Oscar-winning filmmaker Murray Lerner in town for Belcourt screening

It seems unfathomable that legendary director Murray Lerner, one of the greatest music documentarians ever, has never visited Nashville, but Lerner acknowledges that this Sunday’s trip to Music City will be his first.

“I can hardly believe it myself, when you think about it and some of the things I’ve done,” Lerner said. “But to the best of my memory, for whatever reason I just never paid a visit to Nashville until now, even though I certainly have a lot of respect for its history and tradition.”

Lerner is coming to town for the Sunday night screening of his film The Other Side Of the Mirror – Bob Dylan Live At the Newport Folk Festival 1963-1965.

Ironically, the film is just now getting widespread exposure theatrically and on DVD despite the fact Lerner compiled it from outtakes of his acclaimed 1967 documentary on the Newport Folk Festival Festival, the work that also marked his immersion into music through cinema.

“I was really drawn to folk music early by the power and immediacy and integrity of the songs,” Lerner said. “I got invited to come to the Newport Folk Festival in 1963, and in both 1963 and 1965 I could see that this was the beginning of a new movement, one involving young people, where the music was at the center as much as the politics, and in fact was helping shape the politics.

“But what I saw in Dylan and the way he changed over those years was especially intriguing. So after we put together the film about the festival, then I wanted to do one especially about Dylan. So I put together a production around the concept that rather than Dylan being the mirror through which we saw ourselves, he was actually the other side of the mirror — the person whose roles changed and whose music also showed different sides of the movement that was emerging.”

The Other side of the Mirror takes the audience from formative performances to the charged 1965 event where Dylan teamed with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band for an electric set that thrilled and scandalized those present.

The film also contains appearances from Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Pete Seeger, The Freedom Singers, Peter, Paul and Mary, Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper, Barry Goldberg, Jerome Arnold and Sam Lay, among others.

“Looking back now at his songs and his lyrics, Dylan’s music seems even more important and visionary than it did at the time,” Lerner continued. “I think that this film shows an era that was emerging, but it also shows that Dylan’s greatness was already evident at the time, and that, if anything, it’s more valuable now that we have this music than before. So all the time that it took to get the funding together to finally get this done has really kind of worked out well in the end.”

While his folk festival documentaries are justly praised, they are far from Murray Lerner’s only contributions to cinematically capturing majestic music.

He produced several films from the Isle of Wight Festival, Message of Love: The Isle of Wight Festival, Jimi Hendrix At The Isle of Wight Nothing Is Easy: Jethro Tull at the Isle of Wight and Listening To You: The Who At The Isle of Wight Festival.

“I never bought into the myths that came out of Woodstock, Lerner said. “They glossed over so many important things, made no attempt to show the co-option of music and youth that was happening.” Lerner said. “I’d seen some of that at Newport, where they had all types of heated discussions about how much time black performers would get as opposed to white performers or blues people and other types of folk artists, but at the Isle of Wight you really saw the emergence of money becoming a force in the music world, not that it hadn’t been there before.

“But there were people making t-shirts and selling autographs and incredible tension behind the scenes and people crashing the gates and not paying admission,” he added. “I wanted to get all that in my film, and once again it took me a long time (25 years) before I could get that one shown the right way.”

Murray also produced and directed magnificent films spotlighting classical violin virtuoso Isaac Stern and jazz giant Miles Davis.

From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China won him an Academy Award in 1980, and spotlighted Stern’s 1979 goodwill tour of China.

“That was an amazing experience,” Lerner said. “Not only the attraction that the Chinese had to Western music mixed with their own, but getting the opportunity for the first time to see exactly what was happening in China, see the impact of the cultural revolution and visit with the people. They were remarkable. We were up every day at 5 a.m. and worked until late at night because so much was going on and we didn’t want to miss anything.”

His 1983 film Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue was among the earliest explorations of Davis’ shift from acoustic, bop-based music to rock and funk-influenced, electrified sounds.

“I admired his courage in going against the grain of what was happening at the time,” Lerner said. “He was vilified by the purists for that shift, but he was willing to take his music and perform it in front of huge audiences that knew nothing about jazz or his history. I enjoyed a lot of the performers who were playing with him, but none of them matched Miles Davis in terms of importance or charisma.”

He’s also done multiple films on The Who, including Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who, which was re-released Nov. 6 as a two-disc DVD set. Lerner cites Peter Townshend as someone he greatly admires.

“The Who, probably more than any other rock band, is always conscious of the audience and has always been greatly influenced and directed by their response,” Lerner said. “At the Isle of Wight, Keith Moon was at his best. Peter always said that’s the best performance on film of the group anyone’s gotten.”

When asked about current artists he’d like to film, Lerner quickly mentions one prominent name.

“I’d love to do something with Peter Gabriel. We got together for several days a few years back, and were trying to put together a project, but the funding never came together.”

What: Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Murray Lerner attends screening of his production The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live At the Newport Folk Festival 1963-1965

When: 7 p.m. Sunday

Where: The Belcourt Theatre, 2102 Belcourt Ave.

Cost: $13 ($10.25 Belcourt members)

Info: 846-3150