Pavements Special preview

  • Cinema
  • Contemporary Music
  • Playhouse
  • Run time – 128 minutes
  • Seating map

Pavements appears to be just another music documentary, until it doesn’t

United States | 2024 | English | Music Documentary

An examination of the iconic indie band, Pavements is a prismatic, narrative, documentary, musical, metatextual hybrid, showing the band preparing for their  reunion tour while simultaneously preparing for a musical based on their songs, a museum of their history and a big-budget Hollywood biopic, starring Joe Keery and Jason Schwartzman.

This special screening will feature an exclusive recorded introduction from Pavement founding member Spiral Stairs and director Alex Ross Perry.

Pavements is a movie about Pavement the band—among other things. The latest film from acclaimed director Alex Ross Perry (Her Smell) is a documentary that may or may not be entirely true, may or may not be totally sincere, and may or may not be more about the idea of the band—or any band—than a history of the short-lived, passionately loved, commercially marginal Nineties American alternative group Pavement.

This unconventional film about a highly unconventional band incorporates a stage musical, rock biopic, gallery exhibition, archival footage, and contemporary observational footage to create a film as irreducible, uncharacterisable, and entertaining as the band and its music.

Anchored by Pavement’s slacker-sage-sphinx, Stephen Malkmus, the film features performances by Joe Keery, Jason Schwartzman, Tim Heidecker, Kathryn Gallagher, Michael Esper and Zoe Lister-Jones, and editing by nonfiction innovator Robert Greene (Procession).

“There has never been a band like Pavement, and I hope there has never been a film like Pavements. It is time to askquestions about the way stories about musicians are told and sold, and for us as the audience todemand more innovation in our biographical portraits.” - Alex Ross Perry

Presented by Sydney Opera House

Event details

A trailblazing docufiction without borders…blurring the lines between real and fake to excellent comedic effect

Little White Lies

Credits

Alex Ross Perry
Director and Screenplay

Robert Kolodny
Cinematographer

Robert Greene
Editor

Amanda Ford
Production Designer

Max Cooke
Sound Recording & Mixing

Keegan DeWitt, Dabney Morris
Original Score

Cast

Band

Stephen Malkmus
Scott “Spiral Stairs” Kannberg
Mark Ibold
Steve West
Bob Nastanovich

Cast

Joe Kerry as Stephen Malkmus
Jason Schwartzman as Chis Lombardi
Nat Wolff as Spiral Stairs
Fred Hechinger as Bob Nastanovich
Logan Miller as Mark Ibold
Griffin Newman as Steve West
Tim Hiedecker as Gerard Cosloy
Michael Esper as SM
Zoe Lister-Jones as Ann
Kathryn Gallagher as Loretta

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Attending this event

Plan your visit

Address

Sydney Opera House
Bennelong Point
Sydney NSW 2000
Australia

Getting to the venue

The Opera House is a 7-10 minute walk from Circular Quay, and is easily accessible by car, train, ferry, lightrail, bus, bike and on foot.

Location and access

Playhouse

The Playhouse is located in the north-western corner of Sydney Opera House, best accessed through the Western Foyers.

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