View London "Packed with never-before-seen
footage and revealing interviews, this is an entertaining and ultimately powerful and
moving rockumentary that's something of a must-see for fans of grunge music and remains
equally enjoyable for newcomers." http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/films/hit-so-hard-film-review-45569.html
London-based indie film distributor Peccadillo Pictures has acquired British and
Irish rights to Hit So Hard, P. David Ebersole's well traveled music film about Hole
drummer Patty Schemel.
According to Times Union Eric Erlandson, Melissa auf der Maur, and
Patty Schemel will reunite for a performance in Hudson, New York at the Basilica Hudson on
April 8, 2012 (Easter Sunday). This is 3/4 of Hole's classic 90 s lineup, Courtney Love
will not be in attendance. Eric Erlandson will do a reading from his new book 'Letters to
Kurt' at 6PM and there will also be a screening of Patty Schemel's documentary Hit So
Hard.
Nearly 20 years after the death of Kurt Cobain, the Nirvana frontman and uneasy
pioneer of grunge rock, a key member of Hole -- the band led by Cobain's widow, Courtney
Love -- has written a book reflecting on Cobain's suicide and the emotional turmoil that
it caused. But the author of this book isn't Ms. Love.
The film, which makes its
Australian premiere on February 24 at the Mardi Gras Film Festival, is an unflinching
portrait of Schemel's life, including the pain of growing up gay in small town Marysville,
Washington, her alcohol and drug addiction, the loss of her close friend Kurt Cobain,
bandmate Kristen Pfaff, her ensuing homelessness and the long struggle to return to
sobriety.
Schemel talked with The A.V.
Club, before she's present for a post-screening discussion of the new film Oct. 14 at the
Ritz Theater, about the lesbian influence of grunge fashion, fans' Kurt Cobain/Courtney
Love obsession, and the anti-feminism of the Whitesnake era.
We're especially
thrilled for a film called Hit So Hard: The Life and Near-Death Story of Patty Schemel.
The documentary is a chronicle of the struggles--and successes--of Hole drummer
Schemel.
Guests can meet Patty Schemel, former
drummer for the rock band Hole and subject of the documentary "Hit So Hard," along with
director P. David Ebersole and producer Todd Hughes, for the Ohio premiere (Oct. 7 at 7:15
p.m.).
Well Go USA has
acquired all North American rights to Hit So Hard, a documentary feature about Patty
Schemel, the drummer in Courtney Love's rock band Hole. Well Go has partnered with
Variance Films, which plans to release the film in major markets early next year.
Director P. David Ebersole told us Hit So Hard,
(which sold out last Thursday night and added a second screening) has been picked up for
major theatrical release and even if you're not a Nirvana or Hole fan, you must see it.
It's easily one of the most touching, honest, funny, refreshing and simply badass films of
its kind.
Hit So Hard: The Life & Near Death Story of Patty Schemel
may be the first documentary about drug addition and survival filmed primarily by the
addict herself.
Hit So Hard: The Life & Near Death Story of Patty Schemel
is a cinematic rollercoaster that reveals the story behind the famed lesbian drummer's
struggles with addiction.
Among the people hanging out were producer
Christine Vachon, John Waters, Hole doc ("Hit So Hard") producer Todd Hughes and director
P. David Ebersole and Provincetown fest Director of Programming Andrew Peterson.
Despite the up-and-down
times for the drummer, one constant was that Schemel was constantly at work documenting
everything on camera and now that raw, honest footage has been put together in the
documentary Hit So Hard.
Well Go USA is partnering with
Variance Films to release Hit So Hard, a documentary aboutPatty Schemel, the drummer in
Courtney Love's rock band Hole, in major markets in early 2012.
Patty Schemel is excited about her upcoming gig at the Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood,
following the Outfest screening of her documentary film, Hit So Hard: The Life & Near
Death Story of Patty Schemel. I would think she's excited just to be alive.
Riveting...director P.
David Ebersole uses a lesbian protagonist and her specific struggles as the filter for a
discussion about large-scale political movements and cultural shifts of the '90s.
I would like to shake Patty Schemel's hand. The
former Hole drummer has been through hell and back and lived to tell the tale in this
revealing, memorable, and affecting documentary.
This fine doc about Patty
Schemel is an absolute must-see for fans of Courtney Love's band Hole, and worthwhile for
anyone with an interest in women rockers, queer rockers, grunge rockers or queer women
grunge rockers.
This gem has wonderful footage of Kurt Cobain
hitherto unseen and is a treat for the Nirvana fan as well as providing insight as to the
rock star life style and the demands that go with it. The music is great, as is the
concert footage and this will no doubt become a cult classic.
