The Gits with Director, Kerri O’Kane
The Echoplex
Los Angeles, CA
July 8, 2008
By Victoria Joyce
(SugarBuzz Hollywood)
SugarBuzz Magazine
Thank Monty Python’s Flying Circus. The British comedy group that gave the modern world “Spam,” the name for electronic junk mail also named a band. “Allow me to present my neighbors. This is Sniveling Little Rat-Faced Git and his wife, Deary Fat Boring Old.”
This Seattle-Ohio transplant rock and roll band loved the skit and took the name, The Gits It was so them. They came along in the days of Grunge. Compatriots of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and 7 Year Bitch. The Gits were stopped dead in their tracks by the murder of lead signer, Mia Zapata.
This evening was the 15th anniversary of Zapata’s untimely death. In commemoration, there was a multi-city simul-screening of Kerri O’Kane’s loving documentary.
The Gits were the next big thing in 1993. Shows and tours had all paid off. They had a huge buzz and had just been signed. The film interviews band members, family, friends, fans and cops. Very raw archival performance footage from multiple shows is cut to finished recordings for an especially powerful effect.
Mia was a compelling artist with her dreds swinging as she belted out haunting self-written lyrics. Very bluesy and reminiscent of Bessie Smith, Lady Day and Joplin. She was up there with the best.
The crime sent a chill through this tight-knit community that inspired a center for self-defense called “Home Alive.” Throughout the film O’Kane focuses on the positive.
Half rockumentary, half murder mystery, this film is a heartbreaker and a breath taker. They literally caught the guy during the production and shot the trial without knowing the outcome. Mia’s friends never gave up. And they nailed the guy ten years later with DNA. Talk about Law & Order. Oh, yeah. You’re right, it’s more CSI.
The most telling scene in the film was the homicide detective telling her dad they caught the guy and relating how Mr. Zapata repeatedly thanked the officers. Shaking his head, the officer said “we were just doing our job” and later telling his wife, he broke down and cried realizing “if this is what the father was like, no wonder people loved the daughter.” Ordinarily cops don’t cry.
Viva Zapata!