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WINTER 2010
NEWSLETTER

August 24, 2011

The poster for the French telefilm, VALPARAISO, has been released for the upcoming Festival de la Fiction TV next month. The political thriller, shot in Luxembourg in late 2010, is Jean-Christopher Delpias' first feature-length film. Peter takes on the role of the story's villain, Edward G. Drexler. Balthazar Paredes is the director of an oil company and has a good (but unobtrusive) relationship with his daughter Emma, who represents the Greens in the European Union. Their public and private worlds collide when a oil freighter causes an ecological disaster on the French coast, and Emma is responsible for investigating the incident. Eventually Balthazar realizes that the chief executive of Oil & Co has been involved in dumping nuclear wastes at sea and decides to blow the whistle on these criminal practices.

July 30, 2011

On August 6th, Peter will be supporting local theatre by attending a special showing of "Peaches en Regalia", sponsored by Wily West Productions. The 5 p.m. San Francisco benefit will include a reception at the Nieto Art Gallery next door to the theatre. Feast on hors d'oeuvres and sip beverages of your choice while socializing with Peter, the cast, crew, producer, director and playwright! "Peaches en Regalia" is based upon the widely produced, critically acclaimed one act of the same name, which the San Diego Union praised as "cleverly constructed, this hip little tale is great fun!" Benefit tickets are priced $40-$100 and can be purchased at this link.

July 5, 2011

Another film has just been added to Peter's ever-growing list of narrations. If you're into alternative medicine, you might be interested in the Wayne Chesler's documentary "Cut Poison Burn", which accuses the U.S. medical establishment of suppressing access to certain cancer therapies in favor of high-cost ones. The 92-minute film focuses on Tucson family Jim and Donna Navarro and their four-year-old son, who was diagnosed with brain cancer in 1999. Rather than accepting conventional methods of treating cancer, the family sought out Poland-born Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski's treatment. Their own doctor, however, soon filed charges against them with Child Protecttive Services for abuse and neglect, citing legal stipulations that alternative therapies, often deemed as quackery, only be sought in tandem with or after conventional ones. The film premiered last October at the Mill Valley Film Festival and was screened last week in NYC.

The Maya Indie Film Series (MIFS) will launch its third annual seven-city tour in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago on July 29, followed by San Antonio and San Diego on August 5, Dallas on August 12, Miami beginning September 9 and San Francisco on September 16. The series, which runs for seven days in each market, will bring seven critically acclaimed, Latino-themed films to these top U.S. markets. Among the films to be screened is DI DI HOLLYWOOD, which Peter stars in with Elsa Pataky. Directed by Bigas Lunas, the film was shot in Ciudad de la Luz studios in Alicante, Spain, in the fall of 2009.

June 22, 2011

I have just added two excellent Fora.tv links to videos that feature Peter at book readings followed by a Q&A session. Both were San Francisco events that took place at the Booksmith and Book Passage in 2008. They're about an hour each. Enjoy!

http://fora.tv/2009/08/20/Sleeping_Where_I_Fall_The_Chronicles_of_Peter_Coyote
http://fora.tv/2008/12/10/Peter_Coyote_Emmett_Grogan_and_the_Diggers

Tim McLarty, founder of Ontrack Communications and "branding" expert pays homage to Peter, who lends his unmistakable pipes to the new Apple iPad II new "Now TV ad. He writes, "His voice is distinctive and truly in a class of its' own when it comes to imaging a brand. His conviction of tone comes naturally, having been politically active for the democratic party as far back as Adelaide Stevenson. Beginning in the early '80s, Peter began doing voice-overs, which led to a very successful side venture, now numbering over 120 films. His mellow voice, often compared to Henry Fonda's, won him an Emmy in 1992 for his narration of the 'The Meiji Revolution' episode, part of the PBS American Experience ten-part series called 'The Pacific Century.' He continues to lend his rich voice to narrations for commercials and documentaries and often donates his voice to films that support issues close to his heart."

June 17, 2011

This month THE GUNDOWN will be released on DVD and BluRay in Australia and on June 21 in Scandinavia where Scanbox Entertainment will change the name to "True Gun". The film will also be released in Germany, Brazil and the UK later this year. "We're thrilled with the response this film has been getting and are excited to see it coming out around the world," commented Dustin Rikert, the film's director and producer. "Our goal was always to make a gritty little film that paid homage to the spaghetti westerns."

6/23 Update: Amazon.com has just announced a pre-order of the US edition of this DVD coming out on September 13th. You'll note that the cover format has been changed from the original poster.

I just came across some photos taken in early May. SFJAZZ, one of the largest nonprofit presenters of jazz and world music in the US, broke ground on May 6th on its new center and hosted a gala event that evening at San Francisco's legendary Bimbo's 365 Club. Comic Dave Chappelle, vocalist Mary Stallings, the SFJAZZ Collective, Latin jazz keyboardist Rebeca Mauleon and the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars provided the entertainment. Attending the party were stars from the world of jazz, film literature and politics. The first photo shows Peter with his wife Stefanie, the second with Delroy Lindo, the third with Terrence Howard and the fourth with Mayor Willie Brown, Alice Huffman and Dan Daniels, Sr.

Peter's next film project will be LOVE LETTERS IN THE SAND, written by Barbara Grace English and directed by Douglas Raine. The cast includes Cuba Gooding, Jr., Kristy Swanson, Johnathon Schaech, Niki Saletta, Carlucci Weyant, Peter Twink Capland, Amy Dadamo and Peter in the role of Bennet Parker. Gooding will play Norman Baxter, a homeless alcoholic who lived for thirty years in the woods until he was court ordered to New Start Rehabilitaion Center. Deanna Gray, played by Swanson, develops a special bond with him and through great adversity, arranges for him to stay in the church she attends. Based on a true story, this movie offers hope no matter how bad one's life is. Filming begins July 5th in Georgia.

This Sunday filmmakers Paul Mariano and Kurt Norton will present their film, "These Amazing Shadows" at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael with a special added guest appearance by Peter. The 88-minute documentary tells the history and importance of the National Film Registry, a roll call of American cinema treasures that reflects the diversity of both film, and the American experience itself. The film includes on-camera testimony from several filmmakers including Peter, Christopher Nolan, Rob Reiner, Debbie Reynolds, Tim Roth, and many others. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with Peter participating along with the filmmakers.

On June 20th, Peter, Geoff Hoyle and Margo Hall will head the cast in a staged reading of Alice Childress' landmark 1955 play, "Trouble in Mind" at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre in San Francisco. Childress was the first African-American woman to have a play produced professionally on Broadway, and "Trouble in Mind" endures as an important exploration of midcentury race relations, framed as a behind-the-scenes look at an integrated theater company. This staged reading is part of PROJECT1VOICE, a national grassroots movement designed to cultivate artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation among African-American theatre organizations, along with preserving their legacies and those of African-American playwrights.

Ken Burns' "Prohibition", will be kicking off the PBS fall season. The six-hour series will begin on October 2 with three two-hour segments running on consecutive nights. Peter narrates the documentary about the early 20th century ban on liquor, with Wynton Marsalis providing music and Tom Hanks, Jeremy Irons, Paul Giamatti, Oliver Platt, John Lithgow, Samuel L. Jackson, Patricia Clarkson, Adam Arkin, Sam Waterston and Josh Lucas contributing voices. Set in the era of bathtub gin, bootleggers and speakeasies, the series tells the true story of the rise, rule and fall of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It was called the Noble Experiment, but it was in fact one of America’s most notorious civic failures, an object lesson in the challenge of legislating human behavior.