Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus

Saw this documentary at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

God. Damn.

This film was more Nick Cave than the last Nick Cave concert I went to.

It's a road trip, the documentary maker driving around Lousiana with musician Jim White in a rusted old Chevy, trying to find the soul of the Deep South. They travel through swamps and mountains, visiting truckstops and prisons and backwater church halls, listening to people talk about what it's like to be poor in the South.

Near the start, Jim White says the South is not so much a state of mind as an atmosphere. And this documentary drips with it, the miasma of death, poverty, God, the Devil and ghostly banjo music.

And the people they interview: sunken-eyed novelist Harry Crews talking about maimed children and old stories, a bikie who fires off his handgun as casually as you might smoke a cigarette, old ladies speaking in tongues, a prisoner who jokes that you can either follow God or the Devil, and the Devil sounded more fun.

And the music, recorded live to film. Blues and country and mountain banjoes. I'd never even heard of the artists: Jim White, Johnny Dowd, the Handsome Family, 16 Horsepower, Trailer Bride. All of them incredible.

The whole film feels otherworldly. The whole film feels haunted.

Go to the website: www.searchingforthewrongeyedjesus.com. Watch the trailer. They mention a DVD is being planned, and they're trying to sort out the rights to make a soundtrack.

Highly, highly recommended.


And a big thankyou to reinzero for the heads-up.