30th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall!
The in depth story of how rock shook the Soviet Union and helped end the Cold War ... Narrated by Kiefer Sutherland. This trailer is for professional information only and not available for the public.
Interviews and performances include: Presidents Carter, Gorbachev and Vike-Freiberga, NATO Deputy Secretary General Vershbow, KGB General Kalugin, and diplomats, historians and journalists, in addition to Elvis Presley, Beatles, Billy Joel, Metallica, Scorpions, Beach Boys, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and Cyndi Lauper in the WALL in Berlin concert, plus the Iron Curtain rockers they inspired, who braved the long struggle with the Kremlin and KGB.
SHORT SYNOPSIS
FREE TO ROCK is a documentary film directed by 4-time Emmy winning filmmaker Jim Brown and narrated by Kiefer Sutherland. Rock & Roll spread the sound of freedom across the Soviet Union despite Communist attempts to outlaw it. Thousands of underground bands and millions of young fans who yearned for Western freedoms helped fuel the nonviolent implosion of the Soviet regime. Free To Rock features Presidents, diplomats, spies and rock stars from the West and the Soviet Union who reveal how Rock & Roll music was a contributing factor in ending the Cold War.
LONGER SYNOPSIS
FREE TO ROCK is a 60 minute documentary film directed by 4 time Emmy winning filmmaker Jim Brown and narrated by Kiefer Sutherland. Ten years in the making, the film explores the soft power of Rock & Roll to affect social change behind the Iron Curtain between the years 1955 and 1991. The film tells the story of how Rock & Roll contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union and to ending the Cold War. Rock & Roll sounded the “chimes of freedom” in the hearts and minds of Iron Curtain youth, inspiring them to rebel and demand the right to listen, play and record rock music, to enjoy basic human rights and ultimately free themselves from their oppressive communist rule. The story follows the key political, musical and activist players in this real-life drama as the KGB cracked down with arrests, beatings, death threats and imprisonment. Thousands of underground rock bands with millions of passionate supporters inspired and fueled independence movements that eventually caused the Soviet communist system to collapse without bloodshed or civil war.
Interviews and performance subjects include: Presidents Carter, Gorbachev and Vike-Freiberga, NATO Deputy Secretary General Vershbow, KGB General Kalugin, and diplomats, historians and journalists, in addition to Elvis Presley, Beatles, Billy Joel, Metallica, Scorpions, Beach Boys, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and the WALL in Berlin concert, plus the Iron Curtain rockers they inspired, who braved the long struggle with the Kremlin and KGB. The film is produced in collaboration with the Grammy Museum, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Stas Namin Center of Moscow, with financial support from The National Endowment of the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts.