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Napa Valley Film Fest Rocks Again! by Jay Randy Gordon
Napa's premier Uptown Theater, in all its NVFF glory. photo: J.R. Gordon
AS MY GIRLFRIEND AND I RACED OUT TO
the Napa Valley Film Festival on November 13th, my eighth time in the festival’s nine-year history, I reminisced a bit.
I told Teresa of the fantastic films, the celebrity tributes, the rising stars, the culinary extravaganzas and delectable wines as well as the great gala parties at the Lincoln Theater in Yountville or the Culinary Institute of America's Copia venue (to continue reminiscing, see our 2016 article).
NVFF delivers the goods: the weekend in wine country, the fine dining and drinking and, of course, the films.
High on my list this year was “Just Mercy”. From an important book by Bryan Stevenson about the Equal Justice Initiative, it was well-directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and excellently-acted by Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx. There was also “The Pollinators”, which covers the importance of bees to our environment, and a few of that delicious NVFF specialty—the culinary adventure film.
Indeed, there was the excellently-shot “Funke”, about Evan Funke, an obsessive chef who travels to Italy to learn the art of hand-made pasta and returns to LA to resurrect his culinary career by building the now-famous Felix Trattoria restaurant. There was also “A Taste of Sky”, about developing a haute native cuisine in Bolivia, which fascinated my photographer/editor, Doniphan Blair (he lived in Bolivia for six months).
But the film that blew my mind the most covers two incredible Daves, Browne and Rooney, who in turn covered NVFF like a blanket, playing Irish music and rock covers everywhere from the Lincoln Theater's Saturday night bash to the three showings of the documentary about them, “This Is My Home”, directed by Karl Nickoley (see trailer here).
Dave Browne (left) and Dave Rooney, of The Black Donnellys, who provided NVFF with great Irish music as well as the beautiful documentary 'This Is My Home'. photo: D. Blair
Going by the name The Black Donnellys, they have made it their mission not just to share their songs and Irish heritage but to break records. Indeed, they currently hold the Guinness World Record for marathon guitar-playing and for the longest concert with multiple artists, 114 hours and 372 hours, respectively.
“We were trying to break another Guinness World Record, while touring the US,” Dave Rooney told me, specifically to do 60 gigs, across 50 states, in 40 days.
“It is pending as of now," Rooney continued, because they might not have done it quite fast enough. "We ended up meeting a lot of people who were compelled to tell us about their Irish heritage.”
Nickoley captures the joy of The Black Donnellys' joie de vivre and the audience’s heartfelt connection to them. Irish heritage and music—along with the wine, beer, whiskey and camaraderie—are the great equalizers. "Music, especially Irish music, travels much farther than any other genre, I think," Rooney added.
The 90-minute documentary features great performances and insightful interviews, ranging from friends, like the world-class humanitarian, chef Jose Andres, to acclaimed musicians, like The Tenors Of Rock, but also policemen, motorcycle enthusiasts, bar owners and their family members and road crew.
An 80s theme party attended by (lft) Erin Ratliff and Katie Hamilton-Shaffer, founders of the Feast-It-Forward VIP venue for NVFF. photo: J.R. Gordon
“This Is My Home” also covers many road adventures: flights delayed by a Hawaiian volcano and Florida hurricane and some very strange gigs, from a Colorado youth prison to Nashville carpet cleaners or a marina's clubhouse in Texas. One venue burned down before they could get there; others cancelled—forcing creative solutions by their dedicated tour manager Simon Skjøde Knudsen and RV driver Chad George.
Of course, there were inevitable ego clashes, last-minute cancellations, empty debit cards, a GoFundMe page that saved them, RV mechanical problems and endless paperwork for the Guinness Book of World Records in their attempt to get the above-mentioned gigging world record (which may never be affirmed, but screw Guinness).
An Anchorage venue will rue the day they cancelled The Black Donnellys, given they still made the local news for their world record quest.
Along with song, The Black Donnellys had plenty of wine—provided by the award-winning Folktale Winery from Carmel, which started supporting the film early—but no women, as the super-supportive wives stayed home with the kids, although they appeared periodically on cell phone screens.
The Daves, who met in 2004, on the Canary Islands, oddly enough, actually completed their tour in 35 days. They finished up at New York’s notorious McSorley’s Ale House—their perennial fall-back venue, the Irish pub—before flying back to Las Vegas, where their families live and they have a five-year contract at the Ri Ra Irish Pub in Mandalay Bay.
Browne and Rooney—the former a bad-ass, Thin Lizzy-inspired guitarist and mandolinist, the latter a gifted song writer and singer and the party-animal front-man—are two quintessential Irishmen. Indeed, their personalities are larger than life, as I learned after meeting them my first day at the NVFF: they were headed out of the Lincoln Theater as Teresa and I were going in. I was immediately engaged by their gallows humor, which epitomizes the Irish dedication to overcoming adversity.
Poster for Michael Yuchen Lei's 'A Taste of Sky', a great look at a food revolution in Bolivia. image: courtesy M.Y. Lei
Beaming with earthy charisma, they are magical musical partners with a chemistry as contagious as Robert Carlyle and Mark Ian Addy from “The Full Monty” (1997), another great, British-Isles indie that “This Is My Home” reminded me of. Together they explode off whatever stage they occupy—and occupy the NVFF they did, playing the Saturday night gala, all three "This Is My Home" shows and a couple of impromptu gigs in between.
Although Irish films generally tend towards sad, violent and disruptive, “This is My Home” is as funny as any film you will ever see—an uplifting Irish-American movie about discovering that the American Dream still exists. Indeed, Dave Rooney got his green card on the tour's final day!
The project started when Browne got Rooney to approach Nickoley, who had done some award-winning shorts and one episode of the TV comedy 'Becoming Famous" (2011). Convincing him to cover their hopefully-record-breaking tour, they started on Mothers' Day, May 11, 2018, at Mandalay Bay, and went to their final gig in New York City, 35 days later. At the American Film Market, they teamed up with Jeff Dowd, the original “Dude,” who did distribution for the Cohen Brothers, and will hopefully pick up “This is My Home”.
“In addition to incorporating performances by The Black Donnellys,” concludes Nickoley, the film was designed to “capture the essence of immigration—given all the uncertainty going on in our country right now.”
“We wanted to talk to Americans in every single state and get the real pulse on where the country is right now—to see if the American dream is still alive. And, if so, what it’s like from an immigrant’s perspective.”
My take-away? The dream is alive and cooking and sounds fantastic, especially from a pair of Irish-Americans with a gift of gab and a knack for songs that can connect with so many audiences.
Author Jay Randy Gordon meets his heroes, as he pulled into his first festival show, The Black Donnellys' Daves, Browne (left) and Rooney. photo: Taylor Nickoley
So, this coming St. Patrick’s Day (2020), pound some green beers, take a shot o’ Jameson Irish whiskey and look for the release of the Irish yet very-American documentary “This Is My Home” at a theater near you.
Others great NVFF films to watch for include: “It All Begins With A Song: The Story of the Nashville Songwriter”, “Code & Response”, “Gay Chorus Deep South” and “The Land of High Mountains”. As usual, the NVFF programming was on target and the events were spot-on, but my big discovery was The Black Donnellys.