Recently I was visited at my house in Mexico by a film crew from a PBS show called ‘Crossing South.’

WATCH IT HERE!

Gavin Hood’s third film in his political trilogy, Official Secrets, tells the story of British GCHQ intelligence operator Kathryn Gunn (Keira Knightly) who was the whistle blower who leaked an NSA request to GCHQ to essentially spy on six UN member states in order to obtain possibly compromising info with the intent to blackmail them into voting for the UN resolution to approve of the Iraq invasion of 2003. Also starring Ralph Fiennes and Matt Smith, it will be released in August of 2019. Composed together with Paul Hepker, this score attempts what the first two offerings in this ‘trilogy’ do (Rendition and Eye In The Sky) which is to find the humanity in these large geo-political events that shape our lives.

Replicas, Mark Kilian’s second movie (and third project) with Traitor director Jeffrey Nachmanoff is a quirky, dark, light, sinister, innocent tale about a scientist (Keaun Reeves) who’s research has led him to develop technology to recreate living beings from DNA scans. He is compelled to try this technology when his family all die in a terrible car accident. Collaborating with Puerto Rican composer, Pepe Ojeda, Kilian scored this with a full string orchestra in Puerto Rico, the first such film recording that had taken place there in decades, shortly before the devastating hurricane that hit the island.

Dolores, Peter Bratt’s documentary about 89 year old legend Dolores Huerta was the brainchild of guitarist Carlos Santana. Huerta’s story is the story of political activism in the US going back to the 1950’s. She started the United Farmworkers Union along with Cesar Chavez and has been at the forefront of political activism ever since. This Peabody award winning doc was scored with orchestra, Bajo Quinto, Charango and Ronroco, indigenous Violin recorded all the way up in the mountains of Oaxaca, and some African Vocals. This is Kilian’s second collaboration with filmmakers Peter and Benjamin Bratt, the first being La Mission.

Starring Orlando Bloom, this tongue in cheek heist movie The Shanghai Job was shot entirely in China and tells the story of an expat who plans a daring heist to protect ancient Chinese artifacts from falling into the wrong hands. The score was recorded between Ensenada in Mexico, Los Angeles, Budapest and Shanghai.

Blood Brother, a WWE and Codeblack co-production and John Pogue directed film follows the release from prison of one of a gang of 4 after many years behind bars. The others didn’t go to jail even though they were at the scene of the crime, leaving Jake who did serve time, a tad upset. He plans his revenge. Starring R&B mega star Trey Songz and Rap star Fetty Wap, this music inspired story was a joy to score being able to join and combine elements from both the contemporary urban world as well as the more traditional scoring world.