Sound Unseen has been a festival for "films-on-music" since 1999. This year, there are 47 in-person (and some virtual) screenings of shorts and features in the Twin Cities from Nov. 9-13. The festival includes a bounty of North American, Midwest, and Minnesota premieres — even a world premiere (Don't Fall in Love with Yourself, the story of Justin Pearson) — but it also has a mix of throwbacks, such as live scores to films from 1917 and 1922, as well as the 30th anniversary of Wayne's World.

Here are eight screenings you'll want to catch. Just make sure to avoid any spoilers from its parallel festival in Austin, Texas, which takes place the week earlier!

Meet Me in the Bathroom

Nov. 9 at 7:30 p.m. | Parkway Theater

Never-before-seen footage and audio interviews immerse you into what the film describes as "the last great romantic age of rock 'n' roll" — the time of the Strokes, LCD Soundsystem, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol, and others. Across 105 minutes, you'll see how these musicians changed New York and how New York changed them amid the turn of the century and 9/11. The documentary is based on the book of the same name by Lizzy Goodman, who will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A. There’s also an afterparty dance party at the Uptown VFW.

Finding Her Beat

Nov. 11 at 7 p.m., Nov. 13 at 8:15 p.m. | Parkway Theater | virtual option available

For thousands of years, women have been barred from taiko, a style of drumming that originated in Japan. In 2020, 18 women taiko drummers made history by coming together in Minnesota to shine the spotlight on themselves. Learn more about Sound Unseen's centerpiece film here, or simply book your tickets now. Those with tickets to the sold-out Nov. 11 showing will be treated to a pre-show taiko performance and a post-show Q&A with co-directors Dawn Mikkelson and Keri Pickett, and film subjects Jennifer Weir (who also produced the documentary), Megan Chao Smith, and their daughter, Josie Smith-Weir. 

Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande

Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. | Trylon Cinema | virtual option available

As one person in the trailer puts it, "I knew all the songs; I just didn't know that it was them." The jazz, funk, soul, and Caribbean grooves of the all-Black band Cymande began in South London in the early 1970s, but they were met with lukewarm reception by their home country and disbanded. Their sound lived on, though, and became sampled by musicians like Soul II Soul, De La Soul, MC Solaar, and the Fugees, prompting the band to return after 40 years.

The Immediate Family

Nov. 13 at 1 p.m. | Parkway Theater

Danny Korchmar, Waddy Wachtel, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunel, Steve Postell: If you don't know who they are, you definitely know who these legendary studio musicians influenced. Think folks like Phil Collins, Carole King, Lyle Lovett, Stevie Nicks, James Taylor, Billy Bob Thornton, and dozens more. In this documentary by Denny Tedesco, you'll not only see how these four singer-songwriters shaped the industry but how they became a family along the way. Stay after the credits end for a Q&A with Tedesco. 

Buffy Saint-Marie: Carry It On

Nov. 13 at 1:15 p.m. | The Main

Where to start with Buffy Saint-Marie? The Cree artist and activist has been making waves for more than 60 years. She began her career in Greenwich Village's folk music scene, but over the years, she has made headlines for demanding every Indigenous role be played by an Indigenous person in a 1968 episode of The Virginian, becoming the first woman to nurse on television, winning the 2015 Polaris Music Prize for her Power in the Blood album, and more. While the film is playing nationally on Nov. 22 on PBS, you'll get to see it first at its Midwest premiere.

Okay! The ASD Band Film

Nov. 13 at 2:30 p.m. | Trylon Cinema | virtual option available

When director Mark Bone first started filming the ASD Band, a four-person band whose members are all on the autism spectrum, he realized to fully tell their stories, he was going to have to make his first feature-length documentary. Okay! The ASD Band Film is just that, following the band as they record their first EP and make their first public appearance. Plus, to make the Midwest premiere even better, Bone will be in attendance.

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

Nov. 13 at 4 p.m. | The Main

We confess — this is the least music-centered film of the round-up, but it's so good, we have to mention it. The winner of the 2022 Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed documents Nan Goldin's melding of art and activism as she demands the Sackler family be held accountable for its hand in the overdose crisis. 

Quantum Cowboys

Nov. 13 at 5 p.m. | Parkway Theater

This is a western unlike any you've seen before, mixing 16mm live-action film, paper cut-outs, hand-drawn animation, oil paintings, 8k video, collage, and digital animation, and performances by Neko Case, John Doe, Howe Gelb, and Xixa, all to tell the story of two drifters' adventures as they help a woman recover her land, and track down a transient musician in 1870s Arizona. Both director Geoff Marslett and Case will be present for a post-show Q&A.

Bonus: Shorts, music videos, and narrative features

Don't forget about all the other screenings, either. Some shorts precede feature films, but the Nov. 10 In-Person Shorts Program includes the 1991 Cop Killer, which highlights Iced-T's performances of the same song in Minneapolis and New York's CBGB. For a completely different tone, the program also features Tank Fairy, where one gas delivery person inspires a 10-year-old misfit with her brightly colored and unapologetic world of dancing, glitter, and sass.

Find ticket information, and learn more at SoundUnseen.com

This feature is part of The Current’s 89 Days series, helping you enjoy the best of the season with weekly guides to events, entertainment, and recreation in the Twin Cities.