Washington, D.C.– National education, research and advocacy nonprofit organization Future of Music Coalition is pleased to announce its participation in a series of free community film screenings on issues of importance to musicians and the public.
Throughout the month of September, the Independent Television Service (ITVS) will celebrate the fifth year of its popular Community Cinema program — a monthly national screening series showcasing documentaries on compelling social issues from the Emmy® Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens. Community Cinema connects community-based organizations with independent film enthusiasts, youth and families by providing free screenings, discussions and resources on important social issues in association with public television stations in more than 50 cities around the country.
Future of Music Coalition will participate in select screenings of two important documentaries, D TOUR and COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS.
D TOUR, by Jim Granato, follows Pat Spurgeon, whose promising indie-rock career as a member of the band Rogue Wave suffers an incredible setback when one of his kidneys begins to fail. D TOUR chronicles Pat’s search for a living organ donor and the challenges associated with finding a viable match. Pat’s choice to keep touring and working toward the band’s goals is put to the test; the absolute need to perform dialysis daily and to focus on his health became top priority while being on the road. D TOUR also addresses issues with the health care system, the lack of affordable insurance, and the importance of organ donation.
Spurgeon’s story underscores the challenges that many American musicians face attaining health insurance. Future of Music Coalition began studying this issue early in the decade, and launched its Health Insurance Navigation Tool (HINT) in 2005 to help musicians better understand their health insurance options. HINT doesn’t sell insurance, but instead provides information for working musicians, for free. In addition to musician-friendly articles on the website, HINT offers confidential phone consultations, during which musicians can go over their options on a case-by-case, state-by-state basis with a health insurance expert who is also a musician. FMC staff and affiliates will be on hand at select screenings of D TOUR to discuss the program.
COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS examines the creative and commercial value of musical sampling, including the related debates over artistic expression, copyright law, and money. Produced by University of Iowa professor Kembew McLeod and Benjamin Franzen, this documentary traces the rise of hip-hop from the urban streets of New York to its current status as a multibillion-dollar industry. Sampling, or riffing, is as old as music itself, but as technologies developed in the 1980s and 1990s that made it easier to sample existing sound recordings – and when record label company lawyers got involved – everything changed. Years before people started downloading music off the internet, hip-hop sampling sparked a debate about copyright, creativity and technological change, and the debate still rages today.
FMC has worked closely with McLeod since 2007 examining the legal and social challenges presented by this ever-evolving art form. Creative License, a book which includes interviews with nearly 100 participants in the sampling culture, as well as a thorough economic and legal analysis of the underpinnings of sampling, will be published by Duke University Press in 2010.
Screening dates for COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS
McLeod will also appear at the eighth Future of Music Policy Summit, which takes place at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. on October 4-6, 2009. On Sunday, October 4, COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS will be screened from 5-7 PM; on Monday, October 5, McLeod and Creative License co-author Peter DiCola will join Tony Berman (Founder, Berman Entertainment and Technology Law), and Peter Jaszi (Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Clinic, American University)?for a discussion about their research and possible ways to make the sample license clearance process more efficient.
Future of Music Coalition is a national non-profit education, research and advocacy organization that seeks a bright future for creators and listeners. FMC works towards this goal through continuous interaction with its primary constituency — musicians — and in collaboration with other creator/public interest groups. More