The golden age of documentary film making has meant as lot of great music docs, and some of them don’t even feature Bono as a talking head. I was only able to preview one of this year’s music docs, but one of the most promising of these will get a commercial release soon.

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Tower Records foudner Russ Solomon smiles in blissful ignorance of mp3s.

All Things Must Pass

Music consumers around the world mourned when Tower Records, the ur-music superstore, closed its doors in 2006. Director Colin Hanks (Tom’s son) crafts a loving tribute to the pioneering chain and its founder Russ Solomon, who took his father’s drug store in Sacramento, California and turned it into an empire that earned a billion dollars in 1999 but declared bankruptcy several years later. Solomon and his core staff tell of the legendary chain’s great rise and precipitous fall, and anyone who set foot in the stores featured in the film may shed an inside tear as I did when I saw the familiar layout of the East 4th and Lafayette branch in New York (including the little corner on the landing where they kept Japanese pop imports). Indirect props are given to the old Foggy Bottom store, where Dave Grohl, one of the celebrities interviewed, once worked.

Saturday, June 20 at 9:30 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theater and Sunday, June 21 at 4:30 p.m. at Landmark’s E Street Cinema.

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Other music docs screening at the festival this weekend include:

  • closing night showcase Mavis! (Sunday, June 21 at 7 p.m. at the National Portrait Gallery, Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium); advanced tickets are already sold out for this profile of gospel legend Mavis Staples, but there will be a standby line at the Gallery.

  • Les Blank’s documentary profile of Leon Russell, A Poem is a Naked Person will get its long-delayed commercial release soon, but you can get a first look at it at the AFI Saturday night.

  • The hip-hop fashion documentary Fresh Dressed (Friday, June at 19 at 9 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theater and Saturday, June 20 at 3:45 p.m. at Landmark’s E Street cinema).

  • The David Byrne/Brian Eno concert film Ride Rise Roar (a free outdoor show on Friday, June 19 at 9 p.m. at Silver Spring’s Fountain Plaza).

  • And the Nina Simone profile What Happened, Miss Simone? (Friday, June 19 at 8:30 p.m. at the AFI Silver and Saturday, June 20 at 6:45 p.m. at Landmark’s E Street Cinema).
    • Filed Under: afi docs, brian eno, david byrne, documentaries, mavis staples, movies, nina simone, tower records,