One night of 'Eno': Surprising rock-doc changes with each screening

Who knew Brian Eno was funny?

It’s only one of the discoveries onscreen in “Eno,” the new documentary about the English musical innovator, who emerged from London’s glam-rock 1970s to become both a superstar record producer (David Bowie, Talking Heads, U2) and a visionary composer, whose 1978 album “Music for Airports” launched the ambient music genre.

“He has always had this aura around him of being some sort of mystic or hermetic or something, but no, he's really personable and really engaging and really funny,” says filmmaker Gary Hustwit (“Helvetica,” “Objectified”), who spent time filming Eno on multiple trips to England beginning amid the pandemic, and digitized some 500 hours of the artist’s archives for the project.

“When you listen to someone like Bowie talking about the way they worked, it was a lot about games, and just having fun with different approaches, and the humor involved in those collaborations, so it totally makes sense.”

It’s one of many surprises in “Eno,” starting with the documentary itself, which is a different film every time it’s shown. Hustwit and his collaborator, creative technologist Brendan Dawes, developed a unique generative software that draws on a vast amount of available footage to assemble a new experience for each showing.

It’s not unlike the way Eno shuffles his storied Oblique Strategies game cards, which advise things like “Try faking it!” and “Look closely at the most embarrassing details and amplify them.”

As Hustwit explains, there are a handful of scenes that are fixed, but about 70 percent of the film changes each time. “It's more about ideas and themes that kind of connect throughout the film.,” he says. “It's not necessarily about a conventional narrative arc.”

So far, Hustwit has generated some 300 versions of "Eno."

“Eno” shows Tuesday at 7 p.m. on the IMAX screen at the Challenger Learning Center downtown, presented by the Tallahassee Film Festival as part of a nationwide screening event.

The film’s unconventionality suits its subject, who was cool to Huswit’s interest until the filmmaker and digital artist Dawes came back with the idea of using AI as a creative tool. “I don’t think he really wanted to have a film made about him, right?” Hustwit says. “But he wanted to participate in this first generative film experiment.”

Hustwit, who continues to add new footage for potential inclusion in future editions of the film, suggests that its themes transcend the usual rock-doc (although he has produced very good ones on Wilco, Mavis Staples, and Robert Moog).

“I've always enjoyed the music that Eno’s made, but his approach to creativity is what is really intriguing,” Hustwit says. “I don't care what you do, if you're a painter or you're a writer or you're a weaver – if you’re doing anything creative, there are things you will learn from this film just from being exposed to Brian and Brian’s ideas.

“It wasn't like I set out to make a toolkit to live a creative life,” he continues, “but I think that's how the film works for a lot of people. That's why people keep coming back to see different versions of the film. They want to keep being inspired.”

If you go

What: One night only of “Eno,” presented by the Tallahassee Film Festival as part of a nationwide screening event

When: 7 p.m. Tuesday

Where : IMAX screen at the Challenger Learning Center downtown

Tickets : $10, at door or online at tallahasseefilmfestival.com

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: One night of 'Eno': Surprising rock-doc changes with each screening