ORCHESTRA OF EXILES
85 minutes, documentary, color, 2012

A film by Josh Aronson (Academy Award nominated director of Sound and Fury)

Special Features • Filmmaker Interview • Bonus Shorts: The Power of Music, Music Education: The Legacy of the IPO, Huberman’s Dream & Why Jews Stayed in Europe • 5.1 Audio Option

In the early 1930's Hitler began firing Jewish musicians across Europe. Overcoming extraordinary obstacles, violinist Bronislaw Huberman moved these great musicians to Palestine and formed a symphony that would become the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. With courage, resourcefulness and an entourage of allies including Arturo Toscanini and Albert Einstein, Huberman saved nearly 1000 Jews - and guaranteed the survival of Europe's musical heritage.

Featuring commentary by musical greats including Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta and Joshua Bell, Orchestra of Exiles is a timeless tale of a brilliant young man coming of age, and the suspenseful chronicle of how his efforts impacted
cultural history.

“Engrossing!” - Los Angeles Times

“Illuminates humanity's darkest period from a fresh perspective while delivering the story of an astonishing hero little known in America.” - Huffington Post

“A harrowing, inspiring story.” - Film Journal

“A great, too-little-known piece of history...marvelous footage!” - Christian Science Monitor

“One of the best documentaries I’ve seen in years, with the dramatic energy of a fictional narrative.” - St. Louis Beacon

“It's amazing a Hollywood retelling hasn't happened already.” - New York Daily News

“I defy you to leave with a dry eye.” - The Forward

“Richly researched and partly told by some of today's top-flight musicians, 'Orchestra of Exiles' aspires to a level of primary research that other historical documentaries could take a page from.” - The New York Times

UPC: 7-20229-91535-9 | Catalog #: FRF 915359D | SRP: $27.95 | Street Date: April 14

ERROLL GARNER: NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU READ
53 minutes, documentary, color, 2012

A film by Atticus Brady

In a triumphant career that lasted forty years Erroll Garner pushed the playability of the piano to its limits, developed an international reputation, and made an indelible mark on the jazz world. And yet, his story has never been told. Until now.

Atticus Brady's new film uses an astonishing array of archival materials interwoven with interviews with friends, family, and fellow musicians, and features commentary from Woody Allen; Ahmad Jamal; Tonight Show host Steve Allen; Erroll's sister, Ruth Garner Moore; pianist and arranger Dick Hyman; Columbia Records executive George Avakian; Erroll's bass player Ernest McCarty; Erroll's biographer Jim Doran; jazz journalist John Murph; dancer/choreographer Maurice Hines; and Erroll's daughter Kim Garner, who goes on the record about her father for the first time.

The film explores Erroll's childhood in Pittsburgh; his meteoric rise in popularity while playing on 52nd street, New York's famed jazz epicenter; the origins of his most famous album (Concert By The Sea) and his most famous composition (Misty); his singular, virtuosic piano style; and his dynamic personality, both on and off the stage.

Praise for Erroll Garner:

“Erroll Garner was a giant among jazz pianists. His ability to spontaneously create great musical works at the piano while performing for an audience was legendary. His music is melodic, rhythmic, rhapsodic, and original. As a musician he was one of a kind.” - Billy Taylor, Jazz Pianist & Composer

“Garner is the single most important piano stylist of the past 35 years. He epitomizes all that makes jazz the great music of our age. To put it simply, Erroll Garner is a great musical genius.” - George Wein, Jazz Impresario

“The complete musician is what he was. He could make you cry and make you laugh and make you think. And that's what an artist is supposed to do.” - Ahmad Jamal, Pianist & Composer

“I'll never forget that it was Sarah Vaughan that first introduced me to Erroll's ballads, and that introduction turned into a life-long love affair I've had with this man's music -- a man who has left his indelible mark on the world of music.”
- Johnny Mathis, Singer

“I don't think there is a jazz pianist, young or old, who hasn't been influenced by Erroll Garner.”
- Jimmy Rowles, Jazz Pianist & Composer

“Love was Garner's coin. He pumped out so much of it at the keyboard, so much lavish, surprising, thrillingly clear music -- incendiary, multi-rhythmed one instant, hushed, skating, whimsically conspiratorial the next - that you had to respond in kind. He could be sentimental, but he was never superficial. Right up to his death in 1977, at 53, Garner embraced life in every note he played, conveying titanic joy, epic tenderness.” - Eric Levin, People Magazine

Packaged in a 100% Certified Green Forestry Practices Eco Pack

UPC: 7-20229-91545-8 | Catalog #: FRF FRF 915458D | SRP: $24.95 | Street Date: April 9

THE LAST FLIGHT OF PETR GINZ
67 minutes, documentary, color, 2011

A film by Sandy Dickson & Churchill Roberts

Special Features • Bonus Shorts: Boy Animated, Inside the Artist's World & A World Imagined: The Music of The Last Flight of Petr Ginz

By 14 he had written five novels and penned a diary about the Nazi occupation of Prague. By 16 he had produced 170 drawings and paintings, edited an underground magazine in the Jewish ghetto, written short stories and walked to the gas chamber at Auschwitz.

Filled with intellectual curiosity but prone to mischief, Petr Ginz read voraciously, wrote constantly, built exploding toy cannons to frighten his classmates, and drew and painted a world full of adventure and exotic locations. In his novel, an allegory about Hitler, Petr told the story of a giant robotic creature that is used by the government to terrorize the people. He ends the book with the warning: “Is it not possible that a new monster may appear on the Earth...a monster that will torture mankind in a terrible manner?”

Through Petr’s art and writing, interwoven with fantastical animation, this unconventional film reveals a journey from precocious child to young adult, from gifted artist to prodigy, and of innocence lost. Although Petr’s life ended at Auschwitz, this is not a story of tragedy but rather a testament to how one boy’s wonder and creative expression represent the best of what makes us human.

• Winner! Jerusalem International Film Festival
• Closing Night Film, Atlanta Jewish Film Festival
• Official Selection, Toronto Jewish Film Festival

“This astonishing documentary resurrects the life and work of an Auschwitz victim whose imagination knew few bounds...exhilarating and moving.” - Atlanta Jewish Film Festival

“Deeply affecting. Highlights the best qualities of what it means to be human.” - Sound on Sight

Packaged in a 100% Certified Green Forestry Practices Eco Pack

UPC: 7-20229-91543-4 | Catalog #: FRF 915434D | SRP: $24.95 | Street Date: April 9

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