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This is old news, but check it out anyway. If you haven’t done so already, rent Danielson: a Family Movie from your local video store. If you love the Danielson Famile, music, art, or God, you should really watch this movie. It’ll inspire and encourage you to do what you’re called to do, regardless of what people think. Even if you hate the band, I think you’ll be inspired and challenged by the movie.
Danielson: a Family Movie follows the band from their childhood in a Christian home to the first performance to their current struggles with changing band direction. For a full bio and review of the band, check out my post here.
Here’s what IMDB says about the movie:
“Danielson: a Family movie” is a documentary about unbridled creativity vs. accessibility, Christian faith vs. popular culture, underground music vs. survival, and family vs. individuality. The film follows Daniel Smith, an eccentric musician and visual artist, as he leads his four siblings and best friend to indie rock stardom, eventually facing the struggle to become viable as a solo act. Along the way he mentors an unknown singer-songwriter named Sufjan Stevens whose own subsequent success stands in stark contrast to the music world’s uneasy reception of Danielson just a few years prior. Makes use of collage, direct cinema and animation.
I watched the movie almost a year ago and it’s really awesome. Very engaging, funny, thought-provoking, and inspiring. Everything you want in a documentary, right? I’m pretty picky about my movies, documentaries in particular, and Danielson: a Family Movie blew me away, especially considering how low budget it is.
An interesting fact about the movie is that Creative Arson produced it completely independently, with no third-party investment from the band, its record label, or anyone else. I think this helps a lot - it’s not a band commercial and remains very unbiased about all the controversy and misunderstandings surrounding Danielson.
If this has piqued [Note: first useage of the word "piqued" on The Blah Blah] your curiosity at all, you can view the trailer here on YouTube or buy the DVD here on Amazon.
For more cool documentaries you need to check out, take a look at this post.
Aah… Danielson. You either love ‘em or hate ‘em, but there’s no denying that they’re doing important things for Christian music, especially Christian indie music, that will probably stick around for a while. Whether you’d call them artistic geniuses or bizarre eccentrics, musical innovators or noise makers, Danielson is bringing in much-needed creativity to the Christian music world.
Danielson is Daniel Smith and various numbers of his siblings and friends. In 1995, Daniel Smith convinced his 4 siblings to help him with his senior thesis in art school by joining with him in creating a band that would blend faith, art, and pop music together in a creative new way. So they rehearsed and rehearsed and then performed for the school’s art show. The family was a surprise hit, especially among indie fans, and from there, the band has gone on to tour the nation and produce albums for Tooth & Nail, Secretly Canadian, and their own label Sounds Familyre Records. When the whole family performs together, they’re known as the Danielson Famile, otherwise it’s Brother Danielson for solo stuff.
