Keri Latimer Composes for Sundance Film Fest Competitor

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Keri Latimer has been avoiding the Winnipeg weather lately. The award-winning singer/songwriter, who is most often seen with her acclaimed indie roots quartet Nathan, has been spending some time in New York City collaborating on a film score for indie feature The Frozen River.

Latimer hooked up with American filmmaker Courtney Hunt thanks to Carole Vivier at Manitoba Film & Sound. Vivier, MFS' CEO and Film Commissioner, gave Hunt a pile of Manitoba music CDs when she was in Manitoba scouting for possible locations. Hunt contacted Latimer over the summer after hearing Nathan's work.

"She thought the characters in my songs were similar to the characters in her movie," explains Latimer, who was asked to write a song for the movie. She went on to write a few instrumental pieces for different scenes and ended up involved in the film scoring with composers Peter Golub (Wordplay, The Great Debaters) and Shahzad Ismaily. "I feel really lucky to have been involved in the whole process at all," says Latimer. "I learned so much from working with the two other composers."

This isn't the first time Latimer's been heard on the screen. Nathan composed some music for CBC Country Canada story "The Stone House" a few years ago. As well, Nathan's song "Scarecrow" of their latest release Key Principles (Nettwerk 2007) made an appearance in hit NBC drama Heroes last season. This is, though, Latimer's first time scoring a film.

The Frozen River has recently been accepted into the Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival, where it will have its world premier.  One of the most recognizable sections of the Festival, this year’s 16 films were selected from 1,068 submissions. 

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