FANS of indie film and music are in for a treat this coming week as a new festival brings the two mediums together.

Doc ‘n’ Roll showcases alternative music documentaries based around the intriguing stories behind cult bands and musicians. Codirector and programmer of the schedule Colm Forde says the festival is a “passion project,” which aims to “get people away from their laptops and DVD players and create a social environment.”

Here, he talks Edwin Gilson through the films featured in Brighton over the next week.

The Rise and Fall of The Clash

Komedia Cinema, Saturday, October 1, 4pm

It’s a controversial film, this one. The director didn’t fear stepping on friendly toes. It can be grim at times. But it’s raw, and definitely punk. It does go into a lot of intra-band rivalry and nasty stuff. The fans love that, even if it can be heavy going. It’s a third about the rise of the band, and the rest about the slow disintegration. It gives you a lot of material on the stuff that people around the band don’t want you to know about. In fact, the band weren’t too happy themselves.

The Sad and Beautiful World of Sparklehorse

Duke of York’s, Saturday, September 24, 4pm

It’s a fine line, this one, because you can celebrate the music but you have to be aware of his end, and all the tragedy that was involved in that (Mark Linkous, aka rock musician Sparklehorse, committed suicide in 2010).

This is a theme that runs through a lot of our docs - there are a lot of mental health issues in music, and in general, that are not portrayed at all. It has got a lot of his friends talking about him, and naturally they are tinged with regret as they couldn’t save him.

Lunar Orbit: The Orb

Duke of York’s: Thursday, September 29, 9pm

This goes into the slow building up of the ambient, electronic sounds that The Orb make.

The nature of the tunes is anything from 10 to 30 minutes long, so it’s an intriguing process to see them working away in Berlin. I’m familiar with them from way back in 1997 when they were playing massive gigs. I can imagine then they would have shunned this kind of film. But now they’re very interested in having someone go behind the curtain.

Bang! The Bert Berns Story

Komedia Cinema, Saturday, September 24, 2pm

I was not aware of the songs Bert Berns had written (Twist and Shout for The Beatles and Brown Eyed Girl for Van Morrison, to name a few). It’s a bit harsh when he’s in the studio writing all these songs and then the musicians get the credit and the legacy. This is an attempt to shine a light on this guy. The record industry in the 1960s was a very closed shop, and the mob had its fingers in so many pies. Berns was contracted under Atlantic Records but broke away, and basically the mob partly financed this move into freelance. Now, he’d probably crowd-source to support himself.

Back then, you just had to be associated with some shady characters.

A Divorce Before Marriage

Duke of York's, Saturday, Oct 1, 4pm

It’s 2006 and Leeds alternative band I Like Trains have the world at their feet. Signed to a major record label and playing sold-out shows around the globe, there appears to be no limit to what the band can achieve. The film picks up the story five years later and finds the quintet in a startlingly different position. Suddenly I Like Trains find themselves drifting in a very different musical landscape as jobs, family and life start to take over, forcing them to question their childhood dreams and ambitions. Told over a period of four years, this is a coming-of-age story about a band stuck in the middle.