Jan 15 2008

Prelude for Peace

By Doreen Ringer Ross

I was home packing to leave for Park City when I got a message on Facebook from Michael Kamen’s daughter Zoe telling me about a filmmaker named Amin Matalqa who contacted her there. He told her about his film “Captain Abu Raed” which is in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance.  Zoe suggested I might want to connect with Amin at Sundance since he had been greatly influenced by her dad (in case you don’t know who I’m talking about). I did a little investigating and discovered that “Captain Abu Raed” is the first independent film to come out of Jordan...and thematically it’s about the ordinary people we meet along life’s path who change our destiny. 

Composer Austin Wintory, “Captain Abu Raed” (winner of the Audience Award for World Cinema Drama); BMI’s Doreen Ringer Ross; and Director Amin Matalqa, “Captain Abu Raed”

Sensing a kindred spirit, I immediately tracked down Amin who told me great stories about his friendship with Michael Kamen.  He shared that Michael had asked him to track down poems in Arabic about forgiveness...that he wanted to use in his Ode to Peace that he was composing when he died.  He told me that his film is dedicated to Michael Kamen and Basil Poledouris because of the impact they had on him...through their music and humanity. Needless to say, I am looking forward to meeting Amin in person and seeing his film...but the big point here is that we are all part of such an amazing global culture.  We are interconnected like never before and in spite of our differences, artistic expression is the universal language that truly has the power to unite us all. 

Many think that Sundance is about swag from fashion houses and deal making headlines but there is a lot more to it than that. What you discover there depends on what matters to you.

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