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Jan 18 2007

The cooler you are the later you arrive at the gate

by Doreen Ringer Ross

I could hear him talking on his cell phone as he rushed down the airport corridor towards Delta’s gate 59 at LAX.  “Where are you?  Don’t you know that the cooler you are the later you arrive at the gate?”  He was kidding…but not really.  I chuckled to myself.  I knew he was on his way to Sundance.  There is just a recognizable vibe that we all have.  Even Todd, who checked me in at the Delta counter (and charged me the extra $25 for the overweight suitcase!), was wearing black and sporting a goatee.  He knew that’s where I was headed.  The 2007 Sundance Film Festival convergence had begun.  BMI’s Linda Livingston was already at the gate when I arrived.  Does this mean that I’m cooler than her?  Not really.  She got the aisle seat!
We arrived in Park City and settled in just in time to head off to the opening night premiere…Brett Morgen’s documentary ”Chicago 10” which was scored brilliantly by Jeff Danna.  We met up with Jeff and his lovely wife Brenda, agent Rob Messinger and publicist Ray Costa out in front of the Eccles and headed inside.  The film, which was introduced by Robert Redford, is about the infamous Chicago Seven trial from the 1960s and uses an innovative mix of archival footage and animation to tell the story…but more than documenting facts this film really has an emotional core and it gives you a visceral sense of what it might have been like to be involved in the anti-war inspired cultural revolution happening at that time…which is certainly relevant to what is going on in the world today.  The sound is amazing and the music surprisingly is not all period driven.  Jeff’s score weaves brilliantly between contemporary songs by Emmenem, Rage Against The Machine, and other artists whose songs embody the spirit of cultural revolution in a timeless way.  Tom Hayden who was one of the Chicago Seven was there….which certainly made it feel like a “happening.”


Director Brett Morgen, BMI’s Doreen Ringer Ross, and Composer Jeff Danna

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