The Rotunda - Events

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
27	28	29	30	1	2	3
4	5	6	7 7:30 PMJoshua Marcus: CD Release of 'This Land' an environmental justice folk recording 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM Local folk hero Joshua Marcus will perform perform the 7 songs on the this land cd as well as play some of the interview clips, and talk about his experiences working on the project. we will then have a small break where folks are invited to ask any questions they like about the project. He'll then play a set of my own songs, from the desk of...fan of friends, reverse the charges and make/believe. Admission is FREE	8	9	10
11	12	13 7:00 PMDirect from Colombia! Champeta singer Louis Towers, with Palenke, brings danceable afro-Colombian rhythms to you 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM Direct from Colombia! Champeta singer Louis Towers, with Palenke, brings danceable afro-Colombian rhythms to UPENN—for a free show at the Rotunda, Oct. 13th at 7pm. Press Release follows: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Direct from Colombia! Champeta singer Louis Towers, with Palenke, brings danceable afro-Colombian rhythms to UPENN—for a free show at The Rotunda, Oct. 13th at 7pm. Philadelphia, PA – September 24th, 2009 “Champeta is a hybrid music” says music writer Craig Havighust, “unique to its home city because of Cartagena’s history as a slave trading capital, a Spanish colonial stronghold, and a port city. Through the 1960s and 70s, guys from many nations worked the freighter traffic between Africa and Caribbean ports of call. Records changed hands and criss-crossed the Gulf and the Atlantic Ocean. Reggae and dub music mingled with Colombian cumbia and Afro-pop and juju. Bob Marley, meet King Sunny Ade.” Artist Louis Towers hails from the storied town of Palenque San Basilio, founded in the sixteenth century by escaped slaves who wrung repeated peace treaties from Spanish troops seeking to re-enslave them. Towers sings in Spanish but also speaks Palenquero, the Afro-Creole language still heard in San Basilio—and what comes across in his upbeat, get-you-moving tracks is Palenque’s message of pride and zest for life. The show is organized by Penn professors Ann Farnsworth-Alvear, Tim Rommen, and Tukufu Zuberi, who will host the show at the Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St, on October 13th. Towers' music is on myspace, http://www.myspace.com/louistowerselrasta, and he has a new video filmed in Palenque that is viewable on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5qKlq4ZoNQ. The organizers thank our co-sponsors at UPENN: Latin American and Latino Studies, the Ethnohistory Program, and the Center for Africana Studies, as well as the Departments of Music and Romance Languages. Additional thanks go out to the Penn Humanties Forum, DuBois College House, and La Casa Latina. The show is free to the public thanks to a grant from the Greater Philadelphia Latin American Studies Consortium. Contact Information: Ann Farnsworth-Alvear or Migdalia Carrasquillo, Latin American and Latino Studies, University of Pennsylvania. lals@sas.upenn.edu, 375 Claudia Cohen Hall, UPENN, Philadelphia, PA 19104. 215-898-9919.	14	15	16	17
18	19	20 7:00 PMan Exclusive, Advance Screening of COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Sara Zia Ebrahimi ITVS Community Cinema Co-Coordinator phillyitvs@gmail.com 215-901-4549 ITVS and WHYY, in partnership with Get Free Movement, IllVibe Collective and The Media Education Lab at Temple University present an advance screening of: COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS, a new documentary by Benjamin Franzen and Kembrow McLeod, Explores the Creative and Legal Ramifications of Music Sampling in Hip-Hop FREE and open to the public For more information and to RSVP http://www.whyy.org/memberexperience/ or call 215-351-0511. Discussion after the film engages local DJ’s, copyright attorneys and music industry reps. DJ Foxx Boogie spins samples and original mixes As new technologies emerge, enabling everyone to be a music producer, can anyone really own a sound? Philadelphia, PA--Computers, software and even cell phones have radically altered our relationship to mass culture and technology, providing consumers with the tools to become producers, or “remixers,” of their own media. But long before everyday people began posting their video mash-ups on the Web, hip-hop musicians perfected the art of audio montage through a sport they called “sampling.” COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS, examines the creative and commercial value of musical sampling, including the ongoing debates about artistic expression, copyright law and (of course) money. The film will air nationally on the Emmy® Award–winning PBS documentary series Independent Lens during the 2009 fall/winter season. Watch a trailer Download