Apple TV+ Non-Fiction Panel

Composers
T. GRIFFIN
(BOYS STATE)
ADAM SKINNER & DAN SKINNER
(THE YEAR EARTH CHANGED)
BENJAMIN WALLFISCH & CHRIS EGAN
(TINY WORLD)
CHRISTIAN LUNDBERG
(EARTH AT NIGHT IN COLOR)
DUNCAN THUM
(BECOMING YOU)
CRAIG RICHEY
(DEAR…)

MODERATED BY ALEX COHEN (Spectrum News 1)

Screening Link available upon Registration

YouTube Live Stream Q&A :
THURSDAY, MAY 13, 5:00PM PT

Boys State (T. Griffin)

The sensational winner of the Grand Jury Prize for a documentary at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Boys State is a wildly entertaining and continually revealing immersion into a week-long annual program in which a thousand Texas high school seniors gather for an elaborate mock exercise: building their own state government. Filmmakers Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine closely track the escalating tensions that arise within a particularly riveting gubernatorial race, training their cameras on unforgettable teenagers like Ben, a Reagan-loving arch-conservative who brims with confidence despite personal setbacks, and Steven, a progressive-minded child of Mexican immigrants who stands by his convictions amidst the sea of red. In the process, they have created a complex portrait of contemporary American masculinity, as well as a microcosm of our often dispiriting national political divisions that nevertheless manage to plant seeds of hope. PG-13 | 200min

The Year Earth Changed (Adam Skinner & Dan Skinner)

Showcasing footage from around the world after an unprecedented year, The Year Earth Changed is a timely documentary special that takes a fresh new approach to the global lockdown and the uplifting stories that have come out of it. From hearing birdsong in deserted cities and seeing whales in Glacier Bay, to meeting capybara in suburbs across South America, people worldwide have had the chance to engage with nature like never before. In this documentary special, viewers will witness how the smallest changes in human behavior – reducing cruise ship traffic, closing beaches a few days a year, identifying more harmonious ways for humans and wildlife to coexist – can have a profound impact on nature. The documentary, narrated by David Attenborough, is a love letter to planet Earth, highlighting the ways nature’s resiliency and ability to bounce back can give us hope for the future. TV-PG | 50min

Tiny World (Benjamin Wallfisch & Chris Egan)

Narrated by Paul Rudd, this docuseries showcases nature’s lesser-known tiny heroes. Spotlighting small creatures and the extraordinary things they do to survive, each episode is filled with surprising stories and spectacular cinematography. TV-G | 30min

Earth at Night in Color (Christian Lundberg)

Narrated by Tom Hiddleston and filmed across six continents, this docuseries uses cutting-edge camera technology to capture animals’ nocturnal lives, revealing new behaviors filmed in full color like never before. TV-PG | 30min

Becoming You (Duncan Thum)

Olivia Colman narrates Becoming You, a global series about child development that explores how the first 2,000 days on Earth shape the rest of our lives. Told through the eyes of over 100 children across the world, from Nepal to Japan and Borneo, each episode offers a thought-provoking look at how children learn to think, speak and move, from birth to age 5. It underscores how different our journeys can be, but ultimately tells the story of our shared humanity and community when it comes to raising children. This series is produced by Wall to Wall Media and is executive produced by Leanne Klein and Hamo Forsyth. TV-G | 40min

Dear… (Craig Richey)

Inspired by Apple’s groundbreaking Dear Apple spots, Dear… takes an inventive and cinematic approach to biographies of the most iconic figures in society today by using letters written by those whose lives have been changed through their work. Each episode profiles internationally recognized leaders including Oprah Winfrey, Gloria Steinem, Spike Lee, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Yara Shahidi, Stevie Wonder, Aly Raisman, Misty Copeland, Big Bird, and more. Dear… is executive produced by R.J. Cutler alongside Todd Lubin, Jay Peterson, Jane Cha, and Lyle Gamm. TV-MA | 30min

T. Griffin has created evocative, atmospheric music for over 50 feature-length films, and dozens of live and multimedia projects. Notable titles include 2020 Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winner Boys State, the Academy-Award nominated Life, Animated, and multiple festival award winners Quest, The Overnighters, and Welcome to Leith. Griffin created scores for several documentary series, including Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s Love Fraud for Showtime, Jesse Moss’ The Family for Netflix, and Unnatural Selection, also for Netflix. He has composed and performed live film/music events with filmmakers including Sam Green, Jem Cohen, and the Warhol Factory films of the late Danny Williams. These shows have toured internationally and been presented by The Barbican, BAM Next Wave, The Walker Art Center, The Melt Down Festival, Big Ears Festival, and dozens of other festivals and museums. Besides his work as a film composer and solo artist, he has worked as a collaborator with luminaries of the independent music world including Patti Smith, Vic Chesnutt, The Kronos Quartet, Tim Hecker, Mary Margaret O’Hara, and members of The Ex, Dirty Three, Fugazi and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Griffin’s score for Jill Magid’s art-world docu-thriller, The Proposal, will be released in a deluxe vinyl package by Constellation Records in June of 2021. He was a fellow at the Sundance Composers’ Lab in 2008 and has twice been nominated for Cinema Eye Honors for Original Music Score. He is based in Brooklyn, New York. 

