Editor

It's got to be one of the coolest Opening Nights of any Festival ever. Just think.....Oscar winning director Martin Scorsese and legendary rock group The Rolling Stones, all making their way up the red carpet at the Marlene-Dietrich Platz to celebrate the screening of SHINE A LIGHT, the opening night gala of the Berlin Film Festival.

SHINE A LIGHT is the first concert film featuring The Rolling Stones in almost 40 years, following in the legendary steps of Jean Luc Godard (SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL, 1968) and documentarian Albert Maysles (GIMME SHELTER, 1970). Scorsese assembled an award-winning camera team to capture the raw energy of the world’s greatest rock ‘n roll band in two concerts at New York's Beacon Theatre on October 29th and November 1st, 2006.

Using sixteen cameras, more than half a million feet of concert footage were shot. The two concerts with special guest performances from Jack White of the White Stripes, Christina Aguilera, and Buddy Guy form the heart of the film. SHINE A LIGHT also features rarely-seen archival footage and current behind the scenes footage and interviews. With this extensive camera coverage and the intimacy of the setting, Scorsese has created an extraordinary musical film event and given audiences unprecedented access to the Rolling Stones both on stage and off.


Scorsese And StonesIt's hard to overestimate the importance of The Rolling Stones in rock & roll history. The group, which formed in London in 1962, distilled so much of the music that had come before it and has exerted a decisive influence on so much that has come after. Only a handful of musicians in any genre achieve that stature, and the Stones stand proudly among them. Scorsese is also no stranger to music documentaries, having directed THE LAST WALTZ in 1979 and the recent NO DIRECTION HOME documentary portrait of Bob Dylan.

Scorsese has assembled an amazing group of cinematographers who took turns on the shoot. Oscar®-winning cinematographer Robert Richardson (The Aviator, JFK) supervised a team which included several highly acclaimed directors of photography: Oscar® winner John Toll (The Last Samurai, Braveheart); Oscar® winner Andrew Lesnie (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong); Oscar® nominee Stuart Dryburgh (The Piano, The Painted Veil), Oscar® nominee Robert Elswit (Magnolia, Good Night and Good Luck); Oscar® nominee Emmanuel Lubezki (Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, Sleepy Hollow); and Ellen Kuras (Summer of Sam, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).

SHINE A LIGHT was produced by Steve Bing's Shangri-La Entertainment and long-time Stones tour promoter Concert Promotions International. The film will be released on April 4th in North America by Paramount Vantage, with an international release over the subsequent weeks in Europe and Asia. But tonight, the Stones rock out Berlin.....an amazing opening to 10 days of movie magic.

Sandy Mandelberger, Berlin FF Dailies Editor on fest21.com

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