photos Filmmakers, Partners and Panelists are all available for interviews DVD screeners are available upon request. Media are also encouraged to attend. About ITVS Community Cinema in Philadelphia Community Cinema is a groundbreaking public education and civic engagement initiative of the Independent Television Service (ITVS). Presented in partnership with local public television stations and leading community organizations, Community Cinema offers free preview screenings each month from September through May, showcasing selections from the new season of Independent Lens. Operating in more than 50 cities across the country, Community Cinema helps audiences connect with organizations, information and the opportunity to learn, discuss and get involved in today’s critical social issues. In Philadelphia, Community Cinema is co-presented with station partner WHYY and community organizations in and around the Philadelphia area. www.communitycinema.org<http://www.communitycinema.org/> **************************** ************************** *************************************************************************************** More About Copyright Criminals: For more than 30 years, as hip-hop evolved from the urban streets of New York to its current status as a multibillion-dollar industry, hip-hop performers and producers have been reusing portions of previously recorded music in new, otherwise original compositions. But when lawyers and record companies got involved, what was once referred to as a “borrowed melody” became a “copyright infringement.” Through interviews with many of hip-hop music’s founding figures—like Public Enemy, De La Soul and Digital Underground—along with emerging artists such as audiovisual remixers Eclectic Method, COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS illuminates both sides of the debate, from traditional musicians who view sampling as pillaging to those who argue that the practice of borrowing is by no means new nor is it unique to hip-hop or even music: Think of Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s soup cans. “Sampling itself is an embodiment of this active process of engaging with history,” argues hip-hop insider Jeff Chang. COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS also provides an in-depth look at artists who have been sampled, such as renowned drummer Clyde Stubblefield, the world’s most sampled musician, best known for his work with James Brown, as well as commentary by funk legend George Clinton, another highly sampled musician. As COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS reveals, music making “came out of the professional recording studios,” says Coldcut’s Matt Black, “and into the bedrooms. That changed the music industry, and the reverberations are still being felt today.” Computers, mobile phones and other interactive technologies are changing our relationship with media, blurring the line between producer and consumer, and radically changing what it means to be creative. As artists find ever more inventive ways to insert old influences into new material, the documentary asks a critical question: Can anyone really own a sound? On-Screen Participants Public Enemy—represented in this film by vocalist Chuck D, producer Hank Shocklee, and hip-hop activist and journalist Harry Allen (the “Media Assassin”)—is among the most important hip-hop groups that have emerged in the past 30 years. Jeff Chang, author and commentator, wrote the award-winning history of hip-hop culture Can’t Stop Won’t Stop and co-founded the indie record company SoleSides, which launched the career of DJ Shadow, among others. George Clinton helped invent the genre of funk with his groups Parliament and Funkadelic. De La Soul, a Long Island hip-hop group, helped set a high bar for sampling artistry with their debut album 3 Feet High and Rising, released in 1989. DJ Qbert, widely recognized as one of the world’s best DJs and a member of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, had to retire from DJ battles because no one could beat him. Miho Hatori was half of the inventive duo Cibo Matto, who artfully integrated samples into live instrumentation in the 1990s with the album Viva! La Woman, among others. MC El-P was one-third of the defunct underground hip-hop group Company Flow; producer MC El-P has since released several solo albums and founded the indie hip-hop label Def Jux. Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid, is a conceptual artist, writer and musician living and working in New York City; his work has appeared in the Whitney Biennial, the Andy Warhol Museum and many other venues. Clyde Stubblefield is perhaps the world’s most sampled drummer; his work with James Brown helped create the blueprint for hip-hop. About the Filmmakers Benjamin Franzen (Director, Editor and Cinematographer)Ben Franzen is an Atlanta-based photographer and video producer. He owns and operates the independent production company Changing Images, which provides expertise in a variety of media, ranging from large format photography to HD video production. Franzen earned a B.F.A. in photography and a B.A. in communication studies production from the University of Iowa. Franzen’s specialty is providing solutions for media needs—from the production of interactive Web videos for the National Library of Medicine’s Diabetes Project to editing the animated television show Squidbillies for Cartoon Network. Clients such as BlackBerry, Home Depot, Oracle and Symantec have hired Franzen’s production company, and his reputation has drawn video commissions from many artists, including jazz artist Bobby Previte. Most recently, Franzen produced a big-budget three-screen HD industrial video for 24-Hour Fitness that involved interviews with sports legends Andre Agassi, Yao Ming and Magic Johnson. Franzen’s personal work has been screened at film festivals, and he has received awards and grants from the Iowa Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Kembrew McLeod (Executive Producer, Researcher and Writer) Kembrew McLeod is an independent documentary filmmaker and an associate professor of communication studies at the University of Iowa. His books and films focus on both popular music and the cultural impact of intellectual property law. His book Freedom of Expression®: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property received a book award from the American Library Association in 2006. His co-authored book with Peter DiCola, Creative License: The Law and Culture of Digital Sampling, and co-edited book with Rudolf Kuenzli, Cutting Across Media: Interventionist Collage, Appropriation Art and Copyright Law, will both be published by Duke University Press in mid-2010. McLeod’s documentary Money for Nothing: Behind the Business of Pop Music was screened at the 2002 South by Southwest Film Festival and the 2002 New England Film and Video Festival, where it received the Rosa Luxemburg Award for Social Consciousness. McLeod’s second documentary, Freedom of Expression®: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property, is a companion to his book of the same name. He is also an occasional music journalist whose pieces have appeared in Rolling Stone, Mojo, Spin, Village Voice and the New Rolling Stone Album Guide. About Independent Lens Independent Lens is an Emmy® Award–winning weekly series airing on PBS. The acclaimed anthology series features documentaries and a limited number of fiction films united by the creative freedom, artistic achievement and unflinching visions of their independent producers. Independent Lens features unforgettable stories about unique individuals, communities and moments in history. Presented by ITVS, the series is supported by interactive companion websites and national publicity and community engagement campaigns. Independent Lens is jointly curated by ITVS and PBS and is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people, with additional funding provided by PBS and the National Endowment for the Arts. The series producer is Lois Vossen. Further information about the series is available at www.pbs.org/independentlens<http://www.pbs.org/independentlens>. ##	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

7:30 PMJoshua Marcus: CD Release of 'This Land' an environmental justice folk recording

7:30 PM - 9:30 PM Local folk hero Joshua Marcus will perform perform the 7 songs on the this land cd as well as play some of the interview clips, and talk about his experiences working on the project. we will then have a small break where folks are invited to ask any questions they like about the project. He'll then play a set of my own songs, from the desk of...fan of friends, reverse the charges and make/believe. Admission is FREE

7:00 PMDirect from Colombia! Champeta singer Louis Towers, with Palenke, brings danceable afro-Colombian rhythms to you

7:00 PM - 10:00 PM Direct from Colombia! Champeta singer Louis Towers, with Palenke, brings danceable afro-Colombian rhythms to UPENN—for a free show at the Rotunda, Oct. 13th at 7pm. Press Release follows: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Direct from Colombia! Champeta singer Louis Towers, with Palenke, brings danceable afro-Colombian rhythms to UPENN—for a free show at The Rotunda, Oct. 13th at 7pm. Philadelphia, PA – September 24th, 2009 “Champeta is a hybrid music” says music writer Craig Havighust, “unique to its home city because of Cartagena’s history as a slave trading capital, a Spanish colonial stronghold, and a port city. Through the 1960s and 70s, guys from many nations worked the freighter traffic between Africa and Caribbean ports of call. Records changed hands and criss-crossed the Gulf and the Atlantic Ocean. Reggae and dub music mingled with Colombian cumbia and Afro-pop and juju. Bob