GRATEFUL DAWG
Thursday, December 5 at 7:30PM
This illumination musical portrait shows an entirely different side to Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia. In the early 1960s, Garcia met bluegrass mandolin musician David Grisman, and their mutual love of Bill Monroe's music led them to form Old & In the Way. Their collaboration loosened up Grisman and tightened up Garcia, resulting in excellent records and a lasting friendship that is revealed here in fascinating detail. The film features full-length versions of the Jimmy Cliff song "Sittin' in Limbo," the sea shanty "Off to Sea Once More," their own "Dawg's Waltz," the Dead's "Friend of the Devil," and the classic seventeen-minute jam "Arabia." But the true star of this documentary is the unseen Gillian Grisman, David's daughter, who set up a camera whenever Jerry would visit, capturing David and Jerry's wonderful interplay in the living room or in the studio. At the end of the film, when David, his family, and the other members of the band talk about Jerry's death, it is hard not to get choked up. (2001, 81 minutes; directed by Gillian Grisman)