Filmmaker Captures 1990s Music Scene

It was Feb. 2, 2011 when Marc Dole and a group of Portsmouth filmmakers came up with the idea to make a documentary about the influential 1990s Portsmouth music scene.

Several months later, Dole and his group successfully compiled old video footage, photographs and interviews with the members of former Seacoasts bands like Groove Child, Thanks to Gravity, Fly Spinach Fly and many others into the film, "In Danger of Being Discovered."

Their work culminated in a premiere showing of the 50-minute film at the Music Hall on Jan. 27 that featured live performances by Groove Child and Thanks to Gravity after both groups broke up 12 years ago.

The film struck such a chord of delight for so many people who remember the Portsmouth music scene that coincided with the Seattle music scene, that groups that had not played together in more than a decade came together again.

This created a conflict for Dole and co-director and producer Michael Venn of Portsmouth. As filmmakers, their role was to capture a music scene, but instead they may have revived it.

“We’re still trying to determine where to go with the film,” Dole said.

Now they are busy working on expanding the original feature film to add that part of the story to it.

“We caused change and we liked it because we got to see these bands get back together,” Dole said. Just seeing Groove Child on stage performing their hit song, "Riverside," again or Thanks to Gravity playing their version of "Pachelbel's Canon," made it all worth it.

“It was surreal, amazing,” said Dole of the benefit concert and film showing a the Music Hall.

In addition to the capacity crowd that was on hand for the film's premiere at the Music Hall, NH Magazine also listed it as 23rd in its list of the 57 coolest things about New Hampshire in most recent issue.

Throughout, it has been a painstaking process to tell the story of how this once vibrant music scene developed in the Portsmouth area, influenced many bands across the country, but never took off the way the Seattle music scene did.

“When we started, we knew there was a great music scene, but we didn’t know what the exact story was,” said Dole, who owns Hatchling Studios in downtown Portsmouth.

With the help of Venn, director of photography Jonathon Millman, and co-producers Jon McCormack, Karlina Lyons and associate producer J.L. Stevens, they managed to tell a very compelling story that preserves an important piece of Portsmouth's cultural history.

“We ended up preserving something that was wasn’t well documented except for in the hearts of the fans,” Dole said.

Dole said they had to do a great deal of work to enhance old photographs and video footage of some of the groups' past performances in place like the former Elvis Room on Congress Street in Portsmouth or the Memorial Union Building at the University of New Hampshire in Durham.

Just finding old articles that people had written about Portsmouth's music scene in the 1990s that were never digitalized was also a challenge, Dole said.

Beyond telling the story of the Portsmouth music scene, Dole said the the film also redefines the meaning of success. He explained that bands like Heavens to Murgatroid, Say ZuZu, the Queers and Scissorfight never made it to the big time they wanted, but many of their members ended up realizing success in other ways.

Venn said the film will be submitted to the Tribecca Film Festival in New York and the Chicago International Music and Film Festival and other festivals down the road. To keep up with the film's progress, visit www.Facebook.com/idobdmovie