Marley, meet King Sunny Ade.” Artist Louis Towers hails from the storied town of Palenque San Basilio, founded in the sixteenth century by escaped slaves who wrung repeated peace treaties from Spanish troops seeking to re-enslave them. Towers sings in Spanish but also speaks Palenquero, the Afro-Creole language still heard in San Basilio—and what comes across in his upbeat, get-you-moving tracks is Palenque’s message of pride and zest for life. The show is organized by Penn professors Ann Farnsworth-Alvear, Tim Rommen, and Tukufu Zuberi, who will host the show at the Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St, on October 13th. Towers' music is on myspace, http://www.myspace.com/louistowerselrasta, and he has a new video filmed in Palenque that is viewable on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5qKlq4ZoNQ. The organizers thank our co-sponsors at UPENN: Latin American and Latino Studies, the Ethnohistory Program, and the Center for Africana Studies, as well as the Departments of Music and Romance Languages. Additional thanks go out to the Penn Humanties Forum, DuBois College House, and La Casa Latina. The show is free to the public thanks to a grant from the Greater Philadelphia Latin American Studies Consortium. Contact Information: Ann Farnsworth-Alvear or Migdalia Carrasquillo, Latin American and Latino Studies, University of Pennsylvania. lals@sas.upenn.edu, 375 Claudia Cohen Hall, UPENN, Philadelphia, PA 19104. 215-898-9919.

7:00 PMan Exclusive, Advance Screening of COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS

7:00 PM - 9:00 PM FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Sara Zia Ebrahimi ITVS Community Cinema Co-Coordinator phillyitvs@gmail.com 215-901-4549 ITVS and WHYY, in partnership with Get Free Movement, IllVibe Collective and The Media Education Lab at Temple University present an advance screening of: COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS, a new documentary by Benjamin Franzen and Kembrow McLeod, Explores the Creative and Legal Ramifications of Music Sampling in Hip-Hop FREE and open to the public For more information and to RSVP http://www.whyy.org/memberexperience/ or call 215-351-0511. Discussion after the film engages local DJ’s, copyright attorneys and music industry reps. DJ Foxx Boogie spins samples and original mixes As new technologies emerge, enabling everyone to be a music producer, can anyone really own a sound? Philadelphia, PA--Computers, software and even cell phones have radically altered our relationship to mass culture and technology, providing consumers with the tools to become producers, or “remixers,” of their own media. But long before everyday people began posting their video mash-ups on the Web, hip-hop musicians perfected the art of audio montage through a sport they called “sampling.” COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS, examines the creative and commercial value of musical sampling, including the ongoing debates about artistic expression, copyright law and (of course) money. The film will air nationally on the Emmy® Award–winning PBS documentary series Independent Lens during the 2009 fall/winter season. Watch a trailer Download photos Filmmakers, Partners and Panelists are all available for interviews DVD screeners are available upon request. Media are also encouraged to attend. About ITVS Community Cinema in Philadelphia Community Cinema is a groundbreaking public education and civic engagement initiative of the Independent Television Service (ITVS). Presented in partnership with local public television stations and leading community organizations, Community Cinema offers free preview screenings each month from September through May, showcasing selections from the new season of Independent Lens. Operating in more than 50 cities across the country, Community Cinema helps audiences connect with organizations, information and the opportunity to learn, discuss and get involved in today’s critical social issues. In Philadelphia, Community Cinema is co-presented with station partner WHYY and community organizations in and around the Philadelphia area. www.communitycinema.org<http://www.communitycinema.org/> ****************************** ****************************** ***************************************************************************************** More About Copyright Criminals: For more than 30 years, as hip-hop evolved from the urban streets of New York to its current status as a multibillion-dollar industry, hip-hop performers and producers have been reusing portions of previously recorded music in new, otherwise original compositions. But when lawyers and record companies got involved, what was once referred to as a “borrowed melody” became a “copyright infringement.” Through interviews with many of hip-hop music’s founding figures—like Public Enemy, De La Soul and Digital Underground—along with emerging artists such as audiovisual remixers Eclectic Method, COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS illuminates both sides of the debate, from traditional musicians who view sampling as pillaging to those who argue that the practice of borrowing is by no means new nor is it unique to hip-hop or even music: Think of Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s soup cans. “Sampling itself is an embodiment of this active process of engaging with history,” argues hip-hop insider Jeff Chang. COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS also provides an in-depth look at artists who have been sampled, such as renowned drummer Clyde Stubblefield, the world’s most sampled musician, best known for his work with James Brown, as well as commentary by funk legend George Clinton, another highly sampled musician. As COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS reveals, music making “came out of the professional recording studios,” says Coldcut’s Matt Black, “and into the bedrooms. That changed the music industry, and the reverberations are still being felt today.” Computers, mobile phones and other interactive technologies are changing our relationship with media, blurring the line between producer and consumer, and radically changing what it means to be creative. As artists find ever more inventive ways to insert old influences into new material, the documentary asks a critical question: Can anyone really own a sound? On-Screen Participants Public Enemy—represented in this film by vocalist Chuck D, producer Hank Shocklee, and hip-hop activist and journalist Harry Allen (the “Media Assassin”)—is among the most important hip-hop groups that have emerged in the past 30 years. Jeff Chang, author and commentator, wrote the award-winning history of hip-hop culture Can’t Stop Won’t Stop and co-founded the indie record company SoleSides, which launched the career of DJ Shadow, among others. George Clinton helped invent the genre of funk with his groups Parliament and Funkadelic. De La Soul, a Long Island hip-hop group, helped set a high bar for sampling artistry with their debut album 3 Feet High and Rising, released in 1989. DJ Qbert, widely recognized as one of the world’s best DJs and a member of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, had to retire from DJ battles because no one could beat him. Miho Hatori was half of the inventive duo Cibo Matto, who artfully integrated samples into live instrumentation in the 1990s with the album Viva! La Woman, among others. MC El-P was one-third of the defunct underground hip-hop group Company Flow; producer MC El-P has since released several solo albums and founded the indie hip-hop label Def Jux. Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid, is a conceptual artist, writer and musician living and working in New York City; his work has appeared in the Whitney Biennial, the Andy Warhol Museum and many other venues. Clyde Stubblefield is perhaps the world’s most sampled drummer; his work with James Brown helped create the blueprint for hip-hop. About the Filmmakers Benjamin Franzen (Director, Editor and Cinematographer)Ben Franzen is an Atlanta-based photographer and video producer. He owns and operates the independent production company Changing Images, which provides expertise in a variety of media, ranging from large format photography to HD video production. Franzen earned a B.F.A. in photography and a B.A. in communication studies production from the University of Iowa. Franzen’s specialty is providing solutions for media needs—from the production of interactive Web videos for the National Library of Medicine’s Diabetes Project to editing the animated television show Squidbillies for Cartoon Network. Clients such as BlackBerry, Home Depot, Oracle and Symantec have hired Franzen’s production company, and his reputation has drawn video commissions from many artists, including jazz artist Bobby Previte. Most recently, Franzen produced a big-budget three-screen HD industrial video for 24-Hour Fitness that involved interviews with sports legends Andre Agassi, Yao Ming and Magic Johnson. Franzen’s personal work has been screened at film festivals, and he has received awards and grants from the Iowa Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Kembrew McLeod (Executive Producer, Researcher and Writer) Kembrew McLeod is an independent documentary filmmaker and an associate professor of communication studies at the University of Iowa. His books and films focus on both popular music and the cultural impact of intellectual property law. His book Freedom of Expression®: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property received a book award from the American Library Association in 2006. His co-authored book with Peter DiCola, Creative License: The Law and Culture of Digital Sampling, and co-edited book with Rudolf Kuenzli, Cutting Across Media: