A Shore Bet

The inaugural Wildwood by the Sea Film Festival is highlighted by a pair of music docs from across the bridge.

by Shaun Brady

On any given weekend, Philadelphians tend to rival actual Jerseyites down the Jersey Shore, so why should their film festival be any different? This weekend's inaugural Wildwood by the Sea Film Festival is highlighted by a pair of music docs from across the bridge.

Director Shawn Swords, who previously documented the life of Cameo-Parkway rocker Charlie Gracie, takes on American Bandstand's Philly era in Philly Music Scene (Circa 1952-1963). It promises interviews with Chubby Checker, Fabian, Frankie Avalon and The Geator — though not, in a possible tip-off as to the attitude taken (we've never really forgiven him for the move to L.A.), Dick Clark.

Also premiering at the festival is Pipes of Peace, George Manney's portrait of Philly's late, lamented jazz bagpiper, Rufus Harley. When Harley died in August 2006, tributes poured out for the man who considered himself an ambassador for his city, even when the African-American man wearing a kilt and blowing into bagpipes wasn't taken particularly seriously. Manney's doc, a heartfelt if sometimes meandering profile, focuses on Harley's message of peace and brotherhood, represented by the flags woven into his instrument.

In 1992, an accident left Manney, who played drums in Philly from his late-'60s band Stone Dawn through a long-running jam session at J.C. Dobbs, with a permanent disability that sidelined his music career for a time. Borrowing a friend's camera, Manney started documenting the local music scene, gathering interviews and research for a planned film. But when word came of Harley's passing, Manney temporarily set aside his plans and set to work on a film about the bagpiper.

The hour-long Pipes of Peace devotes much of its time to Harley's trademark linguistic lectures — one typically tongue-twisting example finds him extracting "me" from "America," finding "us" in both "U.S." and "music" and tying the whole thing from "we" to "oui" to bring in the French. As gratifying as it is to be in Harley's colorful presence again, these speeches eventually begin to feel redundant, especially when so much of his story is left untold. His four early Joel Dorn-produced albums for Atlantic are mentioned, but very little of his later career is discussed; two of his children are interviewed, including trumpet-playing son Messiah, but his other 14 don't merit a mention.

The case is made for Harley's innovative mastery of the bagpipes — inspired by the Black Watch pipers at President Kennedy's funeral — by his former sidemen, fellow musicians such as Odean Pope and Byard Lancaster and collaborators like Laurie Anderson (who used Harley on her 1982 album Big Science) and David Ivory (who produced his contributions to The Roots' Do You Want More?!!!??!). But most eloquent are the too-infrequent glimpses of Harley in performance, finding no obstacles to personal expression in the difficult instrument.

(s_brady@citypaper.net)