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Filmmaker Mitchell Kezin follows his own obsession with Christmas music (his gateway disc was “The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot”) into an amusing round-up of holiday tunes; a cultural history of contemporary Christmas songs (from Elvis to “Back Door Santa”); and the vinyl junkies who collect the often-sneered-at music. Kezin checks in with some well-known fans, including: John Waters, musician Wayne Coyne, Run DMC and Bob Dorough, who penned one of the first anti-Christmas holiday tunes, “Blue Xmas,” for Miles Davis. Turns out that beneath the snark, these guys (like most record hounds), are surprisingly sentimental about holiday music. They all make pretty convincing arguments that there is something affirming about even the most over-played, ill-advised or just plain weird Christmas song. Fa la la la la! (At each screening, three audience members will be picked to root through on-hand Christmas LPs and choose a song to be played.)
This article appears in Dec 3-9, 2014.
