38th TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2011 GUEST DIRECTOR CAETANO VELOSO

Brazilian musician to curate special program of films for the four-day Festival

BERKELEY, CA – Telluride Film Festival (September 2-5, 2011), presented by National Film Preserve LTD., is proud to announce its 2011 Guest Director, Caetano Veloso. The beloved artist has been invited to select a series of films to present at the 38th Telluride Film Festival. The Guest Director program is sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Festival directors Tom Luddy, Gary Meyer and Julie Huntsinger annually select one of the world’s great film enthusiasts to join them in the creation of the Festival’s program lineup. The Guest Director serves as a key collaborator in the Festival’s programming decisions, bringing new ideas and overlooked films to Telluride.

Caetano Veloso began his professional music career in 1965 in Sao Paulo and has made more than 30 studio albums to date. Absorbing ideas from sources as diverse as The Beatles, concrete poetry, the French Dadaists and the Brazilian modernist poets of the 1920s, Veloso—together with Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, his sister Maria Bethania, and a number of other poets and intellectuals—founded a movement called Tropicalismo. He experimented with new sounds and words, adding electric guitars to his bands, and utilizing the imagery of modern poetry. Tropicalismo set the tone for Veloso’s career, which continues to incorporate elements of rock, reggae, fado, tango, samba canao, baiao and rap. Veloso’s music is sometimes traditional, sometimes contemporary, often hybrid.

With over 100 film and television credits, Veloso is no stranger to the big and small screen. Veloso followed his 1999 Grammy Award-winning release Livro with a soundtrack for the Carlos Diegues film Orfeu. In spring 2001,Veloso’s Omaggio a Federico e Giulietta—a live recording made in 1997 in Rimini in honor of two masters of Italian cinema, Federico Fellini and Giulietta Masina—was released. In 2002, Veloso received worldwide recognition for his performance of “Cucurrucucú Paloma” (“Cucurrucucu Dove”) in Pedro Almodóvar’s Academy Award-winning film, Talk to Her.

Caetano Veloso’s memoir, Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil, was published by Knopf in 2002, alongside the release of a new 2-CD set, Live in Bahia. Recent albums include Onqotô (2005), Cê (2006), Caetano Veloso e Roberto Carlos – e a música de Tom Jobim (2008) and Zii e Zie (2011). Veloso’s recordings have been released through Nonesuch in America since 1987.

Telluride Film Festival founder and co-director Tom Luddy remarks, “Peter Sellars — Telluride’s 1999 Guest Director who has since become one of our permanent curators — first suggested the idea of Caetano Veloso for a Guest Director position at the festival. I knew from many common friends and from Caetano’s book that he was a passionate film lover. I am thrilled that this great artist will be with us over Labor Day Weekend to present some of his favorite films.”

Past Guest Directors include Michael Ondaatje, Alexander Payne, Salman Rushdie, Peter Bogdanovich, B. Ruby Rich, Phillip Lopate, Errol Morris, Bertrand Tavernier, John Boorman, John Simon, Buck Henry, Laurie Anderson, Stephen Sondheim, G. Cabrera Infante, Peter Sellars, Don DeLillo, J.P. Gorin, Edith Kramer and Slavoj Zizek.

In keeping with Telluride Film Festival tradition, Veloso’s film selections, along with the rest of the Telluride lineup will be kept secret and unveiled on Opening Day, September 2, 2011.

About Telluride Film Festival

The prestigious Telluride Film Festival ranks among the world’s best film festivals and is an annual gathering for film industry insiders, cinema enthusiasts, filmmakers and critics. TFF is considered a major launching ground for the fall season’s most talked-about films. Co-founded in 1974 by Tom Luddy, James Card, and Bill and Stella Pence, Telluride Film Festival, presented in the beautiful mountain town of Telluride, Colorado, is a four-day international educational event celebrating the art of film. Telluride Film Festival’s long-standing commitment is to join filmmakers and film connoisseurs together to experience great cinema. The exciting schedule, kept secret until Opening Day, consists of over two dozen filmmakers presenting their newest works, special Guest Director programs, three major Tributes to guest artists, special events and remarkable treasures from the past. Telluride Film Festival is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit educational program. Festival headquarters are in Berkeley, CA.