Two legendary teachers are paired in the bill “Richard Davis + Lynda Barry = The Wisconsin Idea,” screening on April 7 in UW Music Hall.
The late Richard Davis spent 39 years teaching bass at the School of Music. Lynda Barry, associate professor of interdisciplinary creativity in the art department, joined the faculty in 2013. Their devotion to their students makes each film joyous.
Michael Neelsen, director of String Theory: The Richard Davis Method, became involved in the project when the Richard Davis Foundation contacted him to make a promotional piece about the foundation’s work and its yearly Richard Davis Bass Conference through his company, StoryFirst Media. The foundation’s executive director, Catherine Harris, and artistic director, Peter Dominguez, are executive producers on the film.
As he was filming Davis and the bassists that he influenced, Neelsen (whose documentary Beyond Human Nature was in last year’s Wisconsin Film Festival) realized that “we had something more.”
Davis exemplified the kind of person who “transcended boundaries,” Neelsen says. “He impacted so many people.” The Richard Davis Foundation For Young Bassists helps young bassists learn the instrument and overcome barriers to doing so. Bass players have many fewer educational opportunities than, say, young violinists, starting with the lack of smaller instruments for them to play. Davis characterizes the role of the bass as “It supports the bird in flight.” The same could be said for his work with students.
Although already ailing in 2018 when his segments were filmed, “everything he said was a nugget of wisdom,” says Neelsen. “There was sunshine there.” Not long after filming, Davis began to decline more rapidly, but he did live to see the completed film. He died in September 2023.
The bulk of screen time is given over to numerous bass players who worked with the foundation teaching young bassists. “There’s no explicit narrative, just capturing the weekend. In that sense, it’s like a concert film," says Neelsen. “You’re like a fly on the wall.”
Tommasina Capelli graduated from UW-Madison last spring with a degree in communication arts; she also took Lynda Barry’s comic drawing classes. A Room Alive!, a 28-minute documentary about Barry’s “comics room,” was a senior class project for Capelli, who did all the work herself. “It was supposed to be about 10 minutes long,” she says, but she realized she had more worthy footage and continued adding to the film over the summer.
The film’s central character is not so much Barry but the comics room she created, open to all, “an unknown corner of the campus,” says Capelli. In addition to giving viewers up-close glimpses of the packed-with-creativity room, the film includes interviews with Barry, colleague Jeffrey Butler, and students.
The community provided by the comics room became very important to Capelli. She was a first-year student at UW-Madison when COVID shut down all campus learning and her sophomore year was mostly virtual. Ultimately, “I hope this film inspires others to draw again,” she says.
See more of our 2024 Wisconsin Film Fest coverage here.
