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The closing weekend of the TriBeCa Film Festival happens to coincide with an extraordinary annual event: Jazz at Lincoln Center's Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival where 15 high school jazz bands from across North America wow audiences and Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, with their interpretations of the work of the great Duke Ellington. A world premiere at the TriBeCa Film Festival, CHOPS follows three such bands, two from Seattle, one from Jacksonville, Florida, as they prepare for and compete in the 2006 Essentially Ellington event. While CHOPS is a natural draw for jazz-lovers, it's equally compelling for anyone new to the sound. We can report that the film affected us on many levels, but most profoundly as New Yorkers who perhaps regret having squandered our adolescence.
Primary contact:
Steven Cooper, steven@jeremywalker.com
Download Press Notes
Thu. April 26th at 10:00am, Clearview Chelsea West
(PRESS/INDUSTRY) *Press conference with the filmmakers and Wynton Marsalis to follow at 11:45am*
Mon. April 30th at 6:00pm, Clearview Chelsea West Theater 1
Tue. May 1st at 4:30pm, AMC 34th Street (add'l PRESS/INDUSTRY)
Tue. May 1st at 7:15pm, AMC 34th Street Theater 12
Fri. May 4th at 10:45am, AMC 34th Street Theater 14
Sat. May 5th at 10:30am, AMC Kips Bay Theater 14
Director Bruce Broder will be in New York for the duration of the festival, while two high school Jazz bands featured in the film are back for this year's competition, which coincides with the festival's closing weekend.
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Blending the real-life situations imagined in ELECTION and told with the ferocity of THE WAR ROOM, THE THIRD MONDAY IN OCTOBER is a crowd-pleasing film that focuses on the middle school campaigns and elections that took place in four US cities as George W. Bush and John Kerry ran for the White House in the fall of 2004. The film takes an intimate look at these 12 kids and their peers, teachers and families as they enter their races, write slogans, make posters, and deliver speeches, until that climactic and emotional day - often the third Monday in October - when they learn whether or not their effort to become leaders has succeeded or has failed. In the process we see a true slice of American politics, raw and uncensored, through the eyes and votes of twelve year olds. As the media once again builds the hothouse that will foment the 2008 Presidential races, audiences for THE THIRD MONDAY IN OCTOBER will continue to ripen as well.
Birth is a miracle, a rite of passage, a natural part of life. But birth is also big business. Compelled to find answers after the stressful delivery of her first child, actress Ricki Lake recruits filmmaker Abby Epstein to explore and question the way American women have babies. Epstein gains access to several pregnant New York City women as they weigh their options. Footage of women having babies punctuates THE BUSINESS OF BEING BORN. Each experience is unique; all are equally beautiful and equally surprising. Giving birth is clearly the most physically challenging event these women have ever gone through, but it is also the most emotionally rewarding. Along the way, we hear from number of obstetricians, experts and advocates about the history, culture and economics of childbirth. The film's fundamental question: should most births be viewed as a natural life process, or should every delivery be treated as a potential medical emergency? As Epstein uncovers some surprising answers, her own pregnancy adds a very personal dimension to
THE BUSINESS OF BEING BORN, a must-see for anyone even thinking about having a baby.