Cure for Pain: The Mark Sandman Story

    • David Ferino, Robert G. Bralver
    • United States
    • 2011
    • 85 min
    • European Premiere
    • IDFA Competition for Music Documentary
    Mark Sandman, the charismatic singer, bassist, writer, composer and founder of one of the most original bands of the 1990s, Morphine, died in the summer of 1999. It was a fitting end, during a concert in Italy, and shortly after the band had finished recording a new album. In the middle of the grunge era, a band without a guitar was highly eccentric - to say the least - and Morphine's sober lineup (drums, two-string slide bass guitar and baritone sax), together with their raw mix of jazz, blues and rock, allowed them to create a totally unique sound that brought them cult status in the United States and Europe from the early 1990s on. In this music documentary, the filmmakers investigate Mark Sandman's place in the world of American pop music, with the help of former band members Dana Colley, Billy Conway and Jerome Deupree, along with musicians from his previous band Treat Her Right, and other musician friends such as Chris Ballew (The Presidents of the United States of America), Mike Watt (The Stooges), Les Claypool and Ben Harper. The film also probes Sandman's personal history, a subject he never spoke about in public. The loss of his two brothers is said to have been a decisive moment in his musical development, and is a subject that also sheds new light on the trio that were Morphine.

    Credits

    • 85 min
    • color
    • video
    • Spoken languages: English, Italian
    Director
    David Ferino, Robert G. Bralver
    Production
    Jeff Broadway for Gatling Pictures
    Cinematography
    David Ferino
    Editing
    David Ferino, Robert G. Bralver
    World Sales
    The Gersh Agency

    IDFA history

    2011
    European Premiere
    IDFA Competition for Music Documentary

    Share this film

    Print this page

    IDFA history

    This website uses cookies.

    By using cookies we can measure how our site is used, how it can be further improved and to personalize the content of online advertisements.

    Read
     here everything about our cookie policy. If you choose to decline, we only place functional and analytical cookies