SUNDAY 11 DECEMBER 2016:     6pm

What Doesn’t Kill Me: The Life and Music of Vic Chesnutt. Scott Stuckey. US. 2016. UK PREMIERE

‘Chesnutt’s insightful, often autobiographical songs about vulnerability and mortality never attained huge commercial success, but earned praise and respect from fans, fellow musicians, and friends before the quadriplegic’s death from taking an overdose of muscle relaxants in 2009.

What Doesn’t Kill Me: The Life and Music of Vic Chesnutt, directed by longtime D.C. filmmaker Scott Stuckey, tells the bittersweet story of the singer/songwriter’s lifelong search for inner peace, after a drunken driving crash that broke his neck, shortly after high school.

Chesnutt was an acquired taste, with his thin, but genuinely evocative voice, and penchant for what he called “little songs.” In 2006, NPR listed Chesnutt at #5 on its list of Top Living Songwriters, behind Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Paul McCartney, and Bruce Springsteen.

Ian MacKaye, influential D.C. punk pioneer and founder of Dischord Records observed, “Maybe America’s not ready for a superstar in a wheelchair.” ’ — WTOP

PLUS

Echoes. Josh Merritt. UK. 2016. 10:48. LONDON PREMIERE. An ageing, reclusive rock star gives a rare interview with an inexperienced, anxious young journalist. But what connects them?