The Fearless Freaks (2005)

Oklahoma City's Flaming Lips have been producing thoughtful art-rock records for two decades, continually challenging themselves and their critics. Led by charismatic, workaholic frontman Wayne Coyne, The Flaming Lips continually push the boundaries of modern music. In 1991, Bradley Beesley was bandleader Wayne Coyne's art school neighbor in Norman, Oklahoma. The Lips, in need of a willing and competent cinematographer, and Beesley, constantly on the hunt for action-packed stories and oddball characters, developed a relationship built of geographic convenience and a mutual desire to create themselves. Now, fifteen years later, thanks to a film camera and his tenacity, Beesley has made his filmmaking career by working with the Flaming Lips. With never-before-seen footage, new interviews and performances, Beesley reveals the band's deep-set Oklahoma roots; early punk/noise phase; the experimental parking lot/boom box "Zaireeka" era; endless touring days; their live shows full of bizarre projections/animal suits/hand puppets/confetti and simulated head wounds, as well as the critical acclaim they received for the albums "The Soft Bulletin" and the Grammy-winning, "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots."