“The crew thought it would’ve been funny to interview Paul wearing one of the Residents’ eyeball masks.” “ Paul Reubens, Pee-wee Herman himself, was going to appear in the documentary, but it didn’t quite pan out,” said Flynn. “Ultimately the documentary is a Don Hardy film, not a Residents film.”įlynn, a self-taught artist who’s designed every Residents album cover, jokes about another bump in the documentary process. “It felt strange to the band, having a film crew follow them around, but access to The Residents was heavily monitored,” said Flynn. “He hadn’t heard of The Residents before we started talking about working on the film together, but he absorbed the band’s world quickly and captured their aesthetics well.”įeaturing interviews with Residents fans such as “The Simpsons” creator Matt Groening and bass virtuoso Les Claypool, “Theory of Obscurity” traces The Residents’ story from the early ’70s to now - or at least as far as the band could go without compromising identity. “Don’s an ex- NBC News cameraman,” said Flynn. Fittingly, The Residents kick off “Shadowland” with Don Hardy’s documentary on the band, “Theory of Obscurity.” “My wife’s friend played the supermodel, and though she was nervous about being in the film, the mother-daughter dynamic they captured is as obnoxious as it is telling for these kinds of nuanced celebrity relationships.”īlurring the line between fact and fiction, said Flynn, is common in film. “Funny but sad, poignant commentary was a common theme in The Residents’ work from the start,” said Flynn. One vignette features a retired cigarette company executive suddenly becoming aware of his past life as a garbage man, while another depicts a supermodel’s neglectful relationship with her daughter. According to Flynn, the films depict actors - and non-actors - in short scenes. “Shadowland” is presented as a series of songs interspersed with short, filmed character studies. It’s The Residents’ first appearance in New Haven. On Saturday, New Haven audiences will trip through The Residents’ “Shadowland,” a stage musical about birth and near-death experiences, at College Street Music Hall. Anonymity hasn’t stopped the band from regular performances, often in the guise of conceptual shows bridging concert and film.
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