Sundance Channel Remembers Katrina - August 29
g-l...@satchmo.com
SAVING JAZZ AS PART OF PROGRAMMING MARKING FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF
HURRICANE KATRINA ON AUGUST 29TH
Film Chronicles Legendary Jazz Photographer Herman Leonard's Efforts
to Recover Priceless Archives Swept From His Flooded New Orleans Home
Anniversary Programming Begins at 9:00pm e/p, Includes Feature-Length
Version of In The Sun: Michael Stipe and Friends and an Encore
Presentation of In His Own Words: Brian Williams on Hurricane Katrina
and
For Immediate Release...New York, NY, June 12, 2006 - Sundance
Channel will observe the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on
August 29th with an evening of documentaries about the cataclysmic
storm and the ongoing struggle to rebuild lives and communities along
the devastated Gulf Coast. Sundance Channel remembers the victims and
survivors of Katrina with an evening of programming that includes the
world premiere of Leslie Woodhead's original documentary Saving Jazz
and the U.S. television premiere of the feature-length documentary In
the Sun: Michael Stipe and Friends, directed by Danny Clinch and
Michael Stipe (a fifteen minute version of In the Sun premiered on
Sundance Channel in April, 2006). An encore broadcast of the Sundance
Channel original documentary Brian Williams: In His Own Words, produced
by NBC News, will also air. Sundance Channel's Hurricane Katrina
Anniversary programming airs on August 29th, beginning at 9:00pm e/p.
Saving Jazz, a co-production between Sundance Channel and BBC, offers a
unique window into the personal tragedies caused by Hurricane Katrina
as it tells the story of legendary 83-year-old photographer and New
Orleans resident Herman Leonard. Since the 1940s, Leonard's images
of pioneers like Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and
Billie Holiday have defined the way jazz music is portrayed and made
icons of the musicians themselves. Before fleeing the city last
August, Leonard scrambled with a small group of his friends to save as
many of his photos as they could, hustling them to the third floor of
his home. However, when Hurricane Katrina struck, Leonard's studio,
darkroom and home were flooded to a depth of eight feet. Thousands of
Leonard's prints were sent floating through streets that became
rivers.
Saving Jazz follows Herman Leonard as he returns to New Orleans and
begins efforts to reclaim his life's work - and the story of jazz
- from the floodwaters of the devastated city. Throughout this
profoundly emotional process, Leonard remains a fundamentally creative
individual dedicated to helping the city and his fellow residents. He
makes plans to sell his surviving photos for relief programs, and
records the parades and the music of the first post-Katrina Mardi Gras
in March 2006. As it explores Leonard's career, Saving Jazz hears
from some of the photographer's subjects, including celebrated jazz
trumpeter and New Orleans native Wynton Marsalis and Tony Bennett, a
lifelong friend and fan of Leonard's photos. The film also visits
with New Orleans musicians and residents such as Irma Thomas and Lenny
Kravitz, and interviews key players who are working to bring musicians
back to New Orleans and keep the city's musical traditions and
cultures alive and undiluted.
Saving Jazz is directed by Leslie Woodhead, who has been one of
England's leading documentary filmmakers since the 1960s. His films
include the award-winning Cry From the Grave, about the fall of
Srebrenica in the Bosnian War; and My Life as a Spy, a wry account of
Woodhead's Cold War career translating Soviet radio messages for the
British government. A lifelong jazz fan and photography buff, Woodhead
calls Saving Jazz "a film close to my heart."
Sundance Channel's program lineup for the 1st Anniversary of
Hurricane Katrina is as follows:
August 29 at 9:00pm e/p
Saving Jazz at 9:00pm e/p- Directed by Leslie Woodhead. Since the
1940s, legendary photographer Herman Leonard has created an
unparalleled record of jazz in America from his base in the music's
birthplace of New Orleans. Last August, Hurricane Katrina's waters
surged through Leonard's home and studio, carrying that archive away
in the floodwaters. Saving Jazz is a chronicle of Leonard's return
to New Orleans and his efforts to rescue his photos, and the story of
jazz, from the wreckage of a decimated city.
August 29 at 10:00pm e/p
In the Sun: Michael Stipe and Friends at 10:00pm e/p - Directed by
Danny Clinch and Michael Stipe. The brainchild of REM frontman and
Georgia native Michael Stipe, "In the Sun" is a six-song E.P. whose
proceeds benefit the survivors of Hurricane Katrina. This documentary
presents interviews with artists who contributed to the E.P. (including
Stipe, Chris Martin of Coldplay, The Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am and
Smashing Pumpkins alum James Iha) set against an arresting narrative of
Katrina's aftermath. The film reveals a region still fraught with
suffering, where homeless residents fear they have been forgotten and
grass-root organizations have stepped in to do what the government has
not.
August 29 at 11:00pm e/p
In His Own Words: Brian Williams on Hurricane Katrina at 11:00pm e/p-
Produced by NBC News. Featuring footage and stories that fell outside
of the time and content limitations of network television, this
original documentary provides an unvarnished, day-by-day account of NBC
Nightly News anchor Brian Williams' five days in Louisiana following
the hit of Hurricane Katrina. Williams, who lived with the evacuees at
the Superdome, focuses on the communities' reaction to the
destruction, the discovery of the forgotten and starving people in the
New Orleans Convention Center and his own duties as a responsible
journalist.
Under the creative direction of Robert Redford, Sundance Channel is the
television destination for independent-minded viewers seeking something
different. Bold, uncompromising and irreverent, Sundance Channel
offers audiences a diverse and engaging selection of films,
documentaries, and original programs, all unedited and commercial free.
Launched in 1996, Sundance Channel is a venture of NBC Universal,
Showtime Networks Inc. and Robert Redford. Sundance Channel operates
independently of the non-profit Sundance Institute and the Sundance
Film Festival, but shares the overall Sundance mission of encouraging
artistic freedom of expression. Sundance Channel's website address
is www.sundancechannel.com
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