You gotta love New York in the Springtime. It was a quick but wonderful trip - one of those trips were a lot of synchronistic things happened. The last time I was here was almost exactly a year ago for the screening of STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME at the United Nations.

The CHEVOLUTION premier went great at the Tribeca Film Festival. I saw a lot of old friends, went to see some Broadway shows and hear some of the New York underground music scene.


Columbus Circle



To my surprise William H. Macy was there for the premier of BART GOT A ROOM which started at 6pm. CHEVOLUTION premiered at 6:30pm that same night at the same multiplex theater on 19th and Broadway. This is the movie that also stars YouTube star Brandon Hardesty.



On the way over to the theater, I crossed the famous Strand Bookstore. This is the place made famous from the Donald Fagen/Walter Becker song "What A Shame About Me" off the TWO AGAINST NATURE album. It starts out:

"I was grinding through my day gig
Stackin' cutouts at the Strand
When in walks Franny from NYU
We were quite an item back then"


This is a clown.


This is MEAT BEAT MANIFESTO. My good friend Raz Mesinai opened for them at the Highline Ballroom. Notice the two video screens and all the laptops.

How did the iconic image of Che Guevara end up on beer bottles and bikinis? This inquiry into the ethics and aesthetics of appropriation investigates how the enduring symbol of Cuba's revolution skyrocketed to fame and was ultimately devoured by its own worst enemy: capitalism.



CHEVOLUTION

Director: Luis Lopez and Trisha Ziff
Principal Cast: Gerry Adams, Jon Lee Anderson, Antonio Banderas, Shepard Fairey, Gael García Bernal, Tom Morello
Writers: Sylvia Stevens, Trisha Ziff
Editor: Luis Lopez
Original Music Score: Joseph Julian Gonzalez

Premiers at the Tribeca Film Festival Friday, April 25, 6:30PM
AMC 19th East Theater 3
19th and Broadway

Sun, Apr 27, 1:30PM
Mon, Apr 28, 9:00PM
Wed, Apr 30, 12:45PM

I'll be at the Friday screening. Good luck getting tickets. It's pretty much sold out.

Here's a review.

Here's an article by Trisha Ziff, co-director/co-writer

Angels in the Dust is a story of hope and healing in the face of a staggering crisis. AIDS is leaving entire South African villages decimated and thousands of children orphaned, with no adults to raise them. The inspiring story of Marion Cloete, a university-trained therapist who— with her husband and three daughters— fearlessly walked away from a privileged life in a wealthy Johannesburg suburb to build Botshabelo, an extraordinary village and school that provides shelter, food, and education to more than 550 South African children.

Please  come and support this very important film about the AIDS  epidemic  that is ravaging South Africa.  I co-composed the score with the  South African vocal sensation Simphiwe Dana, who was flown directly  from Johannesburg to LA to work with me on this score.  It has only  been in two film festivals yet has won major awards from both  (Audience, Special Jury).  Both troubling and inspirational, Angels  is a documentary you don't want to miss.  My wife and I will attend the 7:20p screening at the Laemmle's Music Hall in Beverly Hills tonight.  The director, Louise Hogarth, will be available after for Q&A.  Come join us!  Sorry for the late invite, we just got in from Peru.


Starting Sept. 28 - Oct. 5, 2007
Los Angeles
Laemmle’s Music Hall
9036 Wilshire Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
310.274.6869
Fri, Mon-Thu: 5:00, 7:20 & 9:55
Sat & Sun: 12:00, 2:20, 5:00, 7:20 & 9:55.
Q&As: Fri (28th)/Sat (29th) following the 7:20 pm show. Sun (30th) following the 2:20 pm show.

Also, in Berkeley, San Francisco and Seattle.

Starting Oct. 5 - Oct. 12, 2007
Boston, Washington D.C, Philadelphia
Starting Oct. 19 - Oct. 24, 2007
Portland
Starting Nov. 02 - Nov. 09, 2007
Dallas
Starting Nov. 02 - Nov. 09, 2007
Atlanta

Angels has been extended an extra week because of popular demand.
Extended dates: Sept. 21 - Sept. 27
New York City

All information is on the Dream Outloud Website.

See the Trailer.

Alicia Witt (“Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “Upside of Anger")is the spokesperson for the film and the orphanage.  See her introduction to the film.



Reviews:
LA Weekly
LA Times
New York Times
Bay Area Reporter

Made in L.A. has been picked up by an overwhelming number of press, TV and Radio outlets! Here's a selection. More to follow!

