Thursday, March 08, 2007

Going to Staten Island!

Facing Sudan is an official selection of the Staten Island Film Festival. The festival runs June 20-24, 2007.

With the selection at Longbaugh, Facing Sudan will now have a screening on both coasts!

Here is the screening information for Longbaugh:

Facing Sudan
Saturday March 31, 2007
12 pm The Living Room Theaters
Portland, Oregon

A detailed schedule for the festival can be found here.

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Facing Sudan Soundtrack Now Available!

The Facing Sudan soundtrack is now available via download from LuLu. The soundtrack features sixteen songs from the film.

Here is what I wrote about the music on the LuLu site:

The music by Tom Flannery and Lorne Clarke is nothing short of amazing. The music provides a special complement to the images and words in the film. Tom and Lorne have captured the emotional quality I wanted to have for the film and one listen will tell you that this music was created with passion---passion for not only raising awareness about genocide but also for human rights.

The movie opens with Lorne Clarke's "How Do We Sleep at Night?" This song raises a central question of the film, as Lorne sings with a compassionate bewilderment at society's lack of empathy and action in the face of such horrendous atrocities.

When I first heard Tom Flannery's "Crayons and Paper," I was moved to tears. The song is about drawings made by children in Darfur, brought back to the states by Dr. Jerry Ehrlich. Nothing hits harder than seeing war through the eyes of innocent children.

The soundtrack includes other songs as well: "Lost Boys" tells the story of Sudanese children driven from their homes by war; "Requiem for Butare" recounts an earlier genocide in Rwanda; "It's Called Genocide" takes modern western nations to task for ignoring the situation in Darfur.

There are more songs contained on the soundtrack. Take a listen. You will not be disappointed. I consider myself very lucky to have found Tom and Lorne. Facing Sudan would not be the film it is if it weren't for the work of these two marvelously gifted songwriters.

The soundtrack is only $10 and you can even listen to a preview. The download includes not only the songs but also a digital booklet which inlcudes the lyrics. Help support the songwriters by downloading the soundtrack here: http://www.lulu.com/content/693402