Interventionist Collage, Appropriation Art and Copyright Law, will both be published by Duke University Press in mid-2010. McLeod’s documentary Money for Nothing: Behind the Business of Pop Music was screened at the 2002 South by Southwest Film Festival and the 2002 New England Film and Video Festival, where it received the Rosa Luxemburg Award for Social Consciousness. McLeod’s second documentary, Freedom of Expression®: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property, is a companion to his book of the same name. He is also an occasional music journalist whose pieces have appeared in Rolling Stone, Mojo, Spin, Village Voice and the New Rolling Stone Album Guide. About Independent Lens Independent Lens is an Emmy® Award–winning weekly series airing on PBS. The acclaimed anthology series features documentaries and a limited number of fiction films united by the creative freedom, artistic achievement and unflinching visions of their independent producers. Independent Lens features unforgettable stories about unique individuals, communities and moments in history. Presented by ITVS, the series is supported by interactive companion websites and national publicity and community engagement campaigns. Independent Lens is jointly curated by ITVS and PBS and is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people, with additional funding provided by PBS and the National Endowment for the Arts. The series producer is Lois Vossen. Further information about the series is available at www.pbs.org/independentlens<http://www.pbs.org/independentlens>. ##

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
27	28	29	30	1	2	3
4	5	6	7 7:30 PMJoshua Marcus: CD Release of 'This Land' an environmental justice folk recording 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM Local folk hero Joshua Marcus will perform perform the 7 songs on the this land cd as well as play some of the interview clips, and talk about his experiences working on the project. we will then have a small break where folks are invited to ask any questions they like about the project. He'll then play a set of my own songs, from the desk of...fan of friends, reverse the charges and make/believe. Admission is FREE	8	9	10
11	12	13 7:00 PMDirect from Colombia! Champeta singer Louis Towers, with Palenke, brings danceable afro-Colombian rhythms to you 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM Direct from Colombia! Champeta singer Louis Towers, with Palenke, brings danceable afro-Colombian rhythms to UPENN—for a free show at the Rotunda, Oct. 13th at 7pm. Press Release follows: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Direct from Colombia! Champeta singer Louis Towers, with Palenke, brings danceable afro-Colombian rhythms to UPENN—for a free show at The Rotunda, Oct. 13th at 7pm. Philadelphia, PA – September 24th, 2009 “Champeta is a hybrid music” says music writer Craig Havighust, “unique to its home city because of Cartagena’s history as a slave trading capital, a Spanish colonial stronghold, and a port city. Through the 1960s and 70s, guys from many nations worked the freighter traffic between Africa and Caribbean ports of call. Records changed hands and criss-crossed the Gulf and the Atlantic Ocean. Reggae and dub music mingled with Colombian cumbia and Afro-pop and juju. Bob Marley, meet King Sunny Ade.” Artist Louis Towers hails from the storied town of Palenque San Basilio, founded in the sixteenth century by escaped slaves who wrung repeated peace treaties from Spanish troops seeking to re-enslave them. Towers sings in Spanish but also speaks Palenquero, the Afro-Creole language still heard in San Basilio—and what comes across in his upbeat, get-you-moving tracks is Palenque’s message of pride and zest for life. The show is organized by Penn professors Ann Farnsworth-Alvear, Tim Rommen, and Tukufu Zuberi, who will host the show at the Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St, on October 13th. Towers' music is on myspace, http://www.myspace.com/louistowerselrasta, and he has a new video filmed in Palenque that is viewable on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5qKlq4ZoNQ. The organizers thank our co-sponsors at UPENN: Latin American and Latino Studies, the Ethnohistory Program, and the Center for Africana Studies, as well as the Departments of Music and Romance Languages. Additional thanks go out to the Penn Humanties Forum, DuBois College House, and La Casa Latina. The show is free to the public thanks to a grant from the Greater Philadelphia Latin American Studies Consortium. Contact Information: Ann Farnsworth-Alvear or Migdalia Carrasquillo, Latin American and Latino Studies, University of Pennsylvania. lals@sas.upenn.edu, 375 Claudia Cohen Hall, UPENN, Philadelphia, PA 19104. 215-898-9919.	14	15	16	17
