KindleMy film director pal Scott Compton just finished shooting a documentary about singer-songwriter Chuck Prophet. Scott and collaborator John Behrens joined Prophet and his band in Mexico City earlier this year where the group recorded ¡Let Freedom Ring!, an album of "political songs for non political people." My favorite Prophet quote from the trailer: "I walk into the (recording studio's) control room and I could not believe what I saw -- I was looking at a studio that is totally state-of-the-art... for 1957." So with a background of earthquakes, H1N1 hysteria, power outages, sirens, and corrupt police, the band plugged in their instruments and set to work. "The best thing about Prophet as a film subject," Scott told me, "is that even as things fell apart around him, he always was looking for the bright side of the mayhem." I can't wait to watch the whole film, slated for completion by March. I'll see Scott later today when he'll be directing a Boing Boing Video interview I'm doing with Swell Season, aka Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová from the film Once. They're performing tonight at Oakland's Paramount Theatre.
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jonathan levy