MORE FROM ROGER EBERT

Since last weeks review from ROGER EBERT [read here], I had been curious how Roger got to see SONG SUNG BLUE since it has only been on the festival circuit and I'm just a one man show without a publicist or agent to get in the ear of the major critics. Today I got the answer when I stumbled upon this blurb published in ROGER EBERT's weekly syndicated column, ASK ROGER. 

Ask Roger

Roger Ebert, Universal Press Syndicate

Published: Thursday, November 27, 2008, The Windsor Star

Question: Why would you torture me by reviewing a documentary that can't yet be seen? Song Sung Blue is so right up my alley, so much grist for my mill, so much my bailiwick - and you say I can't see it. I guess I should thank you for informing me of the film's existence ... but I'm not gonna. - Jason Ellison, Cincinnati

Answer: The film played opening night at the Chicago Underground Film Festival. They sent me a DVD, which slid out of sight under my chair. When I belatedly found it, I thought, "There's a film that needs a break." When I saw it, I felt so even more strongly. Now I hope a distributor gives it one.

"THUNDER" MEETS NEIL DIAMOND!

Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The first time I sat down to do an interview with Thunder, she told me, “You know Greg, the hardest ship to sail is a relationship.” Soon after filming began on SONG SONG BLUE, I discovered that the seas were indeed rough for Lightning & Thunder, however through it all they stayed the course. I respected their uninhibited passion for the stage and for one another and drew inspiration from their determination to succeed despite the odds.

Since completing the film earlier this year, many have asked me, “Why did you make Song Sung Blue?” I made this film because I wanted to help Lighting & Thunder succeed and wanted others to experience the wonderful feeling I got every time I saw them perform. So I set out to help them the most effective way I knew how - as a filmmaker. I had hoped that once the film was completed, Lightning & Thunder might book bigger gigs or maybe even get the attention of Letterman, Leno or Neil Diamond himself. 

Well - I’m absolutely thrilled to announce that after nearly two decades of paying tribute to the music of Neil Diamond, THUNDER has finally met NEIL DIAMOND. Thunder’s brother, JIM STINGL, a popular columnist with the MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL was on hand and wrote about the special meeting in todays paper. [read it here]

I can’t even tell you how happy I am for THUNDER that this moment has finally happened. As some of you may or may not be aware, THUNDER received a special phone call from Neil just hours before the world premiere of the film in Park City [read about it here]. But for THUNDER to actually meet NEIL DIAMOND, the man that she and her husband, Lightning have had so much respect for - - its just too cool for words! 

ROGER EBERT - THUMBS UP!

I recently came across this review from ROGER EBERT. I'm psyched he enjoyed SONG SUNG BLUE and took the time to write a review for the film. Check it out.

Song Sung Blue

/ / / November 19, 2008

by Roger Ebert

Hold me, and make it the truth...
That when all is lost there will be you.
Cause to the universe I don't mean a thing
And there's just one word that I still believe and it's
Love... love. love. love. love.
--"Love Boat Captain," Pearl Jam

"Song Sung Blue" tells a love story about two people who are apart only three days after 1989, who love each other in good times and in bad, and whose romance blossoms in shabby bars, smoky clubs and, once, in front of 30,000 people. Their names are Mike and Claire Sardina. If you're from Milwaukee, you oughta know them. They performed under the name "Lightning & Thunder," and were famous enough locally that they sold out their bookings. When they had troubles it made every local TV news show. And they had troubles. Who else do you know who had two out-of-control cars run into their house in four years?

Because they made a lot of home videos, their earliest days together are recorded. We even see them performing at the Wisconsin State Fair, and being married after the ceremony with 700 (Thunder) or 1,000 (Lightning) guests. His proposal was made over the phone: "This is Lightning. Will you be my Thunder?"

Their act was built around Mike's covers of Neil Diamond songs, and Claire doing Patsy Cline, Abba and Blondie material. I know, but they were good. Close your eyes and with Mike you almost think you're hearing the real thing. Mike was standing behind a red velvet crowd control rope once at a Neil Diamond concert, "and when he walked by, he looked at me, and it was like he was looking in a mirror."

There's one session in a jam-packed club where L&T and the audience are having such a blast, their joy of performance is palpable. They've never even heard of Eddie Vedder when he chooses them to do an encore with Pearl Jam at Summerfest, the huge Milwaukee music festival. That's when they had the audience of 30,000. Backstage, Lightning tells Eddie he doesn't think it's a Neil Diamond kinda crowd. But Vedder is no superstar snob and joins them onstage, sits on a box, and reads the lyrics while singing "Forever in Blue Jeans." He makes it a Neil Diamond crowd.

