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About All Access – Music in the Cruz

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More images from All Access Film interviews coming soon.
Background song ‘Assault and Battery’ by Les Dudek, Deeper Shades of Blue album

All Access – Music in the Cruz is a feature documentary film that celebrates 60 years of music in Santa Cruz, a seaside town surrounded on one side by the marine sanctuary of the Monterey Bay and the other, a primeval forest of coastal Redwood trees. 

Santa Cruz is home to an extraordinary community of musicians, luthiers, sound engineers, music venues, high-tech inventors, studios and international bands. Long celebrated as a creative community, Santa Cruz has had a particularly outsized influence on music.  

Between its most iconic venues, The Catalyst Club, the Rio Theatre, the Kuumbwa Jazz Center, Moe’s Alley, and the annual Reggae and Blues Festivals, Santa Cruz presents every type of music imaginable—from Grammy Award-winners to the latest up and comers.

Tiran Porter of the Doobie Brothers, All Access Film narrator
Tiran Porter of the Doobie Brothers, All Access Film narrator

Narrated by Tiran Porter of the Doobie Brothers, this film showcases excerpts garnered from 200 interviews, fresh studio sessions, and archival footage provided courtesy of the bands, venues, tour managers, crew, and recording engineers. 

Featured are such notable bands as Moby Grape, Neil Young and the Ducks, The Doobie Brothers, Harpers Bizarre, It’s a Beautiful Day, The Fixx, The Call, Huey Lewis and the News, The Humans, Camper Van Beethoven, Bl’ast, The Mermen, The Expendables, Lacy J. Dalton, James Durbin and more – the storied stages, green rooms, recording studios, and late-night jam sessions of the musical giants of our time.   

This cinematic journey is an ‘all access pass’ into this rich community and its unique sound and spirit, celebrating how music has the power to uplift us, bring us together, and inspire us to be our best!

“Music is the art of arranging sounds in time, a harmonic of the Soul, presided over by the Muses”…

Michèle Benson,
Cinematographer Director

Michèle Benson is an award winning filmmaker  and entertainment photographer. Her subjects and clients have varied from entertainment venues, musicians, film directors to authors, and the international music industry on screen, in print and vinyl.
Michèle has been a consistent contributor to record labels, albums and tour books for Warner Brothers, Elektra Asylum, The Grammy Awards, Dale Bozzio, Cleopatra Records, The Doobie Brothers Live at the Greek, DVD/CD for Eagle Rock Entertainment, UK garnering notability and awards such as First Place Sam Seagull award, Elektra Asylum, Pat Simmons, ‘Arcade’. She has toured with The Doobie Brothers, The Eagles, Gregg Allman, Les Dudek, David Lindley of Jackson Browne and more.
 

 

Michèle Benson Cinematographer Director withTiran Porter of the Doobie Brothers All Access Film narrator
Michèle Benson Cinematographer Director with
Tiran Porter of the Doobie Brothers All Access Film narrator
Michèle was cinematographer, director, screenwriter on the highly successful award winning feature documentary on ‘The Catalyst‘. This bohemian coffee house beginning in the 1960’s transformed into a world renowned music venue commanding respect and accolades of international musicians: the Doobie Brothers, Neil Young, Greg Kihn, Huey Lewis and the News, John Mayall, Ry Cooder, Patti Smith, The Tubes and many more. The Catalyst served as a jumping off point in the career of generations of musicians worldwide. The movie is hosted by rock musician, Greg Kihn. A  permanent gallery of Michèle’s rock photography resides on the walls of The Catalyst. The Catalyst film garnered three laurel leaf awards with an acclaimed tour of film festivals around the country.
Her photos have appeared in Rolling Stone magazine, People, The New York Times, Musician Magazine, Guitar Player Magazine, Good Times Magazine, LA Weekly and more. Recently, her photography was published by Wise Music Group of London, ‘All OR Nothing’ in the autobiography of Steve Marriott, by Simon Spence. Michèle had her own weekly music column for many years, ‘Night Moves’ published by Good Times Magazine, which she illustrated with her live music photography.  
Recently, Michèle has been a one woman production company filming the history of Santa Cruz’s musical legacy. Garnered from excerpts of 200 ‘behind the scenes’ interviews, studio sessions, live performances, and archival footage.
All Access – Music in the Cruz – showcases the storied stages, backstage rooms, recording studios, and late-night jam sessions of the musical giants of our time. Santa Cruz represents every type of music imaginable—from Grammy Award winners to the latest rising talent.
This new feature documentary is an ‘all access pass’ into 60 years of an extraordinary musical community, of musicians, luthiers, sound engineers, music venues, high-tech inventors, studios and international bands. We pull back the curtain into their world – and their undeniable power to craft a unique sound and spirit…that has stood the test of time.
‘All Access Film Archives’ website will also be available so that the entire All Access Film interviews of these extraordinary talented individuals can be embraced. Their All Access story told in their own words of their personal journey into the world of music, inventions, from the how-to’s to the what happened moments.
Join us on this quest into the ‘world of music’, the power that music has to uplift us, bring us together, and inspire us to be our best.