Manic Street Preachers have announced plans for new documentary Truth & Memory.
The film takes an inside look at the Welsh group as they piece together 1998's 'This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours', an album re-issued late last year.
Following the three-piece in the studio and out on the road, the documentary was pieced together last year by Kieran Evans.
A close confidante of the group, the Welsh film maker utilised a variety of VHS and DV tapes alongside photographs, interviews, and more.
He explains:
It all started on a wintry October day last year with me taking delivery of a plastic bag full of VHS and DV tapes shot by photographer Mitch Ikeda and Wire, a jumble of audio cassettes and mini-discs and a large selection of photos and polaroids. The initial plan was for me to make a fifteen minute short with a rule to only use material from October 1997 through to November 1998.
The VHS and DV tapes probably hadn’t been viewed for over fifteen years and there was little info on what each one contained. I spent weeks scrolling through videotapes so as to discover what might have been captured during those times and what might be usable. Luckily each tape I viewed contained a little bit of gold dust; incredible events and revealing moments had been filmed that couldn’t be ignored and so the idea of a fifteen minute short got jettisoned for something a lot longer and expansive.
There was clearly no real plan to what Mitch and Wire shot over this period other than to make a record of those times, be it recording Tolerate in Rockfield Studios to seeing thousands of fans queuing in Cardiff for a midnight album signing of TIMTTMY or to capturing a bizarre promo trip in Spain.
There are no new interviews or footage of the band in Truth & Memory. It’s just their voices captured on tape or cassette at the time, music recorded through a camera mic or a desk mix, the quality of the footage in places is lo-res, the sound a bit hit and miss in parts. And there’s definitely no tip of the hat to HD formats and tidying up material. Instead, Wire and myself wanted a deliberately lo-fi collage 'feel' to tell the story and I think we’ve achieved that with this film.
In some respects, the footage in the film was never really meant to be seen outside the bands inner circle but by making Truth & Memory, I found myself able to take a peek inside that world and to offer a tiny window in to an extraordinary time in the life of the Manics.
– – –
Check out the teaser below.
Truth & Memory will air exclusively through YouTube on Thursday, January 17th at 7pm.
Photo Credit: Mitch Ikeda
Join us on Vero, as we get under the skin of global cultural happenings. Follow Clash Magazine as we skip merrily between clubs, concerts, interviews and photo shoots. Get backstage sneak peeks and a true view into our world as the fun and games unfold.