"Almudena Carracedo's debut docu relates a rousing true story of solidarity, perseverance and triumph... Deftly interweaving legal battles, national boycotts, group dynamics and individual empowerment, pic offers a personalized history lesson in class struggle."
-Ronnie Sheib, VARIETY

"Labor protest is not dead. Nor is it futile, according to "Made in L.A.," an excellent documentary tonight on the PBS anthology series "P.O.V." ... Congress may not be able to decide how to process the nation's illegal immigrants, but the film understands that they're simply here, an integral component of the economy. Rather, the documentary is about basic human dignity."
-Andy Webster, NEW YORK TIMES

"Shot and directed with a sympathetic ear and eye by Spanish filmmaker Almudena Carracedo, who co-produced the documentary with Robert Bahar, it is a valuable and moving film -- and entertaining as well -- not merely for what it says about the continuing need for organized labor, and of the difficulty of keeping it organized, but also about how that process affects individual lives in ways beyond the wage. And that the lives it explores are not the sort that get much of a shake on television makes it all the more precious... Completely bilingual (there are English subtitles when Spanish is spoken, and the reverse), the film is not a white paper on, or an exposé of, abuses by the garment industry, but a document of an experience... Where other filmmakers might take snapshots of home lives for a bit of color and context, Carracedo spends time with them, so that domestic decorations and rituals become the fabric that supports the larger action."
-Robert Lloyd, LOS ANGELES TIMES

"If you've ever been annoyed or inconvenienced by a picket line of illegal workers without empathizing with their plight, then you should really tune in for P.O.V.'s "Made in L.A.", a moving documentary which explores the lives of three garment workers in Los Angeles ...As Maria and Maura and the other women gain confidence and hope in the future, the power of activism becomes clearer, and next time instead of stepping around a picket line, you might just find the time to stop and listen."
-SALON.COM

"Sí, Se Puede... Forever 21, founded in Los Angeles...is an American H&M, selling inexpensive-O.K., cheap-clothing whose built-in obsolescence is timed to the speed of the broadband generation."
-NEW YORKER BLOG

"Un estremecedor e inspirador documental sobre la incesante lucha de costureras indocumentadas contra una poderosa compañía de Los Angeles." [A heartrending and inspiring documentary about the constant struggle of undocumented garment workers against a powerful company in Los Angeles"
-LA JORNADA

Last Saturday night at the Disney Concert Hall, a PBS documentary I scored LALO GUERRERO, THE ORIGINAL CHICANO won the 2007 Imagen Award for TV and Film Best Documentary. It has been a real pleasure to work with the producers Nancy De Los Santos and Dan Guerrero (Lalo's son, for those of you who didn't know). I hope more and more people would become familiar with Lalo's music. He really was an incredible musician. Here's a link to a "best of" CD.

“… And I shall give them in My house and within My walls a memorial and a name [Yad Vashem]… that shall not be cut off.” Isaiah, 56:5

I received an email from Michele Ohayon in Jerusalem that STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME did indeed win the Yad Vashem Chairman's Award for a Holocaust-related film at the Jerusalem Film Festival. Yad Vashem is Isreal's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is the largest Holocaust Museum in the world. The museum has a great website. Visit it now.



Museum Grounds
Photo courtesy of Stahlkocher

I am very honored to be associated with this film and all those who worked on it.

To all my New York friends or people who will be in the Big Apple at the end of July, my latest score, MADE IN LA, will be shown July 26 at 3pm with an additional screening July 29 at the New York Latino Film Festival. Oye chicos, ven a gozar la musica!

It will also air September 4th on PBS. More on that later.

The remarkable story of love found in a concentration camp during World War II, STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME, will be screened at the Jerusalem International Film Festival Thursday, July 12 and Saturday July 14th. it is part of "The Jewish Experience" category and has also been nominated to for the Yad Vashem Chairman's Award for Artistic Achievement in a Holocaust-related film. We'll see what happens.


Ina and Jacob Pollack

Here's a review in French from ResMusica.com - Quotidien de la Musique Classique (daily newspaper of classical music) about our recent performance at the St. Denis Basilica in Paris. I've called upon a couple of french-speakers to translate this for me. In the meantime I can say with my limited french skills that it is a great review. A few highlights:

About the "Sanctus":
C’est une œuvre polyphonique remarquablement écrite, comme le reste de sa Misa Azteca dont le Gloria fut choisi en 2006 pour inaugurer le premier Festival de chœur et d’orchestre de Sydney à l’Opéra de Sydney.
Ces jeunes choristes ont su y apporter toute la ferveur, la vie et l’élévation spirituelle qui anime cette très belle pièce.

