
Mod movies are a rare thing so I was excited to learn about the new feature movie - Young Birds Fly - based right here in L.A. Here is the trailer for Young Birds Fly. I am bummed that we missed this when it screened in LA in May this year.
Three things that intrigue me about this movie:
1. It is about Mod GIRLS, which I find refreshing because Mod is traditionally a "Guy thing". Just as much as I loved
This Is England (the new definitive Skinhead movie which I cannot recommend enough!), it was primarily a Guy film and seeing the Girls in there was an added buzz.
(Hey where did the Get Up Edina website disappear to?)2. This film is about AMERICAN Mods. There are no Birtish working class roots here. This is all style and music-based. Come to think of it, American Mod = a much broader spectrum of 60's culture than in England. The lines between Mod, Skinhead, Rude Boy, 60's Hipster... are very fine. There is as much French Pop, 60's Garage, and Latin Boogaloo in this scene as there is Rocksteady and Northern Soul.
[historically, Northern Soul was a distinctly different subculture from Mod]
3. This is a film about Contemporary Mods. Neither 60's mods nor 80's mods. But Mods in the 2000's! As 'groundbreaking' a film as
Quadrophenia was in defining what Mod is, its 80's-ness was way too obvious with the (wrong) hair and fashion and (ahem)... limited soundtrack, and IMO, a true 60's style mod film still needs to be made...

[preliminary artwork for our new DANCE CRASHER project]Well, here's hoping that there will be another screening of Young Birds Fly ... is the DVD out soon?