Kartemquin moves ahead with Bill T. Jones Documentary

Ravinia and Kartemquin announced today that plans for a film documenting Bill T. Jones and company creating a piece on Abraham Lincoln are moving ahead. From the press release:

“Bicentennial celebrations by their very definition are about a single moment in time, but any artistic celebration of the great Abraham Lincoln requires something truly timeless. That’s why we sought out Bill T. Jones,” Welz Kauffman, president and CEO of Ravinia Festival, said. “And that’s why we’ve given full access to Kartemquin so that this unique moment is preserved for all time, not just in terms of a celebration of a bygone legend, but also as an exploration of a genius at work.” Kartemquin will create the film in conjunction with Media Process Group (MPG) of Chicago. Quinn will co-direct with MPG founder Bob Hercules (Forgiving Dr. Mengele). Joanna Rudnick (In the Family) will produce and Keith Walker (Senator Obama Goes to Africa) will shoot the film. Kauffman approached Jones, described by the New York Times as the dance world’s “political lion,” with the concept of creating a full-evening dance work inspired by Abraham Lincoln to be the centerpiece of Ravinia’s 2009 celebration of the Lincoln bicentennial. Tentatively titled A Good Man/A Good Man?, the work will receive its world premiere on Sept. 17, 2009, bookending a Lincoln celebration that begins in June with a jazz commission from Ramsey Lewis. Filming began with Jones’s initial visit to Springfield, IL, where the documentarians captured the Tony winner (Spring Awakening) emotionally interacting with artifacts (such as an iconic stovepipe hat) at the Lincoln Library and Museum, the Lincoln Tomb and his former home. “Bicentennial celebrations by their very definition are about a single moment in time, but any artistic celebration of the great Abraham Lincoln requires something truly timeless. That’s why we sought out Bill T. Jones,” Kauffman said. “And that’s why we’ve given full access to Kartemquin so that this unique moment is preserved for all time, not just in terms of a celebration of a bygone legend, but also as an exploration of a genius at work.” Jones said, “I live with the uneasy feeling that society has shaped me as a result of something that was stolen from us when Abraham Lincoln was killed. The cynicism and alienation that I have to cope with in my own head and heart arose as a result of a climate built systematically by such a strange turn of destiny as his assassination. Libraries are full of scholarly texts dedicated to the legacy of this singularly American man. I want to create a dance theater work that investigates a handful of key moments from his remarkable life and subject them to a process whereby song and memory deliver us beyond the boundaries of space and time.”