Cure for Pain: The Mark Sandman Story

Mark Sandman, the charismatic singer, bassist, writer, composer and founder of one of the most original bands of the 1990s, Morphine, died in the summer of 1999. It was a fitting end, during a concert in Italy, and shortly after the band had finished recording a new album. In the middle of the grunge era, a band without a guitar was highly eccentric - to say the least - and Morphine's sober lineup (drums, two-string slide bass guitar and baritone sax), together with their raw mix of jazz, blues and rock, allowed them to create a totally unique sound that brought them cult status in the United States and Europe from the early 1990s on. In this music documentary, the filmmakers investigate Mark Sandman's place in the world of American pop music, with the help of former band members Dana Colley, Billy Conway and Jerome Deupree, along with musicians from his previous band Treat Her Right, and other musician friends such as Chris Ballew (The Presidents of the United States of America), Mike Watt (The Stooges), Les Claypool and Ben Harper. The film also probes Sandman's personal history, a subject he never spoke about in public. The loss of his two brothers is said to have been a decisive moment in his musical development, and is a subject that also sheds new light on the trio that were Morphine.