It's a raw look at drug addiction, a
passion for music, life as a gay woman, the ruthlessness of the music industry, and the
highs and lows of hanging out with Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love.
The life and near death
story of Patty Schemel, the out drummer of Hole (from 1992-1997), premiered at SxSW and
screened at Cannes before coming home to Washington to be highlighted at the Seattle
International Film Festival last month.
I won't say that I'm always
particularly verbally eloquent but I was a little aghast at my rambling questions posed to
Hole drummer and subject of QDoc Friday night film Hit So Hard Patty Schemel.
The Beat Film
Festival brings an eclectic mix of music and art documentaries to the 35MM movie theater
this week, from the story of the record label that made Oasis famous to a couple who went
under the knife to be as one -- to the story of Hole's drummer Patty Schemel.
Seattle-area drumming icon for Hole (and
before that Sybil and other bands) Patty Schemel intimately confesses what it was like to
rock both grunge clubs and headline major festivals playing for Courtney Love. P. David
Ebersole's first feature-length documentary, Hit So Hard, features cameos by Love, and
pals like Faith No More's Roddy Bottom, punk-folk icon Phranc, and many others, issues
about sexuality, addiction, and the darker sides of the music business are bracingly dealt
with.
The Seattle Times
recommends top picks for each day of the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival. For May
27: "Bruce Lee, My Brother" and "Hit So Hard," a documentary on Hole drummer Patty
Schemel.
Over 110 films make up this year's Sheffield
Doc/Fest lineup, 79 of which are doc features making their world, international, European
and/or UK premieres.
For
a couple of days, P. David Ebersole's HIT SO HARD, which traces the rise and fall (and
near death) and then recovery and rise again of Hole drummer Patty Schemel's life to date,
brought some rock n' role to New Directors/New Films. And that is meant both figuratively
and literally, as the enthusiastic standing room only crowd at MoMA would attest as they
waited and waited...and waited for Courtney Love to appear so the key members of the
seminal rock group could reunite for the first time in 13 years and the lights could
finally go down allowing the film to start.
She saw the drug-related deaths of a band
mate and a band mate's famous husband. She nearly succumbed to her own demons. And she
lived through this to talk about it in a new documentary, Hit So Hard: The Life and Near
Death of Patty Schemel. Carla DeSantis Black caught up with the former Hole drummer at the
South By Southwest music confab in Austin, Texas.
She was like 50 minutes
late (but let's face it, the life of a rock star ain't easy) but Courtney Love graced us
with her presence for the premiere of Hit So Hard, joined by Eric Erlandson, Patty
Schemel, and Melissa Auf der Maur. ND/NF is just like that. Edgy.
In summer 2007, Hole drummer Patty Schemel came
to her friend P. David Ebersole with a suitcase full of Hi8 tapes she shot over her years
with the band. Along with images of Hole members Eric Erlandson, Melissa Auf der Maur,
late bassist Kristen Pfaff and Courtney Love, Schemel's camera documented the family
interactions of Love, her husband Kurt Cobain and daughter Frances Bean. Ebersole, who
lives around the corner from Schemel and met her through mutual friend Joe Mama-Nitzberg,
told her, "I think you have a movie in this." Shortly after, Schemel asked Ebersole if
he'd be interested in making the film with his producing partner/husband, Todd
Hughes.
The film, "Hit So Hard,"
has its New York premiere as part of the 40th annual New Directors/New Films festival,
co-presented by MoMA and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Directed by P. David
Ebersole, the documentary takes a raw, unflinching look at Schemel's hard-knock
life.
Courtney Love is a rock
star.
You can tell she's famous because she held up last night's screening of "Hit So Hard" at
New Directors/New Films by nearly an hour. The new documentary, directed by P. David
Ebersole, is a look at the life of rock drummer Patty Schemel. Former Hole band mates Eric
Erlandson and Melissa auf der Mar joined Schemel on the MoMA red carpet to wait for their
former front woman. The clock ticked well past the film's start time and everyone got
rather anxious as Love checked in from the car saying more than once that she was just
five minutes away.
Read the rest of the article here. P. David Ebersole, Courtney Love, Patty Schemel and
Melissa Auf Der Maur at the after party.
Monday night's screening of Hit So Hard, a
documentary chronicling the debilitating drug addiction of former Hole drummer Patty
Schemel, began nostalgically with everyone waiting for Courtney Love to arrive.
Read the rest of the article here.
Hole (from l-r, Eric Erlandson, Patty Schemel, Courtney Love, and Melissa
Auf der Maur) / Photo by Godlis
Hole's Classic Lineup Reconnects at
Documentary Premiere
Onetime Hole
band mates Courtney Love, Eric Erlandson, Melissa Auf der Maur and Patty Schemel were
together for the first time in 13 years last night for the premiere of the new rock doc
Hit So Hard at New York's Museum of Modern Art.
