A Conversation with 'Art Dealers' Directors Roy Power and Adam Weiner

Philly rock band Low Cut Connie tears up the stage every night, but what's the story behind a local band, and what is life like for local rock legends? A new documentary from directors Roy Power and Adam Weiner seeks to unpack rock and roll, and gives us a sweet and genuine look into the life of local rockers.

We recorded a chat between directors Roy Power and Adam Weiner and now pass it on to you.

Check out the conversation below.

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A Conversation Between Art Dealers Directors Roy Power and Adam Weiner

Adam Weiner: I always wanted to make a live performance film. I've always loved films like Stop Making Sense and Paris is Burning that capture magical live performances on celluloid, and after I got back on stage after the pandemic and I saw the intensity of our audience's reception, I felt it was now or never to try to capture these absolutely cathartic shows that were happening.

Roy Power: Adam and I had worked together on some Low Cut Connie music videos in the years before the pandemic. In 2021, Adam called me with the opportunity to join him in making a full-length concert film—the obvious answer was yes.

Weiner: Sony Hall offered us a big show on a Saturday night with two little chaser shows at the Blue Note on the following Monday. They said they wanted footage of us onstage for a commercial that Sony was going to air in Japan, but they would let us use the footage later for anything we wanted.

Immediately I knew this was our shot at a full-length film. I felt there was a 20 percent chance that from a performance, audience, and technical perspective that something magic was could happen... And an 80 percent chance one of those three aspects was lackluster and we would just be wasting our time. It turned out to be an absolute smash beyond belief.

Power: We had a few months to prepare on a micro-budget. Beyond anything technical, my first priority was to pull together a crew of like-minded camera operators. This was going to be a one-and-done situation with no re-shoots, so I recruited several other DPs and camera operators from Animus Studios, the video production company that I work at in Rhode Island. None of us had ever shot a project like this before, but still I preferred camaraderie and like-mindedness over “experience” in the field of concert filmmaking. DP's Andy Drachman and Murphy McCann did an incredible job of capturing high-intensity movement without intruding on the action. It's a miracle it all came together, but at the end of the Sony show, we knew we had something special.

Weiner: When I saw the footage and heard the audio, I was floored.

Power: We kept adding little interstitial pieces using 16 years of past footage of the band and Adam's misadventures during and before the band. It all just seemed to make the live performances hit even harder. Our editor Paul Raposo pulled something beautiful and powerful out of a big mess of footage.

Weiner: Once we had the film sorta rough sequenced, we pulled an all-nighter just getting really creative with the edit. That was the nite the whole thing took shape and we realized the film was more than we had planned it to be. It felt very dynamic.

Power: It was a chaotic process, but we kept it moving steadily forward until we got to a finishing point on a movie that we are all very proud of.

The Art Dealers documentary comes out in theaters on September 6, 2024 in NYC and September 27th in LA (with additional regional cities). It hits VOD on October 1, 2024.