Synopsis
Two men. Two quests. Two centuries apart. Four ways to experience the search for a lost tribe. Film. Book. Album. App.
2014 Directed by Gruff Rhys, Dylan Goch
Two men. Two quests. Two centuries apart. Four ways to experience the search for a lost tribe. Film. Book. Album. App.
Is Gruff Rhys the new Michael Palin? His second trot through Welsh history in the New World (after the shaggily entertaining Seperado!) confirms that the singer-songwriter and Super Furry Animals frontman has the affability, polite Brit-abroad demeanour and insatiable curiosity to pick up the baton should the ex-Python ever decide to hang up his travellers' boots.
American Interior is many things, but its backbone is a US tour Rhys undertook, playing songs about and following in the footsteps of his ancestor John Evans. Evans was lured out west in the 1790s, when what is now America was still a patchwork quilt of Spanish, British and independent territories, to find a legendary tribe of Native Americans who could supposedly speak fluent…
More than any other country from the home nations, Wales remains closest to the mythologies and legends of old, its flag emblazoned with a dominant red dragon that breathes the passionate fire of its people and the warmth of their proud history. Super Furry Animals lead singer Gruff Rhys heads on a personal tour across America, hoping to solve the mystery of an obscure Welsh explorer, the man many believe responsible for mapping the Missouri River.
John Evans is something of a lost folk hero in Welsh history, a man of whom very little documentation or knowledge exists. He was convinced that Prince Madoc, the son of one of his country's most important rulers, had travelled to America 300 years…
If you've seen the oddly entertaining SEPARADO!, you'll roughly know what to expect in this 2nd adventure for Super Furry Animal frontman Gruff Rhys. Instead of searching for a long lost relative in South America, this time he's yearning to find out about an exploring descendant named John Evans who travelled to America in the 1700's.
Tracing his steps from the smidgens of information he has, Rhys (and a visual representation of Evans which can only really be described as muppet-esque) travel from the east coast to Philly and to New Orleans while entertaining the curious locals with his peculiar brand of offbeat music and a slideshow describing his progress.
Rhys is a very softly-spoken person but makes for an…
i am SUCH a sucker for comedy centred on the idea of inanimate objects being treated like they’re alive
Gruff Rhys retraces the steps of a little-known welshman, John Evans, who set out across America in the 1800s in search of a mythical clan of native americans who were fluent in Welsh. At each major town of the Evans story, Rhys performs songs and delivers a presentation on his journey so far, with songs evolving with each new piece of information.
Much like the songs, Dylan Goch's documentary seems to evolve and change focus as time passes with early scenes comprising as much of performance footage as it does of discussing Evans. Being a big Super Furry Animals and Gruff Rhys fan, I never thought I'd say this but when the performance footage is largely abandoned during the second…
I wouldn't know a Super Furry Animals song if i fell over one, but this was a fantastic film.
When singer-songwriter Gruff Rhys released his first documentary, Separado, a few years ago, it seemed like it would be a one-off gem; a story he needed to get out of his system before moving on to his next album. It turns out he's no one-hit-wonder - American Interior tells another story about adventurous Welsh emigrants, close enough in spirit to feel like a sequel of sorts but quite different in execution.
Again, Rhys is on the trail of a distant relative, although this time he follows in the footsteps of a long-dead explorer rather than hunting for a distant uncle. His brilliant idea of combining his search with a concert tour is used again, but with the focus more on…
Gruff Rhys follows in the footsteps of his ancestor John Evans, who travelled to the American interior in 1792 searching for a lost tribe of Welsh speaking native Americans. Directed by Dylan Goch, written and performed by Gruff Rhys, the film - mainly shot in black & white - mixes footage from Rhys' 'interactive concert tour' (complete with powerpoint presentation) as he writes songs based on John Evans' journey and talks to locals along the way. Some of what he uncovers seems so absurd you'd think he's pulling the wool over our eyes, but it's shot with such sincerity and there's some nice parallels made between the Mandan population and the Welsh.
While I admit to not being previously familiar with Gruff Rhys, I have to say that I got a bit of Flight of the Conchords vibe while watching American Interior and the film as a whole ends up being a very interesting and entertaining musical history lesson.
Blog Review: www.skonmovies.com/2014/04/hot-docs-2014-american-interior.html