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Both celebs ( Penn Jillette, Talking Head Jerry Harrison, and punk-comix pioneer Gary Panter) and ordinary fans offer their perspectives without taking too much time from those with first-hand experience. We hear about personnel shakeups over the years, disagreements over money, and come to understand that many part-time Residents have come and gone in their chaotic late career. Stream Theory of Obscurity: A Film About The Residents, watch trailers, see the cast.

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That unlikely and amusing story is fleshed out with ample footage of early live shows and nutty filmmaking projects (the group is described as “failed filmmakers” who managed to make music a career), some of which, miraculously, were actually shown on MTV. Find out how to watch Theory of Obscurity: A Film About The Residents. While some viewers may grow irked by this devotion to the band’s “theory of obscurity” - which holds that artists do their best work before fame changes their lives, thus a successful but never-famous artist can remain vital - it does allow the film to present a reasonable narrative of The Residents’ early (and to a lesser extent their more recent) career. All speak of the group’s past by saying “they” did this, “they” believed that. As proof, over the following year, Theory of Obscurity was screened at over forty film festivals around the world.We meet those Louisiana pranksters, and many of the friends who have collaborated with them over the years (whether onstage or behind the scenes), but they uniformly refuse to admit the obvious. Rising to the challenge of condensing over forty years into ninety minutes, the film is a triumph of perseverance and creativity, both on the part of the filmmakers and the group to which it pays homage.

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For the next two years, Hardy along with two colleagues, Bart Bishoff and Josh Keppel, worked on the film, shooting over fifty interviews with longtime Residents' collaborators and friends, transferring archive film and video, and editing constantly, finishing in time for a world premier at SXSW in the spring of 2015. Dropping everything else, the filmmaker submerged himself in the arcane world of Residentia, accompanying them on tour while shooting over twenty performances of the Wonder of Weird, their celebration of forty unique, unlikely and uncommon years. With those words, a bond of trust was established, ultimately giving the filmmaker full access to the group and its vast trove of archive material.Īs The Residents were only a few weeks from starting their 40th anniversary tour and one of Hardy's projects had recently been put on hold, the timing for the project was perfect. At this advanced point why should they open themselves up to such an unknown element, obviously creating an opportunity to expose and desecrate years of careful constructed mythology and secrecy? But some were less suspicious than others, so the group agreed to meet with the young filmmaker.Įncountering an initial attitude of doubt, the first thing Hardy said was that, opposed to exposing their secrets, he respected what The Residents had done and wished nothing more than an opportunity to enhance and broaden the group's mystique. After all, The Residents had built a career around the concept of anonymity, never giving interviews, showing their faces or revealing their names. When director Don Hardy initially approached The Residents about a film documenting their more than four decade existence, there was understandable skepticism within the group.

Theory of obscurity full movie