DC Area Premiere

Matt Wolf’s hip and hypnotic WILD COMBINATION is a visionary tone poem that’s as much a celebration as an elegy for avant-garde cellist and dance music producer Arthur Russell. It’s beautiful and moving, full of magic that breathes life into the tragic figure who is finally getting the notice he richly deserves, almost two decades after his untimely AIDS-related death in 1992.

In this experimental biography, Wolf revels in the minutiae of music history, offering treat after treat to audiophiles and pop culture junkies. We catch glimpses of Russell’s introverted childhood in Iowa, his San Francisco training in traditional Indian music, and his work and friendship with Allen Ginsberg.

We also see the avant-garde, rock, experimental, and disco supernova of downtown New York City in the 1970s and 1980s, where Russell was producer, performer and participant. His friends and collaborators included Phillip Glass, David Byrne and The Modern Lovers’ Ernie Brooks. His contributions include planting the seeds of house and garage music, as well as running the seminal dance/hip-hop label Sleeping Bag.

Wolf’s film is part love letter and part revelation, mixing archival footage and abstract imagery with commentary from family, friends, and collaborators. He also puts Russell’s importance in context with the help of contemporary musicians and Russell admirers such as Swedish pop star Jens Lekman. WILD COMBINATION peels back the layers of the artistic process, and presents a work possibly unlike anything you’ve ever experienced.

—Jeff Krulik