Jane Goodall Movie "Jane" screening at Hollywood Bowl
Set to a rich orchestral score from world-renowned composer Philip Glass, the one-time-only event on Monday, Oct 9, will feature a live-to-film concert performed by a 54-piece orchestra and include special appearances by Brett Morgen, Philip Glass and the legendary Dr. Jane Goodall herself. I am honored to play at the film premiere of this movie.
Philip Glass -- who has written dozens of operas, ballets, theater music, symphonies, film scores, experimental theater and more -- had extraordinary footage to work with, featuring "characters" that were loving, protective, aggressive, mourning, jealous, nurturing, just like human beings.
Directed by Brett Morgen, who made the music doc Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, Jane chronicles the pioneering and tenacious life of Goodall, who left her home in England in 1960 to live in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania, to study and research the little-known habits and behaviors of the chimpanzee population. Morgen had access to over 100 hours of never-before-seen 16mm footage shot by Dutch wildlife filmmaker -- and Goodall's future husband -- Hugo van Lawick, who died in 2002.
Monday night marked the Los Angeles premiere of the film, held at the Hollywood Bowl, and a star-studded group came out to pay tribute to Goodall's work and share what it has meant to them. Among the premiere's attendees were Angelina Jolie, Judd Apatow, Kate Bosworth, Ty Burrell, Jamie Lee Curtis and Jane Lynch, as well as Goodall herself, now 83. The screening was also open to the general public, which sold out the venue with almost 18,000 attendees.
I can not explain how powerful and moving it was to speak with Dr. Goodall after our concert at the Hollywood Bowl. I told her what a presence she was during my youth and how fascinated I was with chimpanzees and how she opened up human's perception of them. My mother taught me all about her life's work (which Dr. Goodall is still doing today at 83 years young). She shared with me how I should raise my son Henry and open his world up to conservation, the environment, climate change and our planet. She inscribed to him in the first book she ever wrote in 1961 and then wrote notes on the back of the book of things that I should teach Henry. She is such a Light! I love her.