I KNOW I'M NOT ALONE : MICHAEL FRANTI (87 mins)
Director-Michael FrantiUSA 2005
English language
Michael Franti (Spearhead) world-renowned musician and human rights worker, travels to Iraq, Palestine and Israel to explore the human cost of war with a group of friends, some video cameras and his guitar. Out of this journey, Franti, has created a compelling documentary film titled I Know I'm Not Alone and a searing, reflective new album of original songs titled Yell Fire! A compelling soundtrack, visual and musical montages and Franti's intimate voiceovers make the film speak to the MTV, X, Y & Z generations, as well as the baby-boomers - you feel the humanity, artistic resilience and sometimes horrific experience of what it's like to live under the bombs and military occupation. With its guerrilla style footage captured in active war zones, the documentary is unlike the many academic and politically driven pieces in the marketplace, instead offering the audience a sense of intimate travel and the opportunity to hear the voices of everyday people living, creating and surviving under the harsh conditions of war and occupation. Ironically, Franti's journey to the war-ravaged Middle East inspired his most uplifting set of songs to date. He explains, "The thing that I found when I was in war zones was that nobody wants to hear songs about war. They want to hear songs about connection to people, and songs about love and life, songs that make them dance." Franti has always spoken his mind through his music: from his early punk rock band Beatnigs, to the industrial-noise of Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, to the conscious and soulful hip-hop of Spearhead. While seeing Yell Fire! to completion back in San Francisco, Franti began editing the hundreds of hours of footage from his travels in the Middle East. What emerged was an intimate telling of how war affects the individual: the cab driver, the soldier, the aspiring young musician. It was during this process that the film and album became inextricably linked. Franti recalls "My editing studio for the movie was upstairs and my recording studio was downstairs, so I would constantly alternate from one project to another. The process was like a catharsis for me, moving through this journey I had made."
http://www.iknowimnotalone.com
8 .Dec.2006 BITTERZOET screening room (22h), together with REDNOSE IN CUBA, SOY CUBA and followed by Resfest dance party in Club with REDNOSE DISTRIKT and special guests.