Hit So Hard

Hit So Hard is a compelling, powerful, and intimate documentary that provides an unguarded peek into the music realm. It wasn't just another rock and roll film. It was a dynamic story of strength, resilience, and redemption against the backdrop of the grunge era, featuring Patty Schemel, Courtney Love, and Eric Erlandson.

Released in 2011, directed by P. David Ebersole, this documentary dramatically highlights Patty Schemel's journey. Patty, a native of Seattle, became the drummer for the highly influential rock band, Hole, which elevated her status to a genuine rock icon. Hole was active during the grunge era of the '90s, reigning supreme among the industry titans at that time.

Schemel is not just recognized for her intense, relentless drumming style that peppered Hole's music but also for openly being a lesbian in a genre that was predominantly straight and male. Her gender and sexuality, alongside her tumultuous journey through addiction, form the crux of Hit So Hard.

The documentary also stars Courtney Love, the band's frontwoman and the widow of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, who was a great friend of Schemel. Love brings another vivid dimension to the story, allowing audiences to glimpse into the shared life experiences that shaped both their lives and music. Eric Erlandson, former guitarist for Hole and one of the founding members, also features prominently in the documentary, which serves to comprehensively narrate Schemel's stirring journey.

Hit So Hard blends interviews, rare backstage footage, personal photography, and musical performances to serve an authentic narrative account of Schemel's life. It provides an unfiltered look at the struggles she faced, gracefully encompassing her musical journey, personal trials, and victories against the backdrop of fame, addiction, and recovery. It gives audiences a chance to view her life through her own lens, narrated with her direct, candid, and often self-deprecating style laced with dollops of humor.

Far from being a plain rockumentary, Hit So Hard is also an explicit narrative of survival against addiction. Growing up in the music industry during the rise and peak of grunge - an era dystopically distinguished by numerous drug dependencies and premature demises - Schemel found herself entrapped into substance misuse. The film traces her descent into drug addiction, relapse, and her eventual way to sobriety, fluent in its brutal honesty and encouraging strength.

Delving into gender dynamics, Hit So Hard shines light on the grit of being a female artist in a male-dominated arena and takes a deep plunge into the experiences of a lesbian woman combating personal demons amidst mounting professional expectations. It is an absorbing testament to endurance, capturing the essence of climbing back up after hitting rock bottom.

Beyond exploring the personal journey of Schemel, Hit So Hard also stands as a musical tribute to her drumming career and Hole's genre-defining musical legacy. Intertwining amateur footage, live performances, and personal narratives, the film enables a reconnection with Hole's defining hits while also placing the viewer in the whirlwind of the grunge music era, its culture, and its times.

To end with, Hit So Hard is more than just a music documentary - it's a human story that speaks to the endurance of the human spirit. It captains the viewer on a cruise through Patty Schemel's life, weaving together countless threads of her experiences, music, addiction, and healing. Despite its robust engagement with themes of substance misuse, survival, and sexuality, the film never loses sight of its intimate engagement, showcasing a memorable era of music through the eyes of one woman who lived it on the frontline. Acoustic in its frank revelation of human experiences, Hit So Hard is not just a film - it's a story about life that continues to echo long after the final drumbeat fades.