Lauded A24 Re-Release of Jonathan Demme-directed Talking Heads Concert Film, Stop Making Sense, Screens February 9 Benefiting WPKN

December 19, 2023

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Jim Motavalli, publicity director, at [email protected]

Lauded A24 Re-Release of Jonathan Demme-directed Talking Heads Concert Film, Stop Making Sense, Screens February 9 Benefiting WPKN

“This is the greatest concert film ever! Can we give it up please? I’m going on record around the world,” film director Spike Lee raved to the sold-out Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year.

On Friday, February 9, A24’s re-release of Stop Making Sense lands in the hometown library and venue of Frantz and Weymouth, at the Westport Library and Verso Studios. This event is a benefit for both VersoFest 2024 and free-form community radio station WPKN, where Frantz hosts his monthly radio show, The Talking Head. Tickets are $20 with larger donations to these grassroots organizations encouraged and welcomed. The night includes a cash bar with beer provided by nearby BBQ restaurant, Walrus Alley, and wine. Tickets are available here: https://tinyurl.com/32w4kzc6.

Doors open at 6:30 pm with WPKN’s ReHumanize Yourself Radio host Herman Olivera and assorted WPKN DJs spinning vinyl sets before and after the film. Stop Making Sense begins promptly at 7 p.m., followed by a question-and-answer session with Frantz and Weymouth, moderated by Verso Studios Marketing Manager, Brendan Toller, who is an accomplished filmmaker (Danny Says, I Need That Record!), musician (Dust Hat, Hilton Valentine Band), and DJ (Shake ‘N’ Vibrate).

A24’s remixed, remastered, 4K, 40th anniversary re-release of Jonathan Demme’s 1984 tour-de-force film, Stop Making Sense, has ignited a lovefest amongst original Talking Heads members, David Byrne, Jerry Harrison and Westport’s own, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth. The publicity tour included screenings in New York and Los Angeles, with everyone from Late Night’s Stephen Colbert to Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon and Khruangbin’s Laura Lee paying reverence and tribute.

Stop Making Sense is the landmark film capturing the Talking Heads over three nights at Pantages Theater in Los Angeles in December of 1983. The extended touring edition of the band included Bernie Worrell, Alex Weir, Steve Scales, Lynn Mabry and Edna Holt for an electrifying, performative document that has enraptured generations of audiences in fervent screenings and parties.

Now in its third consecutive year, VersoFest is a four-day music and media conference and festival linking local and global artists in performances, panels, and workshops. Taking place Thursday April 4, through Sunday April 7, the 2024 edition welcomes (among many) legendary music producer Tony Visconti, and rising power pop rockers, the Lemon Twigs.

Frantz and Weymouth have been glowing supporters of VersoFest since its inception. In previous years, Frantz moderated discussions with acclaimed music producer Steve Lillywhite, and Psychedelic Furs frontman, and painter, Richard Butler. The inaugural VersoFest featured Frantz in discussion on his best-selling memoir Remain in Love with WPKN General Manager, Steve di Constanzo.

Verso Studios is an ideal film forum, equipped with an 18 x 10-foot Digital Projection Radiance LED 1080 screen, and concert hall-grade sound system. In recent years Verso Studios has screened Connecticut premieres of Todd Haynes’ Velvet Underground documentary, and Larry Locke’s Heaven Stood Still: The Incarnations of Willy Deville, as well as innovative screenings with Psychedelic Cinema, and documentary trailblazer Sam Green with 32 Sounds.

With Frantz consecrating the Westport Library as “the hippest library in the whole damn country,” there will surely be dancing in the aisles. For more information, visit: https://tinyurl.com/2nkjbfmh. View the film’s official trailer: https://youtu.be/-rjMwSTeVeo?si=lINUP5fpR3vqiT9u.