Lightning & Thunder fans would travel to hear them, but they never performed much further afield than Chicago. Nor did they make any recordings that iTunes has heard about. They were popular in Milwaukee, a friend explains, "because they were normal, and Milwaukee is normal." They lived in a normal house on a normal street with a normal van and a normal flagpole. It was the second marriage for both, and Thunder's kids Rachel and Dana lived with them. He had the Diamond haircut and sideburns, and a little more hair. She was on the plumpish side. Then the first car ran into their house, they had a setback, and both made a conscious decision to take up smoking to lose weight.

They didn't even drink. Lightning served in Nam as a "tunnel rat," crawling with a machine-gun into Cong tunnels. When he came home he became an alcoholic and heroin addict and it nearly killed him. They took home movies of him proudly holding his diploma from rehab. He never touched a drink or a drug for the next 30 years. They had the ability to inspire friends who dedicated themselves to their careers. One of their managers even turns out to be Lightning's dentist. Times got very rough for them, but they were always still in love, and still dreaming of that big break, even after their career was pretty much a memory. Not for them the 9 to 5 life.

One night over dinner at Denny's, Thunder asked Lightning if, since he knew so much about computers, he might be able to make a living on the internet. "Keep your eyes on the prize," he told her. They aimed for Vegas. I think they were dreaming of a main stage, which was unlikely A Neil Diamond tribute band from Milwaukee? Besides, Lightning never used the Neil Diamond name. He just sang the songs. In his mind, it was a tribute to Lightning & Thunder. He couldn't help how much he looked like guy. But if a booker had found the imagination to book them as a lounge act, I think they would have been wildly popular, compared to those insipid quasi-karoke acts. Maybe too popular. I'd walk away from blackjack to listen to them.

This documentary, directed by Greg Kohs, is a superb marriage of home movies, TV, clippings and posters, and concert footage. Kohs was doing some filming at a Harley-Davidson convention in Milwaukee (birthplace of the motorcycle) and came upon L&T performing for some wildly dancing bikers. He started shooting right then and there, and shot them for eight years, not knowing how his story would end. He apparently became so familiar he was the fly on the wall during family fights, triumphs and heartbreaks. L&T are strong people. There's a time when Thunder has every reason to quit her career, and she stays cheerful and carries on. Can't let Lightning down.

This kind of film, like "Hoop Dreams," is only possible when a filmmaker stakes a bet on an unknown outcome. I won't tell you how it ends, except that Eddie Vedder does something out of the blue that is simply astonishing, and shows genuine class. Stars do nice things for people all the time, but this is something that shows thoughtfulness and insight, and with no expectation that the world would ever hear about it.

And for Mike and Claire Sardina,

when all is lost there will be you.

Cause to the universe I don't mean a thing

You can't see this film because it hasn't been picked up for distribution. It won both audience awards at Slamdance 2008 (the popular vote, and the juried award). It was named best documentary at the Chicago and Atlanta underground film festivals, and at the surface-level Boston, Philadelphia, Sydney, and Memphis festivals. Distributors, get your hands on a screener!

"BOUFFANT-AND-FRINGE-PERFECT"

On the eve of SONG SUNG BLUE's screening at the St. Louis International Film Festival, Robert Hunt at the ST. LOUIS BEACON shares his thoughts on BLUE.

St Louis Beacon

By Robert Hunt

Documentary filmmaker Greg Kohs first saw the Milwaukee-based act "Lightning & Thunder" performing at a biker convention he was filming for Harley-Davidson, and though they never made it onscreen in that project, he was sufficiently impressed to choose them for his next subject. And who wouldn't be? Mark Sardina ("Lightning") and his wife Claire ("Thunder" - and yes, they really do call themselves by those names even at home) were long-time sensations on the state-fair-and-convention circuit.

Thunder sings harmony and belts out a few Patsy Cline tunes, but the core of the act is Lightning's bouffant-and-fringe-perfect impersonation of Neil Diamond, true to every sweaty Hot-August-Night detail. (Having lived in Wisconsin for a very brief time in the mid-70s, I can tell you that they just love this stuff up there; I was in a small town where the bowling alleys had competing Elvis impersonators - For one of them, half of his show was Elvis, the other half Engelbert Humperdinck - and this was while Elvis was still alive!)

Whatever Kohs saw in the act - who reached something of a career highlight by appearing on stage with Pearl Jam singing "Forever in Blue Jeans" - his film went in an unexpected direction when Thunder was injured in a freak accident and lost a leg. While she struggles through rehabilitation and her husband watches his admittedly tenuous dream of stardom fade away, Kohs captures not just a fringe show-business act but an all-too-typical middle-class family going into decline, hit by loss of income, depression and an increasing sense of their own dysfunction.

