VINYL REVIVAL
Albuquerque-based filmmaker part of duo behind ‘Vinyl Nation’ documentary
Albuquerque filmmaker got interested in the resurgence of vinyl records and wound up collaborating on a documentary about the subject.
The popularity of vinyl records has been on the rise for nearly a decade.
In 2019, vinyl records outsold CDs for the first time in 30 years.
Albuquerque-based filmmaker Christopher Boone teamed up with San Franciscobased filmmaker Kevin Smokler to create the documentary, “Vinyl Nation.”
Boone says the vinyl record renaissance over the past decade has brought new fans to a classic format and transformed our idea of a record collector — younger, both male and female, multicultural.
They moved forward, despite never having tackled a documentary.
“I’d only worked in the narrative filmmaking world,” Boone says. “In 2014, I started getting back into vinyl. I was intrigued of exploring it more. We knew the revivals had been going on for a long time. We were curious about what it meant for America today.”
The same revival has made buying music more expensive, benefited established bands over independent artists and muddled the question of whether vinyl actually sounds better than other formats.
“Vinyl Nation” digs into the crates of the record resurgence in search of truths set in deep wax: Has the return of vinyl made music fandom more inclusive or divided?
What does vinyl say about our past here in the present?
How has the second life of vinyl changed how we hear music and how we listen to each other?
The film opened on Friday, Aug. 28, in virtual cinemas across the country. In Albuquerque, the Guild Cinema in Nob Hill is screening the film — virtually.
The documentary was filmed in spring 2019 at record conventions, record labels, record stores and pressing plants in 14 American cities.
Though production didn’t take place in Albuquerque, Boone says there’s a part of the film with Albuquerque’s Hadley Kenslow of SloLow Records. The segment was filmed at the Austin Record Convention.
“We have a little bit of Albuquerque in the film,” Boone
acknowledges. “I wish we could have filmed more there, but there wasn’t enough time.”
On April 18-19, 2020, on what would have been Record Store Day weekend, Boone and Smokler partnered with the RSD organization and 200 independent record stores in 46 states to offer the movie digitally for one weekend with 100% of the proceeds going to the record stores.
By April 20, they had raised $37,000 for independent record stores in their struggle to stay in business during a pandemic.
“With the virtual release through the independent theaters, we’re now trying to throw in our support for them,” Boone says. “That’s why we teamed up with the Guild. They’ve been closed since mid-March but have been offering virtual films all along. It’s a small way to support with a big impact.”
The filmmakers found that putting the logistics together became one of the biggest obstacles.
Boone wanted a lot of characters to shape the story.
“We interviewed a lot of people. Forty-five interviews in there was a different way of doing this,” Boone says. “We ended up in 14 different cities. We didn’t get a chance to make it to Seattle.”
After wrapping filming, the duo headed into postproduction.
This is where Smokler felt the learning curve.
“I was naive and I should have listened to Chris,” Smokler says. “We finished on June 2, in Detroit. I thought post was going to be easy. We had to go through 25 terabytes of video. That was the entire month of June with nearly 80 hours of work a week. We had no idea what the documentary would be about. The substance of the movie began to reveal itself.”
Boone enjoyed the post production process because it’s like the final edit of the movie.
“It is carefully laid out,” Boone says. “The narratives are strong and make an impact.”
Smokler echoed the appreciation for the film’s journey.
Boone says the film is more emotional than he thought it would be.
“There’s humor and you have those moments that just shoot right through you,” Boone says. “It floored me. We wanted to go out and connect with the people.”