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August 1, 2008
 I've
been on an extended summer vacation and thus, the lack
of updates, so it's catch-up time. This weekend will see
the NYC premiere of a new feature-length documentary
narrated by Peter called "Stealing America: Vote By
Vote". Similar to the material previously explored
in HBO's acclaimed "Hacking Democracy", producer and
director Dorothy Fadiman attempts to challenge the
democratic integrity of the United States in the last
two presidential elections. For more than thirty years,
exit polls accurately predicted election results. Over
the last ten years that reliability has disappeared. The
last two Presidential elections both came down to a
relatively small number of votes, and in both elections
the integrity of the voting process has been called into
question. Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter
writes, "Narrated in suitably portentous tones by Peter
Coyote, the film mainly offers the reintroduction of
paper ballots as a solution to the problem because they
are far harder to tamper with than electronic voting
machines in which thousands of ballots can be altered
via the simplest of technical means." Over the next six
weeks, the documentary will have a limited release
through Landmark Theatres in the following cities:
Philadelphia, Denver, Austin, Sante Fe, Washington DC,
Boston, Seattle, Beverley Hills and San Francisco
  After
playing at the Atlantic Film Festival and the Cannes
Film Market, THE LENA BAKER
STORY will be screened during the
Jokara-Micheaux Film Festival, held August 28-31 in
Blackly, Colquitt and Camilla, GA - the area in which
the movie was shot. Director Ralph Wilcox expects the
film to premiere in theaters by the beginning of 2009.
Writers Lela Bond Phillips and Karan Pittman tell
reporters, "We both knew it was a story that had to be
told." They stress that the story isn't just about
racial issues, but rather about universal themes like
abuse, victimization, justice and injustice Wilcox
agrees and admits that directing the movie was a joy.
 Overcoming
prejudices lingering since World War II between Japanese
and Americans is the theme of a new film featuring and
co-produced by Danny Glover. THE HARIMAYA
BRIDGE will also include Peter in its cast. The
film, about to go into postproduction, was shot in
Kochi, southwester Japan and San Francisco. Directed by
Aaron Woolfolk, the film is a drama about a bitter
African-American man, forced to travel to rural Japan
after the tragic death of his only son, in order to
reclaim his son's art. There, he discovers several
secrets his son left behind. "Harimaya-bashi" deals with
themes of prejudice, stereotypes, and the search for
mutual understanding. It also serves as a metaphor for a
bridge between two lands and its significance on a
father making an unwanted journey. The movie scene above
shows lead stars US actor Ben Guillory and Japanese
actress Saki Takaoka. The film is scheduled to be
released next summer in more than 20 markets including
the US, Japan and Korea.
Back
in early July, Peter was a guest speaker at Aspen
Institute's fourth annual Aspen Ideas Festival. It was a
week of intellectual feasting! The festival, hosted in
partnership with The Atlantic, gathers scientists,
artists, politicians, historians, educators and
activists to present and discuss some of the most
important and fascinating ideas of our time.
Participants contribute provocative perspectives from
their fields, and discuss the world with a sophisticated
audience highly motivated to engage in dialogue. Peter
said his intent was to tell the great mean and women of
finance that not all cultures are based on
self-interest. You can watch Peter's contribution
at this link.
Here are a few photos of Peter from the festival - in
the first one, he's standing with Pamela Alexander and
Neo Muyanga, and in the third one, he's chatting with
Brandon Blocker.
Originally
scheduled for a DVD release,
ALL ROADS LEAD HOME
will receive a limited theatrical release in AMC
Theatres beginning September 26th. The initial
release will be in Kansas City, MO, Minneapolis, MN
and Phoenix, AZ, with possible additional cities
thereafter.
 Peter
has endorsed a new book, penned by a California
couple, called "Extraordinary Breath", which
teaches ways to increase good health, prolong life,
connect with the divine, reach levels of estacy and
deepen your understanding of life's deepest
mysteries. He explains, "Cheryl Lynne and Donald
Rubbo are both masters of this ancient tradition as
it is expressed in meditation, Shaolin, and Qigong.
Without fanfare and self-promotion, they have been
teaching, healing, and actively building a community
in Northern California as more and more people have
come to recognize the deep spiritual grounding of
this extraordinary couple. Their book is a
straightforward primer on the fundamentals of the
breath. As profound as it appears simple, it offers
beginners and experienced practitioners a series of
practices to improve their health, sense of joy and
contentment, and their ability to heal the world
around them. I have the deepest respect for both of
them, so it is not surprising that I love and
respect this useful book."
And
speaking of books, Peter is presently working on not
one, but two books! One is to be called
something like "Twelve Things We're Afraid to
Know and Why They're Killing Us." It's described
as a reappraisal of current paradigms so as to see
them without illusion in the hopes that clear vision
miight facilitate amelioration. Chapter titles, such
as It's Not Your Government, We Hate Our Children,
and Medicine is not about Healing, give an idea as
to the book's flavor. The second book (yet
unamed) is the story of an eighteen-year-old black
honor student from Henderson, North Carolina who
virtually raised Peter from the time he was a
toddler until he was twelve. This experience thus
gave his childhood an admixture of black and white
culture. The fact that his personal struggle is
being acted out on the national stage this election
is a current frame for the story.
An article entitled "Writer's Block Moves", appearing in
the June 2008 issue of Writer's Digest, had a funny
quote from Coyote man - "I write at a desk with six
drawers. The top two are catch-alls, crowded with pens,
batteries, business cards, eyeglasses, paper clips, and
other essentials. Cleaning and ordering these drawers
becomes important in inverse proportion to how stuck I
am as a writer. Thankfully, most of the time, they're a
mess."
Last
month Peter wrote an open letter to lead actors
proposing that big name stars who make millions of
dollars for one performance should share their wealth
with established character actors, who have seen their
own earnings roll back. He suggests that SAG should
call on the leading actors to kick back "a modest
amount, say on salaries over $6 million," to rise the
pay of actors they are working with, - if producers act
similarly. Such a move, as he wrote in an open letter to
the lead actors, "would provide the ancillary benefit of
insuring that you consistently play opposite actors of
the highest caliber." He also says, "such a gesture
would buttress your peers who cannot win such gains for
themselves except by sabotaging the entire industry with
a strike," which also prevents lead actors from working.
Read entire letter here.
Update - 06/11/08
Peter
recently attended a sneak preview of WALL*E for
supporters of the San Francisco Film Society at Pixar
Animation Studio. Posing with Peter is his wife, Jim
Morris and Denise Bradley.
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