World class musicians having a jam session in a Baroque church in Naples, Italy provide the backdrop for Director Jonathan Demme's new documentary Enzo Avitabile Music Life. In the film, Demme follows in the footsteps of his earlier music documentaries like Stop Making Sense and Neil Young: Heart of Gold to document an extraordinary gathering led by Enzo Avitabile, a Naples-born saxophonist, songwriter and a jazz fusion pathfinder who has collaborated with the likes of James Brown and Tina Turner.
Following the screening at the DGA Theater in New York on April 16, Demme discussed the making of the film in a conversation moderated by Director Susanna Styron (9/12: From Chaos to Community).
Jonathan Demme’s other works include the feature films Melvin and Howard (1980), Swimming to Cambodia (1987), Philadelphia (1993), Rachel Getting Married (2008), and the DGA and Academy Award winning The Silence of the Lambs (1991), as well as the documentaries Storefront Hitchcock (1998), The Agronomist (2003), Jimmy Carter Man from Plains (2007), and I'm Carolyn Parker (2011). Demme has been a DGA member since 1976.