King Crimson - In The Court of The Crimson King (2022, 2xBlu-ray, 2xDVD9)

I started to take photographs seriously because I was vain enough to think I could stop time by freezing it. I think I make films, because it's the most effective way I have found to understand other people's points of view, and share those points of view with an audience.
But this is a not a one-way process, I love film as a medium because it's collaborative, not only with your subjects, and when you have one, a crew, but also with the people who watch the films. For me the art of the thing is not what goes on screen, it is what happens when people watch what's on the screen.
In the Court of the Crimson King gave me an opportunity to learn from some enormously talented and experienced musicians. Mature artists who have a sophisticated understanding of their medium, but at the same time are still challenging themselves creatively and physically, when so many of their surviving contemporaries are just bashing out the hits and seeking to replicate times past, rather than choosing the more difficult approach of being present in the here and now. One of the many alternative titles I had for this film was "Time Lords", because the members of King Crimson deal with time in both a hands-on fashion, but also philosophically.
I've never been interested in the type of documentaries where you feel the story was written before filming started. I prefer, where possible, to make my films up from candid, unscripted moments that provide unique insight, as well as a headache for the editors who have to find a way to contextualise them in a narrative. These moments allow us to time travel and be present in such a way that the experience of the film becomes subjective and immersive. One of the band members in the film, Bill Rieflin, speaks beautifully about how music can create a set of circumstances where it feels like time stops and one is part of a never ending moment. I found that inspirational both in making this film and how it investigates time and our relationship to it, and also in my approach to the passage of time in my own life. My approach to films generally is a very subjective one, but I have discovered that the more personal and true to oneself one is in making a film, the stronger it resonates for other people.
In the Court of the Crimson King is not a film that wants to tell the audience what to think, rather it presents several different points of view about the creative process and what it means to be in this most unusual band; leaving the audience with a sense of both how complicated it all is, but also just how incredibly rewarding the King Crimson experience is both for the musicians and its fans. My first love is music, and I wanted to make a film that shows how important it is in the lives of the people who make it and those who love the music they make. If anybody has got to the bottom of all that pretentious waffle, I want to make clear that In the Court of the Crimson King film also contains some quite beautiful music, and some genuinely terrible jokes.

Blu-ray 1
1. In The Court Of The Crimson King - King Crimson at 50 A film by Toby Amies
2. Excerpts From CosmiKc FuKc A 23 minute edit from the early version of the film.
3. Starless-The Final Performance Live at Bunkamura, Tokyo, December 8, 2021
4. Trailers and Additional Short Films

1. Schizophonia
2. Widows
3. Raindance
4. Official Trailer

Blu-ray 2
King Crimson - Tring: Live in the Studio
1. Radical Action Suite
2. The Letters
3. Sailor's Tale
4. Cadence and Cascade
5. Fracture
6. Starless
7. Discipline

King Crimson - Rock In Rio
1. Drumzilla
2. Neurotica
3. Red
4. The Court Of The Crimson King
5. Indiscipline
6. Epitaph
7. 21st Century Schizoid Man

Gentlemen Of The Rood A 38 minute short film backstage with King Crimson