In another exciting development for fans of San Diego’s musical history, the San Diego Union-Tribune has officially twigged to the long-pending documentary by veteran scenester Eric Rife.

Besides being a friend of many participants here, Eric was the primary videographer at our Che Games for May reunion … and an inspiration for the magical history tour embodied by this blog.

According to the article, the as-yet-untitled documentary stems from his enduring connection to the San Diego underground music scene and covers the 1970s through the mid-’90s.

Like many of our contributors, I’ve had the pleasure of corresponding with Eric on this project, and I admire the scope and depth of his artistic vision. (The article includes his e-mail address; it’s not too late to add your memories to the movie.)

I also like his resistance to allowing the film to be defined by its geography. “The film will not be about San Diego per se,” he told the Union-Tribune.

“(Director) Robert Rodriguez said, ‘Make the movie you want to see,’ and that always stuck with me,” Rife said. “I would love to see films about the various music scenes in various cities. Because you know that Fort Lauderdale had a scene, St. Paul had a scene, Pittsburgh had a scene. …

“When the credits roll, I want people to do what I would do after seeing a film like this — rush home, jump on the Internet and find out as much as possible about the various bands, venues, etc.,” he said. “I want someone in Podunk, Iowa, to see my film and say ‘Hey, we had a pretty good scene here in 1981. Someone should make a film about that. And if this dork can do it, so can I.’ ”

Tags: Che Games for May, Eric Rife, San Diego music, San Diego punk, San Diego Union-Tribune

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 7:03 pm and is filed under Artifacts, Che Games for May, Performance History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.