18	19	20 7:00 PMan Exclusive, Advance Screening of COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Sara Zia Ebrahimi ITVS Community Cinema Co-Coordinator phillyitvs@gmail.com 215-901-4549 ITVS and WHYY, in partnership with Get Free Movement, IllVibe Collective and The Media Education Lab at Temple University present an advance screening of: COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS, a new documentary by Benjamin Franzen and Kembrow McLeod, Explores the Creative and Legal Ramifications of Music Sampling in Hip-Hop FREE and open to the public For more information and to RSVP http://www.whyy.org/memberexperience/ or call 215-351-0511. Discussion after the film engages local DJ’s, copyright attorneys and music industry reps. DJ Foxx Boogie spins samples and original mixes As new technologies emerge, enabling everyone to be a music producer, can anyone really own a sound? Philadelphia, PA--Computers, software and even cell phones have radically altered our relationship to mass culture and technology, providing consumers with the tools to become producers, or “remixers,” of their own media. But long before everyday people began posting their video mash-ups on the Web, hip-hop musicians perfected the art of audio montage through a sport they called “sampling.” COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS, examines the creative and commercial value of musical sampling, including the ongoing debates about artistic expression, copyright law and (of course) money. The film will air nationally on the Emmy® Award–winning PBS documentary series Independent Lens during the 2009 fall/winter season. Watch a trailer Download photos Filmmakers, Partners and Panelists are all available for interviews DVD screeners are available upon request. Media are also encouraged to attend. About ITVS Community Cinema in Philadelphia Community Cinema is a groundbreaking public education and civic engagement initiative of the Independent Television Service (ITVS). Presented in partnership with local public television stations and leading community organizations, Community Cinema offers free preview screenings each month from September through May, showcasing selections from the new season of Independent Lens. Operating in more than 50 cities across the country, Community Cinema helps audiences connect with organizations, information and the opportunity to learn, discuss and get involved in today’s critical social issues. In Philadelphia, Community Cinema is co-presented with station partner WHYY and community organizations in and around the Philadelphia area. www.communitycinema.org<http://www.communitycinema.org/> **************************** ************************** *************************************************************************************** More About Copyright Criminals: For more than 30 years, as hip-hop evolved from the urban streets of New York to its current status as a multibillion-dollar industry, hip-hop performers and producers have been reusing portions of previously recorded music in new, otherwise original compositions. But when lawyers and record companies got involved, what was once referred to as a “borrowed melody” became a “copyright infringement.” Through interviews with many of hip-hop music’s founding figures—like Public Enemy, De La Soul and Digital Underground—along with emerging artists such as audiovisual remixers Eclectic Method, COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS illuminates both sides of the debate, from traditional musicians who view sampling as pillaging to those who argue that the practice of borrowing is by no means new nor is it unique to hip-hop or even music: Think of Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s soup cans. “Sampling itself is an embodiment of this active process of engaging with history,” argues hip-hop insider Jeff Chang. COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS also provides an in-depth look at artists who have been sampled, such as renowned drummer Clyde Stubblefield, the world’s most sampled musician, best known for his work with James Brown, as well as commentary by funk legend George Clinton, another highly sampled musician. As COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS reveals, music making “came out of the professional recording studios,” says Coldcut’s Matt Black, “and into the bedrooms. That changed the music industry, and the reverberations are still being felt today.” Computers, mobile phones and other interactive technologies are changing our relationship with media, blurring the line between producer and consumer, and radically changing what it means to be creative. As artists find ever more inventive ways to insert old influences into new material, the documentary asks a critical question: Can anyone really own a sound? On-Screen Participants Public Enemy—represented in this film by vocalist Chuck D, producer Hank Shocklee, and hip-hop activist and journalist Harry Allen (the “Media Assassin”)—is among the