Look Again. Jan 19 – 29, 2012 Park City, Utah

Paul Simon’s historic Graceland album sold millions of copies and united cultures, yet divided world opinion on the boundaries of art, politics, and commerce. On the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Graceland’s release, Simon returns to South Africa for a reunion concert that unearths the turbulent birth of the album. Despite its huge success as a popular fusion of American and African musical styles, Graceland spawned intense political crossfire. Simon was accused of breaking the United Nations’ cultural boycott of South Africa, which was designed to end apartheid.

Renowned filmmaker Joe Berlinger brilliantly intertwines both sides of a complex story as Simon revisits old ghosts and gains insights on his own musical journey. With the compelling perceptions of antiapartheid activists and music legends such as Quincy Jones, Harry Belafonte, Paul McCartney, and David Byrne, Under African Skies is both a buoyant chronicle of unparalleled artistic achievement and a profound rumination on the role of the artist in society. - D.C.

Joe Berlinger
berlinger@radicalmedia.com
212 462 1590
435 Hudson St. 6th Flr.
New York, NY 10014
USA
Under African Skies
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Two‐time Emmy and Peabody Award winner Joe Berlinger’s films include the landmark documentaries Brother’s Keeper, which won the documentary Audience Award at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival; the Paradise Lost trilogy that recently led to the release of the West Memphis Three from prison; and Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, a film that redefined the rockumentary genre. Crude, which won 22 human rights, environmental, and film festival awards, recently triggered a high-profile First Amendment battle with oil giant Chevron. This is Berlinger’s fifth film to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.