SAMORA PINDERHUGHES AND CHRIS PATTISHALL’S SOUNDTRACK FOR GOING TO MARS: THE NIKKI GIOVANI PROJECT OUT NOW

FILM’S PREMIERE AT 2023 SUNDANCE FESTIVAL WON GRAND JURY PRIZE FOR DOCUMENTARY, SHORTLISTED FOR ACADEMY AWARDS

SCORE NOMINATED FOR IDA DOCUMENTARY AWARDS AND CINEMA EYE HONORS

CURRENTLY STREAMING ON HBO MAX

June 7, 2024— Samora Pinderhughes and Chris Pattishall today release their original score for Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project—listen/share here and purchase here. The film premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival where it took home the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary, was shortlisted for the Academy Awards, and is currently streaming on HBO Max. The 32-track score, nominated for the IDA Documentary Awards and Cinema Eye Honors, mirrors the innovative structure and broad emotional range of the film with a diverse set of music.

Directed by Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson, the film pushes the boundaries of biographical documentary film to reveal the enduring influence of one of America’s greatest living artists and social commentators, Nikki Giovanni. Combining parallel cinematic story editing with visually innovative treatments of her poetry, along with intimate vérité, rich archival footage, and Giovanni’s own captivating contemporary performances, Going to Mars recounts the story of the artist and her works of resistance through the tumultuous historical periods in which she lived—from the Civil Rights Movement, to the Black Arts Movement, to present-day Black Lives Matter.

Designed to complement the Afro-futurist nature of Giovanni’s poetry and the film itself, the score follows Giovanni’s journey as she reflects on time, memory, family, trauma, and healing. Sweeping vocal and saxophone melodies are followed by trembling drums, otherworldly synths and intimate pianos, all geared towards expressing the complex inner emotional worlds of Giovanni as she reflects on the past and moves through the present. The score also highlights Pinderhughes and Pattishall’s particular methods of fusing improvised samples with through-composed parts.

For more information, please contact Carla Sacks or Krista Williams
at Sacks & Co., 212.741.1000.

TRACK LIST
GOING TO MARS: THE NIKKI GIOVANNI PROJECT
1. Going To Mars I
2. Nikki Rosa
3. Home Garden
4. With The People I
5. Gus
6. Crying Is A Skill
7. Live On Mars
8. Seizures
9. Pullman Porters
10. Going To Mars II
11. Picketing
12. Fisk
13. John Killens
14. Black Judgment
15. April 4, 1968
16. Adulthood
17. Thomas
18. Photoshoot
19. Reverend Cleage
20. Can You Kill
21. With The People II
22. Militant Dreams
23. Apartheid
24. Poetry Is A Trestle
25. The Price
26. Winter
27. Novella
28. Going To Mars III
29. With The People III
30. Going To Mars IV
31. Kai’s Theme
32. Nikki Rosa Reprise (featuring Elena Pinderhughes)