Magnetic Fields Documentary Screens at the Bell House
"And that's when he asked to marry me," said Claudia Gonson, a longtime band mate, artist, and manager to Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields, to the crowd assembled at the Bell House on Monday May 10. She paused at the laughs since she had been describing another Massachusetts goth, but it could have easily been her friend and collaborator for the past twenty years.
Gonson was opening a screening of Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and The Magnetic Fields with a musical monologue, which would be followed later by a panel discussion hosted by the Brooklyn Arts Council. The film recently made its world premiere at SXSW in March and this time around, with a few words and more than a few friends in attendance, a smiling Gonson recounted in medley how she and Merritt bonded over David Bowie and how his descending bass lines made for so many memorable choruses.
The film delves into the childhood friendship between Merritt and Gonson, which makes for some very funny moments and great archival double-takes, covering nearly ten years of the Fields. The film begins with every punk's "Morning in America" rallying cry – the first club tours, the handwritten notes from 1999's breakthrough triple album 69 Love Songs – and leads up to Merritt's move to Los Angeles in 2007.
Many longtime friends were in attendance including Carrie Brownstein – of Sleater-Kinney – and the scene provided a homecoming of sorts to directors Kerthy Fix and Gail O'Hara – the former music editor at Time Out New York, where Merritt once worked as a copy editor. The film was billed as one exploring Merritt's songwriting and recording process and is clearly for fans first, although Fix and O'Hara do an excellent job of knowing exactly what makes a music documentary like this work, using pacing and patience to match their subject's deadpan delivery without ever being too reverent or revealing.
It's all in the frame and negative space, the bickering and homemade percussion toys, and exact moment where guitarist John Woo is asked to play a certain line off the underrated Distortion (2008): "Like this, this," Merritt says, in a tone easily recognizable to anyone who's had the feeling but lacked the words. The film ends with a short west coast tour and a topic that continues into the Q&A where Gonson is asked what it's like existing bi-coastally. She stumbles, as if the past 90 minutes weren't obvious enough.
There are the rare and honest moments that only begin to explain how this collective continues to release records, the latest being this year's Realism, despite the distance and almost self-conscious misanthropic lore that has built up around Merritt himself. Only the most essential talking heads like Fields label lords Laura Ballance and Martin Hall from Merge, Daniel Handler – who conceived of the literary alter ego Lemony Snicket and his A Series of Unfortunate Events – and the esteemed Peter Gabriel pop up. Meanwhile Fields cellist Sam Devol reveals that he and Merritt aren't actually friends outside the group.
Recording in cluttered apartments and writing pages of lyrics in bars offer just the right amount of New York process to fuel the mystique, but more than anything I walked away from Strange Powers feeling an intense love of craft from both the filmmakers and subjects involved. Check out the trailer below and stay tuned for the nationwide theatrical release coming later this year from Variance Films.
Big thanks to the BAC for presenting the night. They have more than a few events coming up throughout the summer.
