Paul Justman

Movies

Standing in the Shadows of Motown
Director
In 1959, Berry Gordy Jr. gathered the best musicians from Detroit's thriving jazz and blues scene to begin cutting songs for his new record company. Over a fourteen year period they were the heartbeat on every hit from Motown's Detroit era. By the end of their phenomenal run, this unheralded group of musicians had played on more number ones hits than the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Elvis and the Beatles combined - which makes them the greatest hit machine in the history of popular music. They called themselves the Funk Brothers. Forty-one years after they played their first note on a Motown record and three decades since they were all together, the Funk Brothers reunited back in Detroit to play their music and tell their unforgettable story, with the help of archival footage, still photos, narration, interviews, re-creation scenes, 20 Motown master tracks, and twelve new live performances of Motown classics with the Brothers backing up contemporary performers.
Dancing with the Incas
Editor
Documentary about the most popular music of the Andes -- Huayno music -- and explores the lives of three Huayno musicians in a contemporary Peru torn between the military and the Shining Path guerrillas.
The Doors: Live in Europe 1968
Director
Filmed during their 1968 European tour, The Doors are captured in performances in London, Stockholm, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam. Paul Kantner and Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, who shared the bill with The Doors on this tour, narrate this compilation.
Deep Purple: Heavy Metal Pioneers
Editor
Witness the history of the legendary band, their friends, and their fans in an hour long program of live archival performances, in-depth interviews and behind the scenes footage.
Deep Purple: Heavy Metal Pioneers
Director
Witness the history of the legendary band, their friends, and their fans in an hour long program of live archival performances, in-depth interviews and behind the scenes footage.
Cocksucker Blues
Editor
This fly-on-the-wall documentary follows the Rolling Stones on their 1972 North American Tour, their first return to the States since the tragedy at Altamont.
Gimme an 'F'
Director
Can a squad of misfit cheerleaders with an over-age trainer possibly win the big cheerleading competition.
Rock 'n' Roll Hotel
Director
The story follows a young trio of musicians, played by Rachel Sweet, Matthew Penn (son of Arthur) and Judd Nelson, called The Third Dimension. They enter a battle of the bands in an old hotel called the Rock N' Roll Hotel. Howver, rival band The Weevils are intent on stopping the young band from winning the contest and taking the title for themselves... Essentially one of the first feature-length music videos, the film was produced in Richmond, VA, shot in 3D, filled with musical numbers, written by Russ Dvonch (Rock 'n' Roll High School), co-directed by Paul Justman (Standing In The Shadows of Motown) and featured 80s cable icon Colin Quinn as a local DJ. (Synopsis from Spectacle Theater)
Q'eros: The Shape of Survival
Editor
Exploration of the way of life of the Q’eros Indians of Peru, who have lived in the Andes for more than 3,000 years.
North Star: Mark di Suvero
Editor
North Star: Mark di Suvero is a 1977 documentary film about Mark di Suvero that was produced by François de Menil and Barbara Rose. Born in 1933, di Suvero has become one of the most recognized sculptors of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. From about 1975 to 1977, fairly early in di Suvero's long career, filmmaker de Menil and art historian Rose produced this film, which was characterized at the time as "a tribute to the extraordinary work and life of the innovative American sculptor of monumental but delicate constructions." The film shows di Suvero making and installing several of his very large sculptures, and incorporates informal interviews of di Suvero, his mother, and others involved in his career and life at that time. From 1971 to 1975 di Suvero, an American, lived in a self-imposed exile in France in protest of US involvement in war in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, and the filming spans the end of his exile and his return to New York.