Los Angeles, CA (Top40 Charts/ CineMedia Promotions) Lakeshore Records will release the These Amazing
Shadows - Original Motion Picture
Soundtrack available digitally on May 10, 2011. The album features original music by
Peter Golub (Countdown to Zero, The Great Debaters).
Peter Golub is an innovative voice in independent filmmaking, moving back and forth between documentary and fiction films. Recent scores include: Countdown to Zero, directed by Lucy Walker; Frozen River, directed by Courtney Hunt and nominated for 2 Academy Awards; Kirby Dick's Outrage; Patrick Creadon's I.O.U.S.A. and Wordplay; American Gun (with Forest Whitaker and Marcia Gay Harden); True Adolescents (with Mark Duplass); and the PBS Independent Lens presentation Stolen. He composed music for the acclaimed HBO drama The Laramie Project, directed by Moises Kaufman and The Great Debaters, directed by Denzel Washington, which he co-composed with James Newton Howard.
Golub is also an active composer for the theatre. Recent Broadway credits include Time Stands Still (with Laura Linney and Christina Ricci); Come Back, Little Sheba; and Hedda Gabler. He has written several musicals: Amphigorey, with Edward Gorey; The Idiots Karamazov, with Christopher Durang; and The Player Piano, with Richard Nelson. He has also composed four ballets and numerous concert works. Recent concert pieces include Boxes, Buckets and Bags (for soprano and string quartet) and his Quintet for Oboe, Piano and Strings, both performed in 2011. He received a Doctorate in Composition from the Yale School of music; he studied with Toru Takemitsu, Jacob Druckman and Henry Brant. Since 1999 he has been Director of the Sundance Film Music Program. He has served on the Board of the American Music Center.
What do the films Casablanca, Blazing Saddles and West Side Story have in common? Besides being popular, they have also been deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and listed on The National Film Registry. These Amazing Shadows, an 88-minute documentary, tells the history and importance of the Registry, a roll call of American cinema treasures that reflects the diversity of film, and indeed the American experience itself. The current list of 550 films includes selections from every genre - documentaries, home movies, Hollywood classics, avant-garde, newsreels and silent films. These Amazing Shadows reveals how "American movies tell us so much about ourselves... not just what we did, but what we thought, what we felt, what we aspired to, and the lies we told ourselves."
The film includes interviews with the Librarian of Congress (Dr. James Billington), famous directors (including Christopher Nolan, John Lasseter, Rob Reiner, John Singleton, Amy Heckerling, and John Waters), producers (Gale Anne Hurd and James Schamus), archivists, admired actors (Tim Roth, Debbie Reynolds, Peter Coyote), and members of the National Film Preservation Board. Shot on HD and imparting a warm film look, the documentary explores the cultural impact and historical significance of American films. These Amazing Shadows shows us how American cinema is truly our "family album."
"For These Amazing Shadows," said Golub, "there was a special challenge, as many of the movies featured in the film (To Kill a Mockingbird, The Wizard of Oz, 2001, Back to the Future) have memorable, if not iconic scores of their own." Golub felt his job was both to reference these movies while creating a score that was specific to These Amazing Shadows.
He continued, "While it was tempting to use material from the quoted films' scores, I decided to create my own versions of those scores and in addition write themes specifically for These Amazing Shadows, so that the film would have its own score." Golub used a traditional orchestra, one that was big enough to inhabit the world of these classic films.
IFC Films presents These Amazing Shadows, in limited release in theaters on April 21st and available via Video on Demand on April 13, 2011. These Amazing Shadows - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack on Lakeshore Records will be released digitally on May 10, 2011.
