Director Paul Thomas Anderson seems to be churning out films of late. Post-Inherent Vice – the stoner detective caper adapted from a Thomas Pynchon novel – he’s lent his low-key aesthetic to a video for Joanna Newsom’s “Sapokanikan”, his first music video in three years. Now, he’s continuing his side fling with music in his first ever documentary, Junun, a “one-of-a-kind sonic experience” set to debut at New York Film Festival.
When Radiohead’s guitarist Jonny Greenwood told Anderson he was heading to the 15th-century Mehrangarh Fort in northwest India to record an LP with Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur, he tagged along and brought his camera. The documentary “lives and breathes music, music-making, and the close camaraderie of artistic collaboration. It’s a lovely impressionistic mosaic and a one-of-a-kind sonic experience: the music will blow your mind.”
“It's been amazing, actually, working with Indian musicians,” Greenwood told The Guardian back in February of his recording experience. “They have such a different energy and enthusiasm for music. It’s just, it’s part of life here, it feels, rather than just being an occupation. It’s different; there’s music everywhere. Like when we’re playing and recording or rehearsing with these musicians, when they take a break, they go and play more. That’s not true in England. We just take a break. But here, it’s just this urge to make music, and it’s really inspiring.”
The pair began collaborating in 2007 with There Will Be Blood. For Inherent Vice, Greenwood re-recorded an unreleased Radiohead track called “Spooks”, which was used on the soundtrack.
New York Film Festival runs from September 25 to October 11