Sound Unseen Austin 2026: Preview of Music Documentaries
The 2026 Sound Unseen Austin Film and Music Festival lineup has been released. This year’s festival runs Aug. 6-9 and takes place at AFS Cinema.
Originally launched in 1999 in Minneapolis, Sound Unseen celebrates the intersection of film and music. Austin began hosting its version of the festival in 2020, and for the first time this year, “The Film Festival for Music Fans” will be an independently produced, Austin-led event. The four-day program will include feature-length music documentaries, short films, and music videos. Many of the screenings will be followed by a live and in-person Q&A with the film’s director.
“I’m so excited because I feel like we truly have something for everyone,” Becky Arreaga, director of Sound Unseen Austin, told 360°Sound. “Come celebrate the artists that you love and adore. And come find a story of someone that you may not have heard of. I’d encourage you to jump a little bit outside of your comfort zone, and you’ll be very surprised with what you find.”
360’s David Hopper, Cabe Eaton, and Justin Zamudio will be covering Sound Unseen Austin as credentialed media. Stay tuned to 360°Sound as we bring you exclusive coverage of the music-related films. See below for the full schedule of music documentaries and their accompanying trailers, as well as synopses culled from the Sound Unseen website.
Shut Up & Sing
Directors: Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck
Thursday, Aug. 6
7 p.m. at AFS Cinema
In 2003, at the height of their success, one of the Dixie Chicks tells a London concert crowd she is ashamed the president is from Texas, just as the U.S. invasion of Iraq is getting underway. The comment sets off a coordinated backlash against the band. Shut Up & Sing follows the group through that turmoil and the artistic reinvention that followed. This is a special 20th anniversary screening of the film, originally released in 2006.
Sara Bareilles: Good Grief
Director: Josh Alexander
Friday, Aug. 7
7 p.m. at AFS Cinema
Seven years after her Grammy-winning album Amidst the Chaos, Sara Bareilles reunites with her closest collaborators to record a new album over six days, her first since the pandemic. An intimate, fly-on-the-wall portrait of turning grief into music. Sara Bareilles: Good Grief made its world premiere as an Opening Night selection at the 2026 Tribeca Festival.” (Trailer not yet available).
BP Fallon: Rock ‘n’ Roll Wizard
Director: Alan Leonard
Friday, Aug. 7
9:15 p.m. at AFS Cinema
BP Fallon: Rock ‘n’ Roll Wizard follows Irish DJ, author, actor, photographer and musician’s path from Irish TV to London’s rock revolution, working with The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, through punk and U2, to a late life reinvention where he finally steps into the spotlight himself.
Also featured at this screening: The Black Angels, 20 Years of Passover, directed by James Oswald
Twenty years on from their debut album, Passover, Austin psych-rock band The Black Angels look back at the record that helped launch a movement, using archival footage, interviews, and live performance to trace its lasting influence.
Super Awesome Kickass Shorts Program
Saturday, Aug. 8
4 p.m. at AFS Cinema
One afternoon – six wildly different directors and their music stories. A Golden Buzzer moment, a cult hit’s origin story, a coming-of-age tale told through sound, a family history in dreamlike fragments, an Austin band’s medieval Western strangeness, and a punk record that finally gets its due.
The Song of Hiawatha: The Life and HIGH Times of the First Black Hippie
Director: Jeffrey Wengrofsky
Saturday, Aug. 8
7 p.m. at AFS Cinema
The Song of Hiawatha: The Life and HIGH Times of the First Black Hippie chronicles the life and high times of Hiawatha Bailey, a queer political activist and musician of African American and Native American (Creek) ancestry. The film also features Iggy Pop and Patti Smith.
You Can Color Outside the Lines: The Story of the Big Boys
Directors: Joe Salinas and Andrew Leeper
Saturday, Aug. 8
9:15 p.m. at AFS Cinema
The true story of the beloved Austin funk-punk band Big Boys,You Can Color Outside the Lines: The Story of the Big Boys traces how the original skate-punk band’s DIY spirit still resonates today. The film features Tim Kerr (Big Boys), Fred Armisen, Tony Alva, Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam), and Exene Cervenka (X).
Also featured at this screening: ADELE, directed by Austin filmmaker Mike Henry
A tale of unrequited love told by a sock puppet, whose lovesick narrator decides his only hope of winning back a lost love is to borrow a more beautiful voice than his own. He couldn’t get the real Adele for the video, so he made one out of a sock. The film is a comedic music video from Hamell on Trial, the musical alias of Austin folk punk musician Ed Hamell, and director Mike Henry.
Janis Ian: Breaking Silence
Director: Varda Bar-Kar
Sunday, Aug. 9
1 p.m. at AFS Cinema
Janis Ian: Breaking Silence, chronicles the six-decade career of the folk icon, from the controversy over her teenage hit “Society’s Child,” through “At Seventeen” and her later work as an LGBTQ and social justice advocate. The film blends interviews, archival & performance footage, and dramatized recreations. This film premiered at DOC NYC in November 2024 and was released theatrically by Greenwich Entertainment in 2025. On-camera interviews include Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Lily Tomlin, Jean Smart, and Tom Paxton.
Don’t Forget Me: Eddie Cochran
Director: Kirsty Bell
Sunday, Aug. 9
3:30 p.m. at AFS Cinema
Don’t Forget Me: Eddie Cochran is the first fully authorized documentary on the rock and roll pioneer, made with the cooperation of the Cochran Family Estate. Produced by the Oscar and BAFTA-winning Goldfinch Entertainment (An Irish Goodbye), the film traces Cochran’s rise and his death in a car crash at 21, with testimony from Keith Richards, Yungblud, Ron Wood, Roger Daltrey, Sting, Rod Stewart, Alice Cooper, Kiefer Sutherland, John Waters, Billy Idol, Linda Perry, Peter Frampton, Brian Setzer, Suzi Quatro, Stephen Sanchez, and Cochran family members. The film closed the 2026 Raindance Film Festival, the UK’s largest independent film festival. Cochran received a posthumous Raindance Icon Award. The film has also screened at the Cleveland International Film Festival and at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Purchase tickets to Sound Unseen Austin and stay tuned to 360°Sound for our exclusive coverage of the fest.
