L7: The Beauty Process

L7: The Beauty Process L7 are:Donita Sparks (guitar/vocals) Suzi Gardner (guitar/vocals) Dee Plakas (drums) Greta Brinkman (bass) The Beauty Process: A Film By Krist Novoselic Release date: 03.23.99 Label: Murky Slough Pictures Distributor: Distribution N. America Director: Krist Novoselic

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This film is a 43-minute colour film that relies mainly on L7 performance footage, although the band does engage in some acting. There are three satirical vignettes exposing the music industry’s foibles: a focus group, lunch meeting with a record company artists and repertoire executive and a graduation ceremony/contract signing with the devil. The theme of this movie is art versus commerce. This epic, age-old battle is fought on many fronts. The idea fascinated Krist some much that it became the theme of the film. Shot entirely in grainy 8mm film during a L7 Tour with Sweet 75 in October 1997, this film debuted at the Blinding Light Cinema, in Vancouver, B.C. on May 20, 1999.

“We were visiting on the first night of the tour together and after a while we were talking about our bands’ respective situations with the music industry,” Novoselic told the News. “We were sharing a lot of our frustrations about popular music, bands and the whole system. I went off to bed that night and I was thinking about our conversation and I thought ‘Oh, that’s what I want to make the film about.'”

“The focus group is about marketing, the A&R guy is about how you’re promised the world and you have a little bit of bad luck and they drop you, they abandon you, they leave you holding the cheque,” Novoselic explained. “The commencement is about being frustrated and how to let those frustrations go.”

“The band is going through the film and they’re kickin’ ass, they’re pissed off and being angry. The devil is laying everything out and saying here’s the truth, here’s the reality of everything. Then they say a little prayer where they realize that’s what’s going on. Graduation and commencement is a rite of passage, it commemorates a beginning, leaving all that frustration and bitterness behind, because you realize what the reality is.” – Krist Novoselic