YEAR OF THE HORSE

"Neil asked me to make a video for the song Big Time from the Neil Young and Crazy Horse record Broken Arrow... Neil and the band liked the results and Neil particularly liked the rough look of the Super-8 photography. He called me up a little while later and said "Listen, we should do a longer film that looks and feels like the Big Time video. That was the real genesis of this new film.

"The live performances were filmed in Europe and the US during their 1996 tour. The interviews and behind-the-scenes footage are also largely from this tour. We used Super-8 partly because the small cameras allowed us to easily shoot by ourselves without a crew, but mostly, again, because we love the way it looks - the raw beauty of the material somehow corresponds to the particular quality of the 'Horse's music.

"Neil Young and Crazy Horse has always been one of my favourite bands. These guys aren't interested in rock 'n' roll poseurism, or second-guessing the trends of youth culture. They just want to make music together, and Year of the Horse makes it clear that their music comes from the whole band. Together they create a singular sound that... keeps rock 'n' roll alive through its emotional connections to the musicians who are playing it. Poncho Sampedro says it best: "If I stop and think about what I'm playing I get completely lost, but if I turn off my mind and just follow the music - away we go!'" - Jim Jarmusch

Jim Jarmusch was born in 1953 in Ohio, USA. His first feature, Permanent Vacation (1980), earnt him a cult as well as critical following in Europe. Stranger than Paradise (1984) received the Caméra d'Or at Cannes, followed by Down by Law (1986). Jarmusch's films include Mystery Train (1989), Night on Earth (1992) and Dead Man (1995). As an actor, Jarmusch has appeared in films such as Sling Blade (1996) and Blue in the Face (1995).