An all-woman art rock band gives themselves a year to hit it big in Band. Iceland’s Post Performance Blues Band is a mix of electronic music and performance art consisting of the trio of Álfrún Örnólfsdóttir, Hrefna Lind Lárusdóttir, and Saga Sigurðardóttir. First getting together in art school, the PPBB has grown tired of playing for five people and has decided to make a serious attempt at success, vowing to forever break up if the PPBB doesn’t become popular in a year’s time.
Band is the feature-film debut for Icelandic filmmaker and actress Álfrún Örnólfsdóttir, who is also a member of the titular Post Performance Blues Band. The film plays creatively with the documentary form to create a semi-fictionalized film that is all about the possibilities that rejection brings.
It becomes apparent relatively early on that Band is not a conventional documentary, featuring a semi-fictionalized narrative and music video-like performances. The music of the Post Performance Blue Band is hard to classify, though the songs are almost secondary to the weird performance art that accompanies their music. Ultimately, Band is an interesting hybrid documentary experiment, but ultimately not for everyone.
