Be part of the band for one weekend. Featuring documentaries on the Wainwright siblings, The National, the influential Big Star and, of course, Spinal Tap, thrown in for good measure, OneTwo OneTwo is a music documentary festival now in its second year. Starting on Thursday the 3rd of October, the event has been organised by friends Cillian McDonnell and Una Mullally with help from the Light House Cinema in Smithfield. Una gives us an insight into how it all came about and what to expect.
How exactly did the idea for OneTwo OneTwo come about?
Myself and Cillian hadn’t seen each other in a while and we bumped into each other at a documentary at the Lighthouse and just got to talking about the whole genre. Being a bit nerdy, over emails we started sharing documentaries we thought the other should watch, especially music documentaries, and we just thought, well, why isn’t there a music documentary festival? It all happened very quickly but it basically came out of a common interest and just to see exactly how it would go.
You’re in your second year, what did you learn from last year?
We learned a lot about what people are interested in and how to make things fun. Even though serious films are important too, it’s all about the audience and having a good time over a weekend, that’s the most important thing to us. We were more organised this year, we’ve had more time to think about it. We have bigger films this year too, like we have The National’s film (Mistaken for Strangers), which is really great. We’re more excited about it because the guys in the Light House are so amazing, it’s been a ball to put together.
Are you hoping to make this an annual thing? Would you consider expanding to other cinemas?
We’d love to keep doing it obviously and we’re looking at bringing it to other places where it could work, so expanding it could be a possibility. But the Light House is my favourite cinema in Dublin, the people who work there are lovely and we’d love to keep doing it with them, so there’s loads of stuff coming up down the line.
What is it exactly about music documentaries that mark them out? Do you think they offer a particularly unique insight?
I think everybody loves music and seeing the process behind something that’s creative is always very interesting, no matter what it is. People don’t necessarily get to see bands’ daily lives, their tensions and dynamics. Band dynamics are very interesting and people are really drawn to finding out about that. Like the Kings of Leon are a family dynamic, making that an extremely interesting dynamic to watch. For me, personally, I will watch any music documentary, like Katy Perry’s for example. Growing up watching MTV and E! True Hollywood Stories gave me a real taste for the medium of pop culture documentaries, there’s such a broad palate of music documentaries, about relationships breaking down, achieving something amazing and trying to maintain it. They do have such an impact in a popular culture sense. But most of all, they are really fun to watch. They’re a really enjoyable viewer experience.
Which films are you looking forward to, in particular?
The National’s Mistaken for Strangers, on the Thursday, is already sold out. Sing me the Song That Say I Love You: A Concert for Kate McGarrigle, which is a tribute by Rufus and Martha Wainwright for their mother. This is a really beautiful and moving piece of work and it features some awesome people like Antony Hegarty from Antony and the Johnsons. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster is one of the greatest music documentaries; it is so unintentionally hilarious and brilliant even if you don’t care about Metallica whatsoever. And naturally, Spinal Tap.
Tickets available at the Light House Cinema or online at www.lighthousecinema.ie. Priced at €8/€10 or €22.50 for three films when booked at the cinema in person. For more information check head over here.
