Category: Film Scores

Three weeks ago Nathan Halpern and I finished writing and recording the final few pieces of score for Nanfu Wang & Jialing Zhang’s “One Child Nation,” and last night it won the Grand Jury Prize for US Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. Amazon immediately picked the film up for distribution, which means that many many people will have a chance to see this powerful and heartbreaking film. It is a tremendous honor to be a part of Jialing and Nanfu’s amazing and uncompromising storytelling, and I am thrilled that it will reach a large audience.

The 2019 Sundance film festival starts today and I am very happy to LYK that I have music in two films debuting in competition this year.

Nathan Halpern and I wrote the score to Nanfu Wang & Jialing Zhang’s “One Child Nation,” which examines the forced sterilizations, child abandonment, and state-sponsored kidnappings that underlay China’s one-child policy. This is the third feature that Nathan and I have scored for Nanfu Wang and I continue to be awed by her uncompromising and completely original film making. Truly an honor to be a part of this must-see film.

I also contributed original music to “Tigerland,” the new film by Oscar-winning director Ross Kauffman. “Tigerland” details efforts to save these legendary animals from extinction, introducing us to fascinating and heroic individuals and breathtaking landscapes. 

Late last year Nathan Halpern and I scored this excellent film by director Bing Lui and it is now in theaters and streaming online via Hulu. “Minding The Gap” debuted at Sundance this year, winning the ‘Breakthrough Filmmaking Award,’ and it is an exceptionally bold and honest American coming-of-age story. The critical response has been exceptionally strong, with many critics making special note of our score:

Our original score is available to hear now on Spotify, Apple music, and all the other usual digital platforms.

I am very pleased to announce that two films I’ve recently scored (with Nathan Halpern) are appearing in this year’s HOT DOCS film festival in Toronto.

CALL HER GANDA premiered just last week at the 2018 TRIBECA film festival.  This intense and beautifully shot film was reviewed in The Hollywood Reporter this past week.

MINDING THE GAP premiered at the 2018 SUNDANCE film festival where it won an award in competition.  This film has received numerous strong reviews and we are thrilled to see it appearing now in this fantastic showcase for documentary cinema.

Nathan Halpern and I just recently completed the score to Bing Lui’s debut feature doc MINDING THE GAP, and the reception as Sundance 2018 has been phenomenal;  by the end of the festival the film was enjoying prominence as the best reviewed film of Sundance 2018.

“Less than a week after its sold-out world premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, Minding the Gap by Bing Liu won the US Documentary Competition Jury Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking last night at the fest’s official award ceremonies in Park City.  US Documentary Competition Juror Barbara Chai presented the award, saying:

“We are so exited to celebrate this extraordinary documentary for its vivacity and freshness of spirit, its unexpected revelation of personal detail, and dazzling, un-choreographed sequences that possess the athleticism and grace of ballet.”

The emotional world premiere of Minding the Gap was attended by film subjects Keire Johnson, Zack Mulligan, Kent Abernathy and Mengyue Bolen. Earning an uproarious standing ovation inside the theater, immediate reactions from social media and from critics were very strong…” (SOURCE).

Nanfu Wang’s award-winning 2017 film I AM ANOTHER YOU, with score by Nathan Halpern and myself,  debuted nationally on PBS earlier this week and is now available to stream at PBS.org through February 12.   Nanfu won massive accolades for her debut feature HOOLIGAN SPARROW (also scored by Halpern and myself) and this new work demonstrates that she has immense range in addition to an intense and probing intellect.  As regards the score, I was able to utilize a great deal of very novel and experimental vocal techniques on the project and it is some of my favorite work to date.