Fishbone may be best known as the most overlooked band that never hit it big.  But there is no denying the band's legacy as a musical pioneer with its punk-funk-ska-metal-rock crazy cool sound that paved the way for blending diverse genres and bridged racial divides in the music world.

In the documentary "Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone," directors Lev Anderson and Chris Metzler, drawn to the tale of the musical outsiders and their unique place in American alternative rock history, tell the tumultuous 30-year journey of Fishbone.

"Their brand of music, being black rockers in a white-dominated scene, and their strong personalities ... appealed to us as storytellers,"  Metzler said.  "They really did help desegregate the music scene making it OK for black kids to sport mohawks and slam dance. ... Their story merited an in-depth look on the strength of their genre-bending music that influenced so many of today's biggest acts."

There will be a screening of "Everyday Sunshine" at 9:30 p.m. Saturday at the Smith Rafael Film Center as part of the Mill Valley Film Festival.  There will be a second screening followed by a Fishbone concert on Oct. 15 in Mill Valley.  Visit Mill Valley Film Festival.

"It's always exciting to bring the film back home, so as Bay Area filmmakers we're jazzed about that," Anderson said.  "Since part of the film - both historically and in the present day - takes place in Marin, it's exciting to screen the film in a place connected to what's going on onscreen.  It's all a little bit surreal."

Actor Laurence Fishburne narrates the Fishbone story that begins in 1979 when five black boys were bussed during desegregation from their rough South Central Los Angeles neighborhood to affluent San Fernando Valley suburbs.  During the long bus rides and facing the social unrest of the time together, the boys became friends and formed a band with a sixth kid from the valley, the "always smiling" Angelo Moore.  He would become the frenetic lead singer who many credit as being among the first performers to stage dive and crowd surf.

The boys were listening to Rick James and Parliament-Funkadelic but their classmates in the valley introduced them to Rush, Led Zeppelin and emerging punk rock.  The cultural and musical melding played a crucial formative role in the bands' fusion sound that no one had heard before.

By 1983, Fishbone hit the club scene with their first show at Madame Wong's in Chinatown and distinguished themselves almost immediately as raucous performers who put on outrageous three-hour, high-energy shows.

Just out of high school, Fishbone landed a deal with Columbia Records.  The band's first album called Fishbone was released in 1985 featuring the Reagan-era single "Party At Ground Zero" and fan favorite "Ugly."

Despite being talented musicians and clever songwriters who crafted biting lyrics and attracted devoted fans, Fishbone fell apart on the verge of making it big.

In the early 1990s, the band was on the cusp of commercials success with a music video directed by Spike Lee, an acclaimed appearance on "Saturday Night Live" and a coveted spot in the Lollapalooza tour.  Then it all began to unravel.

Fishbone was overcome by professional and personal turmoil including remaining defiant in playing their hybrid music at the expense of being hard to classify and hard to market.  Record sales were low.

In 1993, guitarist Kendall Jones, troubled following the death of his mother and a failed engagement, abruptly left the band and fled to Novato to live with his religious zealot father from whom he had been estranged most of his life.

Bassist Norwood Fisher and Jones' ex-girlfriend Anna Loynes were worried about Jones and on the advice of medical professionals, followed him to Marin for an attempted "intervention" in April 1993.  They hoped to bring Jones back to Los Angeles for treatment but the plan failed and they were arrested on charges of attempted kidnapping.

During the lengthy trial, Fisher toured with the band for Lollapalooza, flying back and forth to Marin court.  In December 1993, they were found not guilty.

"What happened back then at the trial has nothing to do with how I feel about the Fishbone audience in Marin County and that's all that matters," Fisher said.  "But this indeed is a very rare appearance for Fishbone in Marin and we're excited to be back and funk Marin up."

Damage done, other band members left and the group was without a record label.

The film brings viewers to today through candid interviews with aging punk rockers Fisher and Moore, the only two original members who keep Fishbone going "out of relentless commitment to their unique music."  They returned to playing gigs at small clubs and have a label in France but remain unsigned in the U.S.

Meanwhile, bands considered Fishbone peers who rose from the same early L.A. scene, like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and stars Fishbone influenced years later, like No Doubt, rose to mainstream success.

Interviews with famous fans including singer Gwen Stefani, Flea, rapper Ice-T, George Clinton, actor Tim Robbins and jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis are a testament to the widespread respect of Fishbone.

"(Angleo and Norwood) always viewed success as being original, so while they haven't made the money that some of their peers have, they remain one of a kind," Metzler said. "And that is not easy, but it is something that artists and all of us as individuals can identify with."

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Performances of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, about black musicians trying to make it in 1927 during the classic blues recording era, will be at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday at the College of Marin Fine Arts Theatre in Kentfield.

The play, written by Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson, highlights a day in a Chicago recording studio with the flamboyant Ma Rainey, known as "The Mother of the Blues."

Tickets are $20 for general admission and $15 for students, seniors and College of Marin employees.  The box office phone number is 485-9385.

Danse Lumiere

Danse Lumiere will bring poet Emily Dickinson to life in a dance-theater production called "Pensive Spring; A Portrait of Emily Dickinson," at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Santa Sabina Center, 25 Magnolia Ave.  Tickets are $20.  Call 457 7727.

Actress and choreographer Kathryn Roszak, soprano Kristin Clayton, dancer Hally Bellah-Guther and pianist Kristin Pankonin come together to portray Dickinson in vignettes that weave her poetry and letters.

Roszak, the artistic director of Danse Lumiere, creates original productions by blending dance, literature, music, science and theater.