Better Than Something: Jay Reatard

This special limited edition slipcover is limited to 1,000 units and is only available on our website and at select indie retailers. Absolutely no major retailers will be stocking them.

Factory 25, a Brooklyn-based independent film distribution company was founded in 2009 by Matt Grady. F25 is a home for conceptually provocative narratives and documentaries. Its mission is to deliver specialized film and music titles in an aesthetically captivating way while exposing the indie world to under-the-radar films, music, and other curiosities in various ways and formats — theatrically, digitally, on TV, VOD, via subscription, limited edition DVDs,  Blu-ray's, books and vinyl. Vinegar Syndrome’s sister company, OCN Distribution, is thrilled to be representing this diverse and unique home video line!

For Jimmy Lee Lindsay, known to his fans and detractors as Jay Reatard, life was a race against time. After growing up fast among Memphis crack addicts, he managed to blaze a path through the rough-and-tumble underground rock scene of the early aughts, releasing over 100 singles, EPs and full-length records in fourteen years.  Then on January 13, 2010, not yet 30, he died.

With their feature documentary Better Than Something, filmmakers Alex Hammond and Ian Markiewicz let Jay tell his own story: a poverty-stricken childhood, teen years spent as a two-fisted tunesmith battling fans and band mates alike, and a short-lived adulthood of focused and relentless productivity.

Jay said "I just try to make as much as I can with the time that I have." By any measure, that is exactly what he did.  Better Than Something is both a testament to Jay Reatard's indisputable legacy and a tribute to his vital, thrilling, and all-too-brief life.

Music by: Jay Reatard, Lost Sounds, Destruction Unit, Reatards and Oblivians

directed by: Alex Hammond, Ian Manciewicz
starring: Jimmy Lee Lindsay, King Louie Bankston, Scott Bomar, Chad Booth, Alix Brown, Shawn Foree, Eric "Oblivian" Friedl
2012 / 88 min / 1.78:1 / English Dolby Digital 2.0

Additional info:

• Region Free Blu-ray
• Deleted scenes
• 2024 interviews with cast
  
• Film and deleted scenes commentary tracks by Eugene Kotlyarenko and Drew Tobia
• 32 page booklet with essays by Andrew Earles, King Khan, King Louie Bankston, Jeffrey Novak, Cole Alexander, TV Smith, Alicja Trout, Scott Bomar
  
• English subtitles