For More Information Contact: Amy McGee FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 310.492.2333 JULY 2525,, 2007 [email protected] SUNDANCE INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES FELLOWS FOR 2007 DOCUMENTARY COMPOSERS LAB Lab Features Wide Range of Documentary and Musical TaTalent,lent, Including Academy Award ®---Winners-Winners and Nominees, Grammy Winners and an Impressive Array of Artistry in all Forms Los Angeles, CA and Park CCity,ity, UT – Seven documentary filmmakers and six film music composers have been invited to participate as Fellows in the Sundance Documentary Composers Lab, which runs August 5-9 in Sundance, Utah. Together they will explore the film music that helps tell the documentary stories of our time. The stories include five teens leaving an Ethiopian orphanage for new lives with American families, a U.S. Army recruiter on a mission to find new recruits in his hometown of Houma, Louisiana, a southern Colombian community winning fame for non-violent resistance to guerrillas, death squads and security forces, and an urban warfare training simulation the size of Rhode Island, populated by 4th Brigade Combat Team from Fort Bliss, Texas, set to deploy to the real Iraq in just three months. The Documentary Composers Lab is a key component of the full Sundance Institute Composers Lab, which runs from July 24 thru August 9 in Sundance, Utah. "A documentary's music and soundscape is integral to its success as a storytelling vehicle," said Cara Mertes, Director, Sundance Documentary Film Program. "We are welcoming an incredible group of directors, composers and advisors working on some of today's most pressing issues, and Sundance is one of the only places that filmmakers and composers come together for creative collaboration in a Lab setting to experiment with this aspect of their films." The Sundance Labs are designed to foster an open, creative environment for artists of independent vision, where Fellows are encouraged in the spirit of experimentation and risk-taking. The Documentary Composers lab, a unique collaboration between the Institute's Documentary Film Program and its Film Music Program, will allow exploration of the dynamic process of writing music for film. Documentary and Composer Fellows will be brought together to innovate new sounds for nonfiction storytelling. Creative mentorship from a distinguished group of Advisors, including Academy Award® winners and world-class musicians, is an integral part of the lab experience. "Music is a crucial and often under-explored part of effective storytelling," said Peter Golub, Director, Sundance Institute Film Music Program. "The Documentary Composers Lab brings together remarkable composers and directors to work together in a supportive environment. This year's Composer Fellows represent an extraordinary level of accomplishment and range of musical experience." DOCUMENTARY FILMS: ADOPT ME, MICHAEL JORDAN Melanie Judd, Susan Motamed (Co-Directors) Adopt Me, Michael Jordan is the verité story of five adolescent Ethiopians who become friends in an American-run orphanage in Addis Ababa. At the beginning of the film, these children are all hoping to be adopted by American families. One by one they are chosen for adoption and leave for wildly different families in America. - more - SUNDANCE INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES FELLOWS FOR 2007 DOCUMENTARY COMPOSERS LAB 07/25/07, page 2 of 5 FULL BATTLE RATTLE Tony Gerber, Jesse Moss (Co-Directors) In the Mojave Desert, the US Army is fighting a fake war. At the National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, military contractors have fashioned a "virtual Iraq" from boxcars, brick-face and a billion dollars worth of military hardware. It's an urban warfare training simulation the size of Rhode Island. In the center of the action, the 4th Brigade Combat Team from Fort Bliss, Texas, set to deploy to the real Iraq in just three months. PEACEFUL WARRIORS Miguel Salazar, Margarita Martinez (Co-Directors) Lucho, 35, is the tall and commanding chief of the Indigenous Guard, part of the Nasa of southern Colombia seeking to achieve autonomy and preserve its way of living. Up against guerrillas, death squads and Colombia's security forces, the Nasa have won fame for employing non-violent civil resistance to ensure peace. With long, flowing hair, and oozing charisma, Lucho encourages his people to bravely confront the community's adversaries while advocating the reclamation of land the Nasa claim was stolen from them. THE ARMY RECRUITER Edet Belzberg (Director) Louisiana's Sergeant First Class Clay Usie is one of the most successful Army recruiters working in America. Shot in vérité style, The Army Recruiter captures Sgt. Usie's day-to-day life -- almost entirely dedicated to his mission of finding new soldiers -- over a nine-month period in his hometown of Houma, Louisiana. David, Lauren, Matt, and Bobby are four teenagers recently recruited into the Army by Sgt. Usie. The new recruits spend their last semesters of high school and transition from students to soldiers. DOCUMENTARY FELLOWS: Susan MotamedMotamed, Co-Director ADOPT ME, MICHAEL JORDAN Susan produced ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM, which opened in competition at the Sundance Film Festival, and was nominated for the Academy Award for best documentary. It also won the Independent Spirit Award, IDA Award and Canal+ Award. Before Enron, Susan co-produced LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE, a blues tribute documentary with director Antoine Fuqua, producer Alex Gibney and executive producer Martin Scorsese. Melanie JuddJudd, Co-Director ADOPT ME, MICHAEL JORDAN Melanie Judd produced the fiction feature film, DAY NIGHT DAY NIGHT, directed by Julia Loktev which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival 2006 where it won the Prix Jeune. DAY NIGHT DAY NIGHT was selected for New Directors/New Films and is being released by IFC First Take in May of 2007. Melanie was nominated for a 2007 Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature. Tony GerberGerber, Co-Director FULL BATTLE RATTLE Tony Gerber co-wrote and directed the critically acclaimed feature film Side Streets, starring Rosario Dawson and Bollywood-legend Shashi Kapoor, executive produced by Merchant Ivory (premiering at the Venice and Sundance film festivals and released by IFC). His adaptation of Lynn Nottage's play, Mud, River, Stone for Killer Films, was a finalist for this year's Sundance screenwriting lab. As a television producer, he is the recipient of two Emmy Awards. Jesse MossMoss, Co-Director FULL BATTLE RATTLE Jesse Moss is the founder of Mile End Films (www.mileendfilms.com), a New York based production company. His award winning documentaries include SPEEDO: A DEMOLITION DERBY LOVE STORY (PBS/POV), CON MAN (HBO/Cinemax), and RATED R: REPUBLICANS IN HOLLYWOOD (AMC). He is currently writing the screenplay adaptation of CON MAN, about Ivy League impostor James Hogue, for Paul Giamatti's company Touchy Feely Films. Margarita MartinezMartinez, Co-Director PEACEFUL WARRIORS A native of Bogotá, Colombia, Martinez received a masters' degree from Columbia University in New York on a Fulbright Scholarship. Martinez co-directed LA SIERRA, a documentary that followed three young people in a Medellín neighborhood defined by violence - a community wracked by conflict. The film won first prize at the IFP Market in NY in 2004 and was nominated best documentary at the Independence Spirit Awards 2006. - more - SUNDANCE INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES FELLOWS FOR 2007 DOCUMENTARY COMPOSERS LAB 07/25/07, page 3 of 5 Miguel SalazarSalazar, Co-Director PEACEFUL WARRIORS A native of Bogotá, Colombia, Miguel Salazar has a masters' degree in film from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. He directed the short film MARTILLO (HAMMER) that won Best Short Film at the 35th Kyiv Film Festival Molodist in Ukraine and the Prize for Best Short Fiction Film at the 45th Cartagena International Film Festival in Colombia. As a director of photography, Salazar has shot more than fifteen shorts and documentaries. Edet BelzbergBelzberg, Director THE ARMY RECRUITER A recipient of the 2005 MacArthur Fellowship, Edet Belzberg made her directorial debut in 2001 with her Academy Award® nominated film CHILDREN UNDERGROUND. That same year, the film won the Sundance Film Festival's Special Jury Prize and the International Documentary Association's Award for Best Documentary Film. In addition, Belzberg was the recipient of the Anthony Radziwill Documentary Achievement Award. CHILDREN UNDERGROUND aired on HBO/Cinemax and was released theatrically in the United States. COMPOCOMPOSSSSERER FELLOWS: Jeremy FlowerFlower, a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music and active member of the underground electronic music world in Boston and New York. He has worked with Gustavo Santaolalla, David Krakauer, the Kronos Quartet and others. He collaborated with composer Osvaldo Golijov on his Grammy Award winning score Ayre, featuring Dawn Upshaw and on Golijov's score for the new Francis Ford Coppola film, YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH. Derrick HodgeHodge, a noted jazz bassist has performed and recorded with Terence Blanchard, Mulgrew Miller, Clark Terry, Mos Def, Sade and others. He has also assisted Terence Blanchard in composing a number of film scores, including SHE HATES ME, WAIST DEEP and INSIDE MAN. Shahzad Ali Ismaily plays guitar, banjo, double bass, accordion, flute and percussion. He has performed and recorded with Laurie Anderson, Booker T, John Haskell, Will Oldham, Marc Ribot, Tom Waits, John Zorn, and others. He composed for dance companies such as Tadashi Endo, The Frankfurt Ballet, and Min Tanaka. Self-taught as a musician, he has a degree in Biochemistry. Enis RotthoffRotthoff, from Germany, composed music for DIGGING FOR BELLADONNA, QUIET LOVE, SMILING MONSTER FISH, and others. He assisted Academy Award-winning composer Jan A.P. Kaczmarek on FINDING NEVERLAND, UNFAITHFUL and QUO VADIS. He is the recipient of the Scholarship for Young Composers at the Kreuzberg- Friedrichshain in Berlin. Gingger ShankarShankar, a vocalist/violinist/composer from a renowned family of musicians, she plays her own invention, the 1- string stereophonic Double Violin, and has toured with Peter Gabriel and Frank Zappa.