Rewind & Play

Alain Gomis's 2023 documentary is built from a single body of footage. At the end of a European tour in the autumn of 1969, Thelonious Monk appears on French state television; Gomis works from the takes that never went out. What the documentary shows is not the questions but the gaps between them. When the host does not like Monk's answers he stops the recording and asks again; Monk is tired, sweating and unwilling to talk. Because the camera kept running, all of it stayed on the tape. Gomis adds no commentary from outside. He puts the cut passages back and leaves the musical performances whole; what emerges is not an interview but a record of how a man was handled. Who it's for: those who like jazz history and documentary built out of archive. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a biography of Monk; the film looks at a single day.