The Other F Word

Being the singer of a successful punk band is no easy ride. Exhausting tours, terrible hotel food, kipping in stinking tour buses, and then having to give out your best in front of a hyped-up crowd every night for seven months on the trot. And all this knowing that you’ve got a wife and three small daughters waiting for you at home and that you’d much rather be with them. Jim Lindberg could tell you all about it as frontman of the famous band Pennywise and protagonist of the documentary by American director Andrea Blaugrund Nevins. The latter decided to monitor the transformation of a convention-defying, anti-authoritarian punk rocker into a responsible father. This dynamic piece offers a thorough excursus into the extremely wild American punk scene and the state of fatherhood as experienced by members of bands such as NOFX, Rancid, US Bombs and Black Flag, and naturally we get a substantial helping of punk music as well. Above all, we also establish how difficult it is to be a good singer and an equally good father. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)