Pendarvia is a 30 minute film that documents the recording process of The Decemberists album "The King Is Dead" (Capitol, 2011). The album was recorded in a barn in rural Oregon. Pendarvia is heavily driven by the natural surroundings of the area, inter-cutting music with beautiful shots of the surrounding scenery. The film follows the abstractly linear narrative of the recording process, inter-cutting found moments of dialogue from the band, producer Tucker Martine, collaborators and friends. The film is a beautiful audio/visual collage that explores the trials and tribulations of the creative process.
This is the third in a film series produced by Fugazi's Brendan Canty and directed by filmmaker Christoph Green. It features live performances by The Shins, Sleater-Kinney, The Decemberists, Mirah, The Thermals, Quasi, The Gossip, Wet Confetti, The Planet The, Lifesavas, The Ready, and Tom Heinl. The crew travels from town to town filming bands performing in houses that're about to be demolished or burned to the ground. In one day they document the house, the bands, and the demolition, then put it together in a 50-minute movie and move on to the next town. Extras include an extended slide show of stills of the day's bands as well as stills of the destruction and film production.
Led by a group dynamic that embraces experimentation even as it celebrates classic pop and folk forms, The Decemberists are firmly established as a completely original happening in the world of contemporary indie rock. This DVD captures the band in the midst of their rise to prominence with a live recording of a performance at the Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon on November 4, 2005.
