News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Tuesday December 10th 2024

KFAI Remembers “Balcony” beginnings 40 years ago with documentary

COURTESY OF KFI
KFAI Crew on steps of Walker Community United Methodist Church, 3104 16th Av. So. many years before it burned May 27, 2012; 103 years after 1886 congregation built it by gift from Thomas Walker, lumber baron & others.

“Little City in Space” directed by noted Czech Republic director Miroslav Janek (Citizen Havel) is a rare, special screening co-presented by: KFAI Radio and Sound Unseen celebrating KFAI”'s 40th Anniversary. Wednesday, July 11, 2018 | DOORS AT 6:30pm/SHOW AT 7pm at The Trylon Cinema, 2820 E. 33rd St, Mpls., MN 55406 Cost: $10 in advance / $12 at the door.

In 1983, documentary filmmaker Miroslav Janek became involved with a group of volunteers running a tiny community radio station out of the belfry of a Walker Methodist Church in South Minneapolis. Operating at humble 14-watts, KFAI hosted a motley crew of characters pumping out blues, progressive rock, foreign language programming, and absurdist radio theater to anyone who could pick up the signal. The result of a year”'s worth of footage, Janek”'s “Little City in Space” documents the early days of KFAI radio, which celebrates its 40th year on-air this year. The film highlights some of the station”'s disparate volunteer DJs, including Chicago bluesman Lazy Bill Lucas, accordion player/barber Helge Lamo, and Minneapolis blues mainstay Willie Murphy. Dir. Miroslav Janek, 1984, USA/Czech Republic, 60 min., Digital.

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