Sound Unseen reveals 2024 lineup, but cancels 2025 festival

The annual Sound Unseen Film + Music Festival has unveiled the lineup for its 25th installment, which will take place in Minneapolis from Nov. 13–17 and Rochester , Minn. from Dec. 5–8.

Mixed into the announcement of its massive lineup of concerts and films is news that this will be the last chance to attend Sound Unseen for a while.

The festival will not take place in any of its three hubs — Minneapolis, Rochester, and Austin, Texas — in 2025. However, the organization will continue its monthly screening series and occasional special events.

“Being that this is both Sound Unseen’s 25th Anniversary along with a planned break from organizing an annual festival," Sound Unseen Festival Director Jim Brunzell said in a statement, "our entire programming team wanted to offer an eclectic mix of the best rock documentaries on the festival circuit and something completely different in our programming with a few special sidebars including Sounds Like WTF? (music films with Genre elements) and Land of 10,000 Sounds (featuring Minnesota based artists and films)."

The Minneapolis installment opens on Nov. 13 at the Parkway Theater with DEVO , a documentary on the seminal band from director Chris Smith. That screening will be accompanied by a live performance from Minneapolis-based DEVO tribute band REVO.

Closing night will center around a screening of Linda Perry: Let It Die Here , a documentary on the singer's solo career and time with 4 Non Blondes. Perry and director Don Hardy will be on-hand for a post-screening Q&A, and Perry will perform elsewhere during the festival. The closing night festivities will also include a live show from local glam rock icon Venus DeMars.

A special tribute screening of Spider John Koerner: Been Here... Done That , a documentary about the titular musician who died earlier this year, will take place on Nov. 14. Friend of the artist and local folk music pillar Charlie Parr will perform at the screening.

Live performances will be a focus for the 2024 iteration. In addition to the above concerts, the festival features a pair of shows from Lydia Loveless and a rare appearance from Swamp Dogg following a screening of Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted, a documentary directed by local musicians Isaac Gale and Ryan Olson (Gayngs, Polica).

Other highlights include the "action-horror-musical-comedy B-movie epic" Chainsaws Were Singing , a rare screening of Twin/Tone REcords' 7 Nights in the Entry , a remake of the film noir D.O.A. starring X's John Doe (who will be in attendance), a 100th-anniversary screening of The Hands of Orlac with a live score by Katie Condon, and M-80 , a Minneapolis concert film with performances from The Fleshtones, The Suicide Commanders, The Monochrome Set, TuxedoMoon, The Suburbs , the late James Chance, and others.

Other films screening in Minneapolis and Rochester include:

• 1-800-On-Her-Own , a documentary about Ani DiFranco
• Born To Be Wild: The Story of Steppenwolf (Minneapolis only)
• Fifty Years In Sixty Minutes: Films From Sounds: The Bob Dylan Archive (Minneapolis only)
• Garland Jeffreys: The King of In Between (Minneapolis only)
• It's All Gonna Break , a documentary on Broken Social Scene (Minneapolis only)
• Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird , a documentary on the Mars Volta (Minneapolis only)
• Pavements , a documentary on Pavement (Minneapolis only)
• S/He Is Still Her/e , a documentary on Genesis P. Orridge (Minneapolis only)
• A 10-year anniversary director's cut of Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC (Minneapolis only)
• Shari & Lamb Chop (Minneapolis only)
• Teaches of Peaches (Minneapolis only)
• This Is a Film About The Black Keys
• The Secret of Sleep , a "photo-skit" starring Spider John Koerner and Willy Murphy (Rochester only)
• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari with live score (Rochester only)

The complete schedule, which includes even more films and concerts, is available on the festival's website , along with information on how to buy tickets.

Related: Cine Latino announces festival lineup, including new film from Oscar winner Walter Salles