"The film represents a really tough time in our band," bassist Auf der Maur told
Rolling Stone, "and it's an incredible survival story about Patty."
Hole made it to the Museum of Modern Art in New
York Monday evening for the debut of director P. David Ebersole's New Directors/New Films
doc, "Hit So Hard." Courtney Love, Melissa Auf Der Maur (right), Eric Erlandson and
drummer Patty Schemel had their first reunion in 13 years for the film, which is a
"pull-no-punches portrait of the hell-and-back life of Schemel." The film includes some
amazing early footage of the band as well as late Nirvana frontman, Kurt Cobain. "I had
this [footage] in the closet and sent it to [Ebersole]," Schemel told the audience
following the screening. "We watched it and he said that it was a great story and said,
'can we do something with this?' and I said, 'sure,' and then I said, 'take good care of
this and go tell my story...'"
Courtney Love
shrugged. "We've been in lots of rooms together," she said to a packed theater of
moviegoers at the Museum of Modern Art, where Hit So Hard, a documentary about her band
Hole (and, more specifically, drummer/addict/survivor Patty Schemel) had its New York
premiere Monday night. The crowd laughed, steeped in nostalgia and recognition -- not that
Love was talking about this room or this crowd.
We weren't sure we'd
ever see this day, but holy shiz! It's happened!
Courtney Love and her former Hole bandmates, Melissa auf der Maur, Patty Schemel, and Eric
Erlandson all reunited last night in honor of a screening of the new documentary about
Schemel's life, Hit So Hard, at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC last night, and we can't
belove how lovely everyone looks!
Former Hole drummer Patty Schemel is happy
that her new documentary is bringing together a Hole reunion of sorts.
Her onetime bandmates -- Courtney Love, Eric Erlandson and Melissa Auf Der Mar -- all plan
to attend the premiere of "Hit So Hard: The Live & Near Death Story of Patty Schemel"
tonight (Mar. 28) as part of the New Directors/New Films series in New York City, marking
the quartet's first time together since the troubled making of the 1998 "Celebrity Skin"
album.
Also lesbian-themed and music-filled is P. David Ebersole's terrific documentary
Hit So Hard, also destined to hit high b.o. notes. His subject is the up, down and up
again life of Patty Schemel, who hit the percussion skins in the early '90s as drummer for
Courtney Love's punk band Hole before hitting the skids and streets of L.A. as an addict.
Music and celebrity insanity vie with drug and alcohol addition for screen time here, but
what emerges is an honest and rewarding look at rock 'n' roll life back when Rolling Stone
covers, triumphant world tours, suicides and overdoses all characterized the
scene.
Reunited
and it feels so good: four members of the vintage-1990s rock band Hole, which never got
along as smoothly as any Peaches & Herb song, are planning to reconvene on Monday at the
New Directors/New Films series to see a documentary about the former Hole drummer Patty
Schemel, the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center said.
The group's original members will attend
the screening of David Ebersole's documentary on former Hole drummer Patty Schemel on
Monday at the Museum of Modern Art. The film, "Hit So Hard," is screening as part of the
Film Society of Lincoln Center's annual New Directors/New Films series.
This pull-no-punches portrait of the
hell-and-back life of Patty Schemel, drummer for Courtney Love's band Hole during its peak
years, is no ordinary rockumentary. Told from the point of view of one band member, "Hit
So Hard" takes an unprecedented inside look at one of the most crucial and controversial
groups of the 1990s, with up-close-and-personal home-video footage of life offstage with
Courtney, Kurt Cobain, and the band.
A new documentary
chronicling the story of former Hole band member Patty Schemel premiered at the SXSW this
week, and on top of focusing on the drummer's drug addiction and the deaths of Kurt Cobain
and Hole bassist Kristen Pfaff, it also features never-before-seen footage of the late
Nirvana frontman performing an unreleased song with then-wife Courtney Love!
Raised in a farm town outside of Seattle,
openly lesbian drummer Patty Schemel never dreamed her right foot would pedal the band
Hole toward international stardom, defining the 90s grunge era with such hits as "Doll
Parts" and "Miss World." One minute, she was swimming in accolades from critics and fans
alike, resulting in a cover shoot for Rolling Stone.
