In a Silent Way

We’re making a film about jazz fusion, says—looking straight into the camera—Jazzen Goodman, a guitarist so fascinated by musical improvisation that he legally changed his name to sound more, um ... jazzy. The footage, however, is sluggish; more than anything, the camera records outbursts of frustration on the part of Jazzen, who feels that he is as brilliant as he is underrated. Until one day when he claims that he has only 30 days to live (as revealed to him in a dream) and that, during that time, he has to record an album that will prove his talent and allow him to become a permanent fixture in the annals of jazz. An eccentric mix of mockumentary,  cinema verité, and a buddy film that was financed by a Kickstarter campaign (and was later lauded as part of the US in Progress program at last year’s American Film Festival). And, at the same time, it is an expression of genuine fascination with jazz ( In a Silent Way is the title of one of Miles Davis’s albums) and of the belief that you can make your dreams come true outside a system where everything is decided by big money and corporations.