UPDATE:
Emmanuel Deleage, a Paris native, stepped up to the plate and translated the entire review. Many Thanks!

It was a delicious and charming concert of traditional Latino songs, baroque polyphonies from Mexican Missions, and creations of young Mexican-American composers in the Royal Basilica of St. Denis by the Hispanic Choir of Our Lady of Angels Cathedral. Like the gospel choirs of Harlem churches draw from the “blues” or from slavery, this choir of young girls from Downtown Los Angeles, draws from its Indian and Mexican heritage to speak about their condition today: young and Hispanic in an Anglo-Saxon World.

There is passion and elegance in the singing of these religious and laymen baroque songs of a grand simplicity, full of naiveté, tenderness and love. These young girls, directed with humanity and generosity by Antonio Espinal elevate these soft prayers accompanied by the excellent and virtuoso organist Christoph Bull, Joseph Gonzalez (guitar), Helio Monroy (jarana, requinto jarocho) Alexander Cardenas & Javier Contreras (violins), Bruno Palmiero (guitarron), Eduardo Lubo (cello). However, it was lacking a certain vocal depth, probably due to a maturing of the present voices. The two soloists Dalia Rodriguez and Delia Rios deliver a profound and touching emotion that can’t leave (audiences) indifferent, so much they are connected to this overwhelming and strong “indianity” [Indian heritage] that is at the heart of the Mexican soul.

Also called “Harmonies Girls Choir” this choir of your girls (16 to 19, including one 13 year old) permanent residents of Our Lady of Los Angeles Cathedral is lead by Antonio Espinal. His repertory encompasses a wide range of musical styles: classic, contemporary, religious, gospel, pop, Broadway tunes, European music and especially Latin American music.

Sanctus (in Latin, Spanish and Nahuatl) was created this year at the St. Denis Festival by Joseph Julian Gonzalez, which accompanies the young choir on percussion and guitar, and was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and already performed there. It is a polyphonic piece, remarkably written, just like the rest of Misa Azteca whose Gloria was chosen to inaugurate the first Festival of Choirs and Orchestra in Sydney, at the Sydney Opera House in 2006. This young choir brought all their passion, their lives and the spiritual dimension that lights this very beautiful piece.

Born in Bakersfield, CA this discreet and modest composer studied composition with Elain Barkin, Roger Bourland, and the film music composer David Raskin at UCLA. In fact, he won the most prestigious awards in classical guitar, jazz and also in composition. He studied with John Adams, Osvaldo Golijov and Thomas Newman. He has composed for the Kronos Quartet, the Hispanic Choir of Los Angeles, as well as numerous films: Price of Glory, Curdled, Jackie Brown, documentaries: Cowboy del Amor, Chicano: The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement and television shows. His grand symphonic piece and choir, Misa Azteca, was performed at Carnegie Hall as well as the American Cathedral in Paris.

Intense and powerful was Laudate, laudate Dominum by Christopher Walker dedicated to the choir and created for the inauguration of Our Lady of Los Angeles Cathedral. The Mexican Song in Nahuatl by Salvador Morena is a musical jewel.

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. A great time was had by all for the performance at the Saint-Denis Basilica in Paris. To remind you what happened, the "Sanctus" and "Gloria" from Misa Azteca was performed (as well as other music) by the Harmonies Girls Choir of Los Angeles directed by Antonio Espinal as part of the Festival de Saint-Denis, in the Saint-Denis region of Paris. This is a very prestigious music festival that last about five weeks and had performances besides us by the likes the Kronos quartet, Dawn Upshaw and the incoming musical director and conductor of the LA Phil, Gustavo Dudamel and Osvaldo Golijov. I was invited to join the Harmonies as guitar and percussion accompanist along with UCLA professor and organist Christoph Bull. Of course I couldn't turn down a week in Paris!

Here are a few shots:



Conductor Antonio Espinal and the girls during the performance in the Basilica.




Virtuoso Organist and UCLA Professor Christoph Bull in front of the Basilica. The Basilica of Saint-Denis (supposedly) houses the remains of all the Kings and Queens of France.




With my guitar and cajon with a couple of Harmonies. The concert was recorded by Radio France which will be broadcast July 25.




Performance at the Quartier Floriel. That's Dalia Rodriguez singing solo and yours truly behind her on guitar. This is another concert we were asked to perform the next day which seemed like a sort of community outreach concert.





It was very well-received and the girls make new friends.