Going by its title, you might think Rock Prophecies had something to do with Nostradamus' predicting the rise of the Jonas Brothers, or some similarly uncanny feat of seeing into the musical, or geological, future.
That's not the case. Instead, the poorly chosen title of John Chester's documentary about Robert Knight is meant to imply that the music photographer's ability to home in on young talent destined for greatness qualifies him as some sort of rock prophet. Which is a reach, to put it mildly.
Not to knock Knight's accomplishments as a four-decade shutterbug whose early career highlights include talking his way into shooting a 1969 Led Zeppelin gig at the Whiskey a Go-Go for Rolling Stone. Knight is a gregarious, insecure 60-year-old in a beret who unfortunately narrates his own self-serving, if oddly endearing, life story. He has snapped thousands of photos of scores of fleet-fingered guitarists, from Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck and Carlos Santana to newer-school axmen such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Steve Vai, Slash, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and up-and-comer Tyler Dow Bryant, who becomes the focus of the latter stages of Chester's unfocused film.