A Perfect Music Video for Day of the Dead Weekend

Are music videos dead?

Not quite. Even though they've moved to a whole different arena since the glory days of MTV, they can still be found on YouTube of course as well as, thanks to some eagle-eyed film festival programmers, at various regional celluloid celebrations.

Tonight at the Central Wisconsin Film Festival, the opening selection in the shorts program is a little ditty called "Moonbeams." It was directed by Sam Macon last year for the Family Band and shows, with some delightful non-CGI flair, what might happen in a cemetery when a separately buried deceased couple decides to reunite. If you've never seen the video, you're in for a gigantic, five-minute-and-change treat.



One of my favorite parts is the opening. It recalls, in its own way, the great pan-to-below-ground kick-off of David Lynch's Blue Velvet. It also doesn't hurt that the song has a bit of a Twin Peaks/Angelo Badalamenti feel and that at one point here as well, there is some front-lawn watering glimpsed.

Another fun touch is the photo from the music video shoot that adorns the Family Band's official website. We should all be so lucky as to sport a pair of sneakers like that in the Great Beyond. (You'll have to watch the video to figure out how a skeleton winds up wearing them.)

The Central Wisconsin Film Festival, running November 1st-2nd, is in its eighth year. It is presented by the Arts Alliance of Portage County. "Moonbeams" previously screened at the 2012 Midwest Independent Film Festival and it's easy to see why it earned the distinction of a January 2013 Vimeo "Staff Pick."

[Central Wisconsin Film Festival]

P.S. How fun must it be for young Hannah Macon to tell her friends that yes, that is her (briefly) in the music video. I am assuming she is the director's daughter.