Review: Music Documentaries at SBIFF

Review of several music documentaries at the 2012 Santa Barbara International Film Festival: Under African Skies, Family Band: The Cowsills Story, Music Man Murray, Rhino Resurrected, Tales From the Tavern, Cure For Pain: The Mark Sandman Story, plus an appreciation of the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange

Interview: Richard and Van Dyke Parks

Murray Gershenz, aka Music Man Murray, is passionate about music, and has spent over 70 years collecting, buying, and selling records. But the time has come to sell his collection, which numbers in the hundreds of thousands. The catch – he wants his collection to stay intact. It sounds like he’d settle for half a million dollars, a bargain for a collection valued in the millions.

Murray’s story is captured in the documentary film Music Man Murray, which premieres at this year’s Santa Barbara International Film Festival. This film was produced and directed by Richard Parks, with music by his father Van Dyke Parks, who has had his hand in many notable music releases over the last five decades. Richard and Van Dyke responded to the following questions by email on January 20 and 21, 2012.