Anybody who listened to Hole during their peak
knows that the band was dominated by frontwoman Courtney Love. Her personality was so
outsized and her voice so big and distinct that there was little room for anybody else in
the band to really shine. But Hole were an incredibly efficient rock machine, and a lot of
that was because of the savage precision of drummer Patty Schemel. Drummers tend to get
short shrift in any band (save for iconic singularities like Keith Moon, John Bonham or
Neil Peart), so it's about time that one of the more talented members of the time-keeping
fraternity gets the attention she deserves.
In some ways, the timing of Hit So
Hard couldn't be more perfect. Structured around Schemel's Hi8 footage from those dark and
heady times, the film hews closely to her biography, touching on her early drumming and
drinking (ages 11 and 12, respectively), her coming out, and her central role in the
Northwest music scene before unflinchingly recounting her path from being Hole's most
crucial and well-known drummer.
Growing up in the
pre-grunge Northwest, Patty Schemel started off in the Empty Records punk scene and has
since gone on to drum in everything from Imperial Teen to P!NK. In 1992 she joined forces
with Hole writing two of the most acclaimed records from the 90's: Live through This and
Celebrity Skin. Even with such an impressive resume she still remains one of the sweetest
and most humble drummers alive. Vice Cooler spent an afternoon with Patty to debunk rumors
and discuss drums, making it out of grunge, and running a doggy daycare.
"Once upon a time in Hollywood, a good
friend in the industry told me never to mix genres, which is advice I seem never to heed.
So we have made a lesbian rockumentary that is equal parts tragedy and comedy, a road
picture and a home movie, a behind-the-scenes backstage pass and an intimate portrait of
one woman's journey from small town girl to rock star to homelessness. "Hit So Hard" is
the story of Patty Schemel, the hard-hitting, openly gay drummer of Courtney Love's
seminal rock band Hole; but it also the story of a true survivor. It's The Wizard of Oz
meets The Decline of Western Civilization." Director P. David Ebersole on "Hit So Hard"
which screens at this year's South By Southwest Film.
The attitude and rhythm of SXSW was
determined by its massive music festival long before the film portion even existed. Many
of the screenings echo this reputation with nonfiction portraits of musicians letting
loose. At least half a dozen titles fill this niche in the current program. These include
"Bob the Monster," which focuses on the struggles of Thelonious Monster and The Bicycle
Thief frontman Bob Forrest and "Hit So Hard," about ex-Hole drummer Patty
Schemel.
Fame and fortune, stars and celebrity, rock and roll -- these are the things that
many of us think we want out of life, but many of the people who've reached these goals
barely survive through them. Enter the story of Patty Schemel.
This Monday, March 7, Hole drummer Patty
Schemel and film producer Todd Hughes will join radio host Sheryl Farber on her show
SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS to celebrate rock & roll's amazing women drummers and discuss the
new documentary about Patty's life, HIT SO HARD. The show runs from 8 PM until 10 PM PST.
Tune in to luxuriamusic.com and join them in the chat.
Standout films in the upcoming South by
Southwest festival lineup include Hit So Hard, a look at Patty Schemel, the lesbian
drummer for Courtney Love's seminal band Hole...
Patty was never afraid
of being herself and of taking on the stigma of not only being a girl in a band, but being
a female drummer, and an out lesbian at that. But those attributes are only part of what
makes her so fun to see on film.
Joining the 24 Beats Per Second section, P. David
Ebersole delivers Hit So Hard, a revealing documentary on HOLE drummer
Patty Schemel.
The life and near-death
story of Patty Schemel, the hard-hitting openly gay drummer of HOLE whose friendship with
struggling musician Kurt Cobain unexpectedly led her to a path of fame, addiction,
betrayal, survival and triumph.
The 24 Beats Per Second section
showcases "the sounds, culture and influence of music and musicians, with an emphasis
on documentary."
See the DATES page for
screening times and locations!
Hit So Hard
announced for 40th Annual New Directors/New Films.
Hit So Hard will
make it's New York premiere on March 28, 2011 at New Directors/New Films.
The
Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center announced the full lineup
today for the 40th edition of New Directors/New Films (March 23 . April 3). Dedicated to
the discovery of new works by emerging and dynamic filmmaking talent, the film festival
will screen 28 feature films (24 narrative, 4 documentary) representing 22 countries.
Ebersole's rockumentary HIT SO
HARD is a pull-no-punches portrait of the hell-and-back life of Patty Schemel, drummer for
Courtney Love's band Hole during its peak years. The result is an unprecedented inside
look at the one of the Nineties most crucial and controversial groups. Notwithstanding its
amazingly candid interviews (Love included), its unflinching accounts of the personal
tragedies that plagued the band in its heyday, and a rare look at hardball music-industry
politics gives the viewer the lowdown on the recording of Hole's 1997 record Celebrity
Skin.
See the DATES page for screening times and
locations!
