The National

A Skin, A Night is a film about THE NATIONAL made by French filmmaker Vincent Moon. On DVD will be packaged with The Virginia EP, which contains 12 tracks of demos, live versions, radio sessions and b-sides.

What goes on in A Skin, A Night, though, is not the stuff of well-rehearsed insider history. Nor is it a series of rock'n'roll clichés. Nor is it specifically concerned with the making of The National’s fourth full-length album, Boxer, even though much of it was filmed during sessions for that record at Peter Katis's Bridgeport, Connecticut studio. A Skin, A Night is less a movie about The National than a movie about how music is made today -- not with classic rock bravado, or debauched indulgence, but through novelistic attention to detail, a collective implosion of personality, and worried worried nights.

When the association between Vincent and The National began, he wasn't yet known as the auteur behind Le Blogotheque's Les Concerts A Emporter aka The Take Away Shows. It was well before his tenure as image maker for R.E.M and Arcade Fire. And The National had yet to become one of the most beloved of the current crop of independent rock bands.

A Skin, A Night is a sixty-minute portrait of impressions, mutual affection, and intimate moments you'd never otherwise see. If The National's lyrics seem to take us inside the human condition, Vincent Moon’s images take us outside, documenting the beauty of the sounds made by our human skin.

The Virginia EP tracklisting:

1) YOU'VE DONE IT AGAIN, VIRGINIA (previously unreleased)
2) SANTA CLARA (UK b-side)
3) BLANK SLATE (UK b-side)
4) TALL SAINT (demo)
5) WITHOUT PERMISSION (unreleased cover of Caroline Martin song)
6) FOREVER AFTER DAYS (demo)
7) REST OF YEARS (demo)
8) SLOW SHOW (demo)
9) LUCKY YOU (daytrotter session)
10) MANSION ON THE HILL (live)
11) FAKE EMPIRE (live)
12) ABOUT TODAY (live)