GLOBAL METAL

From the metalheads who brought you "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey" comes "Global Metal", a feature documentary that will take audiences to unexpected corners of the world — from Indonesia, Japan and China to India, Israel, Dubai and Brazil – to check out the international flavors of what turns out to be a most universal music — heavy metal.
In "Global Metal", Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn set out to discover how the West's most maligned musical genre — heavy metal — has impacted the world's cultures beyond Europe and North America. The film follows metal fan and anthropologist Sam Dunn on a whirlwind journey through Asia, South America, South Asia and the Middle East as he explores the underbelly of the world's emerging extreme music scenes — from Indonesian death metal to Chinese black metal to Iranian thrash metal. "Global Metal" reveals a worldwide community of metalheads who aren't just absorbing metal from the West — they're transforming it — creating a new form of cultural expression in societies dominated by conflict, corruption and mass-consumerism.

Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn share producer/writer/director credits on "Global Metal". Scot said that the impetus for "Global Metal" came from the overwhelming response to their first film "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey". "We had high hopes for the documentary but after the premiere at 2005 TIFF things took off beyond our expectations."

"'Metal' was picked up by distributors in over 30 countries from Europe to the Middle East, Asia and South America and it was getting great reviews from both press and audiences. As word of the film spread, we got emails from metalheads around the world thanking us for finally telling the story of this community with respect. These metal fans also told us about the emerging metal scenes in their countries: places we never imagined heavy metal existed. It made us realize that metal has spread far beyond its roots in industrial Europe and suburban America to become a global phenomenon. So Sam and I decided to make another documentary about metal! Although we both felt that the film shouldn't just be a sequel — it should take us somewhere completely new. We wanted to know what heavy metal means to people who are coming from such vastly different cultural, political and religious backgrounds. How did metal arrive in these countries? And does it have the same rebellious, anti-religious spirit that it does in the West? We thought that metal could be a fascinating 'lens' through which to explore the globalization of culture and its impact on youth around the world."

For more information, visit http://www.globalmetalfilm.com/.

Excelente documentário que pega na premissa estabelecida no anterior "Metal:A Headbangers Journey" e o extrapola para o resto do Mundo. Se naquele documentário houve a óbvia preocupação de dar uma panorâmica, necessariamente geral, do heavy metal, das suas origens, bandas e fãs, num ambiente quase exclusivamente anglo-saxónico, ou, se assim se quiser, Ocidental, neste "Global Metal" vai-se (literalmente) mais longe. E procura-se saber em que medida culturas tão díspares como a indiana, chinesa, japonesa, sul americana e muçulmana em geral receberam o heavy metal e o adoptaram e adaptaram às suas realidades e culturas. Se já no anterior o factor antropológico e sociológico estava bem arreigado, neste novo documentário é efectivamente o factor preponderante. E não deixa de ser inspirador ver os trabalhos por que os fãs iranianos ou indonésios passam apenas porque gostam e querem ouvir este estilo musical.

E que melhor epílogo para um documentário desta envergadura do que terminar com o concerto que os Iron Maiden deram em Bangalore, Índia, em 2006, o primeiro concerto alguma vez dado na Índia por uma banda internacional deste calibre? Fantástico é a única palavra que se me ocorre. Os fãs indianos ficaram sem palavras aparentemente!

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