most important hip-hop groups that have emerged in the past 30 years. Jeff Chang, author and commentator, wrote the award-winning history of hip-hop culture Can’t Stop Won’t Stop and co-founded the indie record company SoleSides, which launched the career of DJ Shadow, among others. George Clinton helped invent the genre of funk with his groups Parliament and Funkadelic. De La Soul, a Long Island hip-hop group, helped set a high bar for sampling artistry with their debut album 3 Feet High and Rising, released in 1989. DJ Qbert, widely recognized as one of the world’s best DJs and a member of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, had to retire from DJ battles because no one could beat him. Miho Hatori was half of the inventive duo Cibo Matto, who artfully integrated samples into live instrumentation in the 1990s with the album Viva! La Woman, among others. MC El-P was one-third of the defunct underground hip-hop group Company Flow; producer MC El-P has since released several solo albums and founded the indie hip-hop label Def Jux. Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid, is a conceptual artist, writer and musician living and working in New York City; his work has appeared in the Whitney Biennial, the Andy Warhol Museum and many other venues. Clyde Stubblefield is perhaps the world’s most sampled drummer; his work with James Brown helped create the blueprint for hip-hop. About the Filmmakers Benjamin Franzen (Director, Editor and Cinematographer)Ben Franzen is an Atlanta-based photographer and video producer. He owns and operates the independent production company Changing Images, which provides expertise in a variety of media, ranging from large format photography to HD video production. Franzen earned a B.F.A. in photography and a B.A. in communication studies production from the University of Iowa. Franzen’s specialty is providing solutions for media needs—from the production of interactive Web videos for the National Library of Medicine’s Diabetes Project to editing the animated television show Squidbillies for Cartoon Network. Clients such as BlackBerry, Home Depot, Oracle and Symantec have hired Franzen’s production company, and his reputation has drawn video commissions from many artists, including jazz artist Bobby Previte. Most recently, Franzen produced a big-budget three-screen HD industrial video for 24-Hour Fitness that involved interviews with sports legends Andre Agassi, Yao Ming and Magic Johnson. Franzen’s personal work has been screened at film festivals, and he has received awards and grants from the Iowa Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Kembrew McLeod (Executive Producer, Researcher and Writer) Kembrew McLeod is an independent documentary filmmaker and an associate professor of communication studies at the University of Iowa. His books and films focus on both popular music and the cultural impact of intellectual property law. His book Freedom of Expression®: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property received a book award from the American Library Association in 2006. His co-authored book with Peter DiCola, Creative License: The Law and Culture of Digital Sampling, and co-edited book with Rudolf Kuenzli, Cutting Across Media: Interventionist Collage, Appropriation Art and Copyright Law, will both be published by Duke University Press in mid-2010. McLeod’s documentary Money for Nothing: Behind the Business of Pop Music was screened at the 2002 South by Southwest Film Festival and the 2002 New England Film and Video Festival, where it received the Rosa Luxemburg Award for Social Consciousness. McLeod’s second documentary, Freedom of Expression®: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property, is a companion to his book of the same name. He is also an occasional music journalist whose pieces have appeared in Rolling Stone, Mojo, Spin, Village Voice and the New Rolling Stone Album Guide. About Independent Lens Independent Lens is an Emmy® Award–winning weekly series airing on PBS. The acclaimed anthology series features documentaries and a limited number of fiction films united by the creative freedom, artistic achievement and unflinching visions of their independent producers. Independent Lens features unforgettable stories about unique individuals, communities and moments in history. Presented by ITVS, the series is supported by interactive companion websites and national publicity and community engagement campaigns. Independent Lens is jointly curated by ITVS and PBS and is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people, with additional funding provided by PBS and the National Endowment for the Arts. The series producer is Lois Vossen. Further information about the series is available at www.pbs.org/independentlens<http://www.pbs.org/independentlens>. ##	21	22	23	24
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October 2009