Sundance Slates Vote for Change

Robert Redford's Sundance Channel has bought the rights to a documentary, National Anthem: Inside the Vote for Change Concert Tour, which it plans to pair with live coverage of performances from the final concert in Washington, D.C., Oct. 11 for a five-hour special that will air from 6:30 p.m.-11:30 p.m. that night.

The documentary re-teams filmmakers Albert Maysles (Gimme Shelter) and D A Pennebaker (The War Room) for the first time in 40 years.

The tour was organized by the MoveOn Pac and rock and country performers to help defeat President George W. Bush. Performers include Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews Band, James Taylor, Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., John Mellencamp, and the Dixie Chicks, among others.

The concert was going to be in Miami, but was moved to Washington in light of the spate of hurricanes that have threatened the state.

Is the airing of the concert and documentary Sundance's own vote for change? No, said Sundance spokeswoman Sarah Eaton, "it is Sundance's vote for two awesome filmmakers who have documented a lot of musical acts in the history of the country."

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.