The synopsis of my next festive doc probably doesn’t make it sound too exciting - filmmaker and music collector explores unusual and underappreciated alternatives to traditional Christmas songs; spends a lot of time in record shops. However, 2013’s Jingle Bell Rocks turns out to be my absolute favourite Christmas movie yet. This may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but something about this one just really connects with me. Oddball writer/director and subject of the film Mitchell Kezin is a man with a unique passion - he collects Christmas records. But not just any Christmas records - he’s obsessed with finding the most obscure, odd, singular festive music out there, so much so that it seems to consume his life. We witness him trawling record shops all over America in search of the rarest festive vinyl, while using his music industry connections to secure illuminating interviews with hip-hip legend Joseph ‘Rev. Run’ Simmons of RUN DMC, filmmaker John Waters, Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne and a whole lot more.
The film’s opening scene, shot in the awesome Amoeba Records in Los Angeles, introduces Kezin enthusiastically rifling through the Christmas L.P. section. His passion and resolute joy at finding such an extensive collection of rarities is weirdly wonderful and romantic to behold. When he first makes a little, involuntary, guttural whelp of excitement at spotting a rare record, I realise the film totally has me in its grasp. For me, there is a real pleasure to behold the jubilation some people get out of their passion projects. I guess it’s too simplistic to call guys like Mitchell ‘nerds’ - they’re total enthusiasts, it’s just that they’re enthusiastic about things that most people might not think much about.
I totally get that feeling Kezin has when he discovers a real find, as I used to be that way with movies. I’d spend far too much time and money tracking down DVDs in the days before I met my wife. You get the impression Mitch doesn’t have a family of his own yet - he indulges his music obsession way too much for that. Many people have a ‘hole’ in their lives, a lack, something that feels missing. Some of us fill that hole with work, with family, children, hobbies. For Mitch, it’s this solitary quest for Christmas music.
Kezin narrates his own semi-tragic tale of a childhood with a largely absent father, of hearing Nat King Cole’s obscure early track ‘The Little Boy That Santa Forgot’ and discovering it resonated greatly with him. He explains he related to that song so strongly that he wanted to find other songs just like it, kickstarting his life-long obsession, chasing his proverbial dragon of Christmas past, if you will. Along the way he’s discovered a little community of record-collectors who are on similar missions, though none seem quite as unwaveringly committed to the hunt as he is.
His story creates a real sense that there is a lot of forgotten and underappreciated holiday music out there - and I mean a lot. On mainstream radio we tend to hear the same ‘classics’ replayed year after year but Mitch demonstrates just how much is out there, hiding in dark, record store corners, just waiting to be rediscovered. Some is awful but the film wisely mostly focuses on the rare, underrated diamonds, allowing us to hear rare, out-there gems like ‘Santa Came In On a Nuclear Missile’ by Heather Noel, the rocky ‘Back Door Santa’ from Clarence Carter and the sublime, soulful ‘Winter Man’ by Clarence Reid.
His interviews with RUN and Coyne are enlightening and edifying with these successful recording artists sharing the stories behind their own off-the-wall Christmas hits. Coyne, in particular, seems to have been beamed in from another planet, one filled with positivity and creative artistic magic all year round, not just Christmas. He discusses his own passion project, 2008’s musical film Christmas on Mars, a movie that took him years to make and one that was based on a half-remembered childhood experience of watching a sci-fi holiday movie that most likely didn’t actually exist. Kezin’s film definitely hints heavily that the obsessions of dedicated collectors and enthusiasts are likely rooted in deep-seated childhood memories and traumas.
Songwriter and jazz crooner Bob Dorough fondly recounts his recording of ‘Blue Christmas’ with the legendary Miles Davis while elsewhere The Free Design singer Sandy Dedrick reminisces about the recording of their anti-war song ‘Shepherds and Wisemen’ that was, oddly, included on an incredibly rare navy recruitment album during the Vietnam war. Dedrick teerily recounts working on the recording with her now deceased husband and the scene is hella awkward as Mitch seems way more interested in getting his hands on the vinyl than in consoling the poor woman. Oops.
The most emotional scene comes when Kezin, through all his connections, is finally able to get into a recording studio with a bunch of musicians to record a - frankly amazing - calypso version of the Nat King Cole track that started it all. Everyone in the room is jamming, lost in the music, having a fun time and suddenly Mitch is overcome with emotion. It’s just a delightful scene in a film packed full of quirky, magical little moments that completely captivates me.
It’s a great movie and, like the most spellbinding documentaries, gives a glimpse into a world you probably never gave any prior thought to but will be totally glad you did. It’s about a peculiar collective of loveable oddballs letting their freak flags fly, demonstrating that there are countless ways that the wonder and magic of Christmas can be expressed through song. It’s really quite a find. I find myself loving this one so much that I end up ordering a replica of Mitch’s ‘Jive Time Records’ T-shirt off Ebay as soon as it’s done. I guess there’s definitely still a little bit of the fanatical ‘anorak’ left in me. Can you tell?
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