August 05, 2009 11:00AM EDT

Q&A: Soundtrack for a Revolution

[The following originally ran as coverage of the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival.]

“This is a great film!” someone absolutely roared from the back of the SVA Theater moments after directors Dan Sturman and Bill Guttentag took the stage. The Saturday world premiere of their documentary Soundtrack for a Revolution felt like a mini revolution itself—the fired-up crowd was already in a hurry to ensure the doc’s message gets spread to a wider audience. Indeed, the discussion after the film was largely an expression of gratitude to the filmmakers for finding a new and powerful way to tell the story of the 1960s civil rights movement, the countless men and women who fought the good fight, and the rousing freedom songs that fortified them in their struggle.

“I am a part of the ’60s and part of the Birmingham boycott,” one woman in the audience proudly proclaimed. She was revealed to be the mother of the film’s music producer, Corey Smith, who said he wanted to work on Soundtrack to make his mother proud. Another man in the audience said, “My hope is that we can show this film to younger people so they can understand the history from which they came and carry on the torch.”

“What can we do to help get this out?” one person asked. Producer Joslyn Barnes said they were hoping to release the film theatrically, on broadcast television, on DVD, and through outreach efforts with universities and schools. “I urge you people to think big with this film!” someone declared from the crowd. “That was Jonathan Demme everyone,” announced Barnes as we craned our necks.

Continuing the dialogue that the film opens, a woman in the audience warned, “We can’t think that because Obama is in office that we’re done.” When Sturman and Guttentag began working on the film, Obama was barely a blip on the radar, they said. Though they’ve seen the zeitgeist in the country shift with his arrival, they agreed that new generations needed to be educated about the extreme price paid for the rights that they now enjoy. “I hope there will be less apathy and more engagement,” said Sturman, “and I hope this film will be a part of that.”

And the filmmakers are truly putting their money where their mouth is: They announced that all profits from the film will go to support civil rights organizations.

 

---

Watch our behind the scenes TFF 2009 footage with director Dan Sturman and The Roots:

 

 

---

Read more Festival Q&As.

Catch Soundtrack for a Revolution at the IFC Center from August 7 - 13 as part of the 13th Annual DocuWeeks.