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Music

Watch the Trailer For ' Movement'

Camp a Low Hum’s Ian “Blink” Jorgensen is releasing a visual essay comprised of over ten years of touring some of New Zealand’s most important artists.

So So Modern, Frozen Lake in Central Otago, 2007

Whether you are an emerging indie band or the entire music scene of a small country, Ian “Blink” Jorgensen is the kind of guy you want on your side.

From parking the tour van in a tight spot, booking a show in Christchurch or Cincinnati, or arranging for a six pack on stage five minutes before the set, Blink is someone who is able to get shit done.

Between 2001 and 2012 Jorgensen worked with some of New Zealand’s most significant artists including; Lawrence Arabia, Connan Mockasin, Die Die Die and Shocking Pinks, and has toured over 70 bands around New Zealand under his ‘A Low Hum’ brand and established the legendary Camp a Low Hum festival.

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Film has always been a big part of the A Low Hum experience. Just as the lineups were a mystery, after each camp film of bands and kids in the audience going bat shit in empty swimming pools or scout halls emerged.

‘Movement’ is a visual essay comprised of Jorgensen’s own archive video and photography - using the artists he worked with over that time as a springboard for meditations on touring, underground music in New Zealand, and Jorgensen’s DIY ethos.

We premiere the film’s trailer and have a quick chat with Blink ahead of a number of limited capacity screenings in Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Wellington and Palmerston North.

Noisey: OK hard question first. Is there a scene or point in the film that encapsulates or sums up the ten plus years of touring and putting on shows?
Ian “Blink” Jorgensen: Absolutely. It's not just a random bunch of footage spliced together. There is a definite narrative running through the film and capturing what all this touring was for and where it led is the crux of the whole thing. There is footage dating back to my very first tour in 2002 and the first "event" shortly following that tour. It's a very behind the scenes look at not just what I've been doing the past decade but some really great footage of some bands that made a huge impact on the underground scene in NZ.

Is all the film your own or did other people contribute?
Around 80 per cent of the material is video and photos I took of artists I was working with and touring. The only other material is introduced if it was footage shot of a tour that I didn't have a camera on - as was sometimes the case having had two video cameras stolen off me on separate occasions on my life. Some of the video is ripped straight off the web, as we couldn't track down the original video. But the look of that crappy video, used sparingly, really identifies itself with a particular time in history and adds to the essay.

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Documentation has always been really important to me, there is an absolute ton of amazing material I have gathered from the various Camps and a huge focus of mine over the coming years is making that available to people, as well as more material from my touring.

Obviously shots from moving vehicles, people eating snacks in the back of vans and hand held footage of wild live shows are going to be part of a film like this. But did you try to come at it from any particular angle?
I didn't shoot the footage with any particular end usage in mind. A lot of the band footage was shot with the intention of making some live promotional clips but I was just too busy to really complete many of those. I didn't realise just how much footage I'd accumulated until I stepped back and took a look at it all. There is some really amazing footage and I would have felt terrible not being able to share it. But I felt it wouldn't do it justice just throwing clips up on YouTube. I wanted to frame it with a story and give context to where and why the footage was taken and what these bands meant.

‘Movement – A Film About Touring’ featuring: Ejector, Degrees K, The Mint Chicks, Batrider, The Accelerants, Golden Axe, Cassette, Shocking Pinks, Connan and the Mockasins, Teen Wolf, So So Modern, Die! Die! Die!, Disasteradio, The Reduction Agents, Kill Surf City, Thought Creature, Jakob, The Rock and Roll Machine, The Mysterious Tapeman, The Evens, Cut Off Your Hands, Over the Atlantic, Alphabethead & More.

Limited capacity screenings:
March 18 - Palmerston North
March 21 - Auckland
March 28 - Dunedin
March 29 - Christchurch
April 4 - Wellington