenings on Saturday and Sunday only.

Go to the website for all the details and a useful printable schedule. (Tickets for screenings marked “FREE!” are available the day of the screening on a first-come first-serve basis and may be picked up at the festival information table located outside the RISD Museum Metcalf Auditorium.)

$7.50 adults/$5 kids, students seniors/family package deal available/assorted venues Thursday the 14th through Tuesday the 19th

“Sound City” — the tale of the legendary Van Nuys recording studio — looks to be on the schedule for Tuesday and Thursday nights. Director Dave Grohl got everyone on board. Musicians and producers interviewed here include; Rick Rubin, Trent Reznor, Josh Homme (who apparently wants to be called Joshua now . . . all growed up I suppose), Barry Manilow, Tom Petty, Frank Black, Rivers Cuomo, and tons more. Rolling Stone loved it,

Straight out of a roofraising debut at Sundance 2013 comes Dave Grohl’s exhilarating documentary about what makes life worth living. Hold up. I know Grohl’s film is actually a look at Sound City (1969 – 2011), a studio buried in a corner of Van Nuys, California, as it moves from legend to the analog boneyard. But the Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer is up to something more than a nostalgia trip. He wants to celebrate the nondigital sweat that goes into making music.

Grohl moved the old Neve console into his own studio, whence the recent amazing track “Cut Me Some Slack” with McCartney, Novoselic and Smear.

9pm, Tuesday and Thursday, February 5 and 7, Cable Car Cinema, 204 South Main Street, 272.3970

Starting tonight the 2013 Oscar Nominated Short Films at the Cable Car. The New York Times describes two of the animated entries.

Of the animated shorts the cleverest, Timothy Reckart’s “Head Over Heels,” is a diabolical exercise in stop-motion animation in which an estranged, long-married couple occupy the same house in an upside-down world. One lives on the ceiling, the other on the floor, and they keep colliding.

In John Kahrs’s wistful black-and-white “Paperman,” set in mid-20th-century Manhattan, a man in an office tries to catch the attention of a woman he fancies by tossing paper gliders out a window toward her.

The animated and live action shorts are divided into separate screenings. Check live action schedule and animation schedule. (Seen here is “Fresh Guacamole.”)

Through February 7, Oscar Shorts, Cable Car Cinema, 204 South Main Street

The Providence premiere of “Beware of Mr. Baker” the no-holds-barred portrait of the man referred to as rock’s first great drummer (Cream, Blind Faith) starts tonight at the Cable Car. A New York Times critics’ pick, reviewer A.O. Scott opens,

Right at the beginning of the new documentary “Beware of Mr. Baker,” the film’s director, Jay Bulger, is attacked by his subject, the rock drummer Ginger Baker. Not verbally attacked, mind you — though there will be plenty of that — but physically, with a metal cane that draws blood when applied to the bridge of the filmmaker’s nose.

Follow Mr. Baker’s journey from crazy, drug-addled, young coot to crazy, drug-addled old coot (he’s 73). Animated sequences are intercut with interviews of: Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Steve Winwood, Charlie Watts, Mickey Hart, Carlos Santana, Max Weinberg, Chad Smith, Femi Kuti, Neal Peart, Stewart Copeland, John Lydon, and Lars Ulrich. (Keith Moon and John Bonham refused to participate . . . still very cross they couldn’t outlive this guy.)

Baker agrees, “I wasn’t planning on living this long!”

Runs 92 minutes/through January 31st/Grand Jury Award at 2012 SXSW.

Opens 9:30pm, Friday, January 25, Cable Car Cinema, 204 South Main Street

(1.24) Head over to the Brooklyn Coffee Tea House Thursday evening for a screening of Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of ‘Smile.’ For close to four decades, ‘SMiLE’ by the Beach Boys was perhaps the most famous unreleased album in the history of rock and roll.

Although recording was completed in 1967 the project was shelved in an unbelievably long and convoluted chain of events (see NewMusicBox 12.8.11). Finally in 2011 ‘The Smile Sessions’ a box set collector’s edition of 144 tracks became available and has now been nominated for ‘Best Historical Album’ at the 2013 Grammy Awards.

Now the Beach Boys have enlisted Providence publicists Al Gomes and A. Michelle of Big Noise to run the band’s publicity campaign on behalf of the recent Grammy nomination, and to celebrate Big Noise is screening this 2004 documentary which features interviews with Wilson and his many devotees like Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, Sir George Martin, Roger Daltrey, and more.

Free, 7pm, Thursday, January 24, Brooklyn Coffee Tea House, 209 Douglas Avenue, all ages