AMANDA FUCKING PALMER ON THE ROCKS Documentary with Amanda Palmer + Ondi Timoner

Guest Bio

Follow punk-cabaret icon Amanda Palmer as she hits the stage at Red Rocks Amphitheater. Since her record-breaking $1.2 million crowd-funded Kickstarter campaign, Palmer (formerly of the Dresden Dolls) has carved out a path of fearlessness and independence outside the norms of the music industry.

Amanda Palmer commands attention. The singer-songwriter-blogger-provocateur, known for pushing boundaries in both her art and her lifestyle, made international headlines this year when she raised nearly $1.2 million via Kickstarter (she’d asked for $100k) from nearly 25,000 fans who pre-ordered her new album, Theatre Is Evil.

But the former street performer, then Dresden Dolls frontwoman, now solo artist hit a bump the week her world tour kicked off. She revealed plans to crowdsource additional local backup musicians in each tour stop, offering to pay them in hugs, merchandise and beer per her custom. Bitter and angry criticism ensued (she eventually promised to pay her local collaborators in cash). Summing up her business model, in which she views her recorded music as the digital equivalent of street performing, she says: “I firmly believe in music being as free as possible. Unlocked. Shared and spread. In order for artists to survive and create, their audiences need to step up and directly support them.”

Michael Dunaway - Michael Dunaway is the Editor of the Film Section of Paste Magazine, and the co-founder and Creative Director of Gasoline Films. He is the producer and director of The Man Who Ate New Orleans, a project which includes Oscar nominee Morgan Spurlock, Emmy winner Natalia Livingston, and James Beard winners John Currence and John Besh. His film Bread won Best US Narrative Short at the 2011 Rome International Film Festival, where it premiered. He lives in Atlanta with his wife and children.