Everyday Sunshine

This sprightly feature-length documentary charts the meteoric rise and fall and the dogged persistence of Fishbone, that spectacularly innovative and uncategorizable punk/funk/rock band started by a group of black kids in Reagan-era Los Angeles. Co-directors Lev Anderson and Chris Metzler mix performance footage, the testimony of band members and their contemporaries from the L.A. scene, and a slice or two of social history into a nicely contextualized account of the band’s sui-generis stardom in 1980s L.A.; its flame-out with a major record label; the subsequent internal conflicts and implosions among the group’s original members; and the long-standing struggle of a pair of surviving members to keep the band functioning on whatever stage is available in the third decade of its existence. Mercurial frontman Angelo Moore is a particularly volatile presence in every aspect of this, and several other band members, including a guitarist who leaves the band for a religious cult, make strong and distinctive impressions. Commentary from musical contemporaries (Gwen Stefani, Perry Farrell, Flea, Ice T, etc.) adds flavor and substance to the punk-era reflections. Maybe a little too much time is devoted to the recent phases of the band’s travails, but the glimpses of the band’s live performances are superb all by themselves—which makes everything else in the film more interesting than it might otherwise have been. Narration by Laurence Fishburne. One showing only, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 7:30 p.m., followed by Q&A with directors. University Film Series, in Ayres 106, on Chico State campus J.C.S.