Adam and Dan Skinner are graduates of Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) and highly accomplished multi-instrumentalists in their own right. The brothers have provided music for some of the biggest brands in the world; original programming that has been broadcast on many of the world’s top TV channels and a wide range of successful feature-length and short films. Much of Adam & Dan’s music features live playing from London’s finest musicians such as the English Session Orchestra, RSVP Choir, and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, examples of which can be heard on their recently composed scores including the BBC 1 Documentary series Life Savers (Twenty Twenty), Britain’s Whale Hunters for BBC 2 (KEO Films), multiple episodes of CNBC Primetime shows American Greed and Crime INC in the US, feature film Born of War (Jewson Films) short films Found (BBC/EBU/Feel Good Fiction) Darren H. Christ (Elazayan/Blurred Films), and Grandad’s Visit (Luckycoin Films).

Benjamin Wallfisch has composed Andy Muschietti’s It and It  Chapter 2, David F. Sandberg’s Shazam!, Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man, and co-composed Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner: 2049 (with Hans Zimmer). Benjamin Wallfisch has worked on over 75 feature films and received Golden Globe, BAFTA, GRAMMY, and EMMY nominations for his work. He recently completed scoring Simon McQuoid’s Mortal Kombat for New Line/Warner Bros and was recently nominated as ‘Film Composer of the Year’ in the World Soundtrack Awards for the second consecutive year. To date, the movies he has scored have made over $2.5 billion in worldwide box office receipts, and in 2019 Variety inducted him into their ‘Billion Dollar Composer’ series in recognition of this. Other projects include Hidden Figures, Annabelle: Creation, Lights Out, A Cure for Wellness, Auschwitz, King of Thieves, Serenity, and Hostile Planet. 

Chris Egan is a composer, orchestrator, arranger, and musical director who started playing piano at four and could read music before he could read words. Right out of school, he performed as a session musician for orchestras and West End shows. His work includes films Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Napoleon as well as TV shows Man Down and Upstairs Downstairs. Chris has acted as musical director for Elaine Page, Lionel Richie, and Shirley Bassey. Additionally, he contributed musical direction and orchestration for musical theatre productions including The Witches of Eastwick, Grease, Footloose, The Bodyguard, and The Last Horseman. His music lives in the world of the orchestral and the musical, both worlds that he’s intimately familiar with. 

Swedish-born Christian Lundberg thrives in a world of analog synths and devices. As a gearhead in the form of a composer and a multi-instrumentalist, he is determined to unveil the machinations of composition concentrated on the fundamental components no matter the size or sound. In 2019 he co-wrote the music with Hans Zimmer for the critically acclaimed BBC World Service series 13 Minutes To The Moon which earned them 2 Webby awards. As a part of Bleeding Fingers Music in Santa Monica Ca, he has composed the score to countless projects including the groundbreaking new AppleTV+ series Earth At Night In Color, the hit crime comedy series Snatch (Crackle), Live PD (A&E), and the VR experience Eleven Eleven (NBC Universal / Syfy)

Duncan Thum is a two-time Emmy nominated composer and multi-instrumentalist based in Los Angeles, California. A host of sonic explorations lead Duncan from co-forming LA’s DIY music scene fixture Pizza! to performance at the Disney Hall with Glenn Branca’s Hallucination City: Symphony for 100 Guitars. Duncan’s muse crystallized in writing music for film, where story and image provide a poignant context for his eclectic background. Notable credits include Netflix’s original documentary series Chef’s Table and Street Food as well as features Off The Rails, DEALT, and I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead. In addition to his long-form work, Duncan has garnered critical acclaim for his collaborations with VICE Media and other distinguished advertising agencies. Duncan is a graduate of USC’s esteemed SMPTV film scoring program. 

Hailed by Film Music Magazine for his ‘effortlessly gliding melodies’, Craig Richey is a Sundance Fellow, an alum of the Composers Lab, and has returned as an Advisor in the Sundance Film Music and Sound Design Lab at Skywalker Sound. He has scored over 30 feature films working with notable directors including Nicole Holofcener, RJ Cutler, Jeremy Leven, Seth Gordon, and Miranda Bailey. Craig is the composer of the Apple TV+ series Dear… and is currently working on Season 2. Documentary feature film titles include RJ Cutler’s The World According To Dick Cheney and The September Issue, The King Of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie, The Pathological Optimist, and Greenlit.

*** IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ ***

FREE for current SCL members (click HERE to check membership status).

Attendees will be emailed a Screening Link upon Registration and a Q&A YouTube Live Stream link on Thursday, May 13, 10 minutes before Q&A start.

Attendees can ask questions on YouTube chat, and the SCL Host will pass them on to the Moderator. The SCL Member Code of Conduct applies to online Q&As.

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