The unusual and mesmerizing Kurt Cobain About a Son (2006) by AJ Schnack sets Cobain's recorded voice (interviews by Michael Azerrad) to a stream of images. Roaming from Aberdeen to Olympia to Seattle, the camera captures people and places that elliptically connect with Cobain's commentary and suggest his hardscrabble origins. Schnack's depiction of natural and man-made landscapes include wry visual flourishes (such as the Young Spirit barge, above). In the audio recordings, Cobain's distress is palpable, and the insights to his personality and music show what good interviewing can do. The film's intent is to allow Cobain to represent himself with words; the film succeeds without Nirvana's music and a only a brief image of Cobain.