On one level, "Song Sung Blue" is an almost too-close-for-comfort look at one of the lower tiers of show business. It would be easy to laugh at the Sardinas and their tacky embrace of an already kitschy entertainer like Diamond. But Kohs doesn't ridicule them, doesn't look for ways to embarrass them and, ultimately, doesn't care whether he's dealing with people who make a living by wearing satin jumpsuits instead of working an assembly line or cruising a boardroom. Kohs gets an intimate glimpse of how a relatively average middle-class family - career choices aside - can become overwhelmed by a simple act of fate. He may admire the showmanship of the Sardinas, but it's the banality - and the familiarity - of their offstage lives that gives the film resonance.

Screening @ St. Louis International Film Festival

Saturday, November 15th,  NOON @ Tivoli Theatre

"HILARIOUS AND HEARTBREAKING"

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Film Critic, Barry Paris sets aside his preconceived notion of Neil Diamond impersonators to give "this extraordinary character study" a three-star review. 

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

By Barry Paris

Forgive me, but the only thing I'd like less than seeing Neil Diamond is seeing a Neil Diamond impersonator -- or so I thought before seeing "Song Sung Blue."

Mike Sardina of Milwaukee isn't even a very good Diamond impersonator (though he looks like him). And his wife, Claire, does a pretty mediocre Patsy Cline. But together -- as "Lightning" and "Thunder," respectively -- they'll break your heart in this strange, touching, 87-minute documentary directed by Greg Kohs.

My opinion of their mimickry skills is irrelevant. In their heyday, Thunder and Lightning were a regional phenomenon, performing as a warm-up act for Pearl Jam, et al., and even as headliners before 20,000 fans at a crack. They took their karaoke fantasy and lived it to the heights -- with sequins forever, and "Forever in Blue Jeans."

Then came the depths: a crippling accident that silenced Thunder and took the electricity out of Lightning.

Director Kohs incorporates some amazing home-movie footage, whose impact alternates between hilarious and heartbreaking: There are arguments over whether to go to Denny's or Ponderosa for dinner, followed by confessional words of wisdom: "Animosity comes from depression." There's Thunder's mother and Lightning's daughter -- all of them more like Diane Arbus characters than American idols, but honest to a fault.

They never made it to Vegas. They fuss and fight. You'll be fighting, too -- the tears -- by the end of this extraordinary character study of an odd couple who loved and remained strangely devoted to each other's American dream.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Duane Dudek of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shares some thoughts in today's edition regarding SONG SUNG BLUE. Duane, like many other's in the Milwaukee film scene has been incredibly supportive of the film. I'm grateful for his support.

'Song Sung Blue' deserves to stand on its own merits
By Duane Dudek of the Journal Sentinel

A comparison between "Song Sung Blue" and "American Movie" is as unfair to both of them as it is inevitable. Both are documentaries, set in Milwaukee about working-class dreamers who persevere against long odds. And both won high-profile awards in Park City, Utah, though almost a decade apart.

"American Movie," about a local filmmaker trying to make a horror film, was co-directed by Milwaukee filmmaker Chris Smith; his new film "The Pool" is in theaters. "American Movie" won the grand jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 1999. "Song Sung Blue," by Philadelphia director Greg Kohs, won the grand jury and audience awards at the Slamdance Film Festival this year.

But the similarities stop there. Although "American Movie" had a successful commercial run, "Song Sung Blue" gets its one-night-only Milwaukee theatrical showing at 7:15 tonight at the Oriental Theatre, 2230 N. Farwell Ave. Tickets are $10 and available at the box office.

"Song Sung Blue," which screened at the Wisconsin Film Festival in Madison this year, is the tragic love story of Milwaukee Neil Diamond and Patsy Cline impersonators Mike and Claire Sardina, a.k.a. Lightning & Thunder. The pair enjoyed brief success performing in the region - a high point was an appearance at Summerfest with Pearl Jam - before a series of tragedies derailed their lives and careers.

Kohs followed the couple for nearly a decade, and his portrait of their human frailties is a touching and smartly structured work that is alternately heartwarming and heartbreaking. The film also won the grand jury prize at recent festivals in Atlanta, Chicago and Sydney, Australia.

Kohs and most of the cast and crew will appear at tonight's screening, sponsored by Milwaukee Film. And an after party at Shank Hall, 1434 N. Farwell Ave., will feature music by Claire Sardina, with Dave Alswager, Mark Shurilla and the Greatest Hits and Harvey Scales. Doors open at 9 p.m.; admission is $5.

WTMJ INTERVIEW

Last week while on the road filming I did a quick interview on Milwaukee's 620WTMJ to promote the upcoming screening at the Landmark Oriental Theatre in Milwaukee, WI. WTMJ radio personalities, John Jagler & Gene Mueller have been behind SONG SUNG BLUE since its world premiere back in January. I'm extremely grateful for their continued support as we approach the film's big night in its hometown.

Boomp3.com

SONG SUNG BLUE

THU November 6th @ 7:15 PM

Landmark Oriental Theatre

230 N. Farwell Avenue

A few tickets are still available at the theatre Box office