Instrument

A collaboration between Jem Cohen and the Washington DC band Fugazi, the project covers the ten-year period following the band's inception in 1987. Far from a traditional documentary, the project is a musical document: a portrait of musicians at work.

"With no desire on my part or the band's to create a factual career survey or any kind of promotional vehicle, the project presented an opportunity to cut things loose. Mixing sync-sound 16 mm, Super-8, video, and a wide range of archival formats, the piece includes concert footage, studio sessions, practice, touring, interviews, and portraits of audience members from around the country. Piecing it together over the course of 5 years, I thought of bringing "dub" to documentary—of a project where unadultered real-time performances, abstract, rough-hewn Super-8 collages and archival artifacts would collide and conjoin in a way that honestly represented musical experience. The project was edited with band members and extensively uses soundtrack elements provided by Fugazi specifically for the film."

—Jem Cohen