On November 12th, PBS documentary Park Avenue: Money, Power & the American Dream, with music by duotone’s Peter Nashel, premiered as part of an installment on PBS’s Independent Lens series called ‘Why Poverty?’, featuring  8 documentaries and 30 online shorts aiming to motivate thought, discussion, and solutions for poverty.

Park Avenue is an adaptation of Michael Gross’ non-fiction bestseller 740 Park by Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney. The documentary is praised for being “concise, factual and fascinating” and that it  ”Takes a stark look at [the] dangerous, growing disconnect between America’s rich and poor” with a juxtaposition of 740 Park Ave, home to the largest number of billionaires in a concentrated area, and the delapidated, poverty-stricken  Park Avenue less than 10 miles north in the South Bronx. The film shows how the rich continue to hold all the cards by using their money for political influence, and their attitude towards those that are not in their privileged echelon.

duotone composer Peter Nashel describes his process for this film: “Working closely with editor Chad Beck, I created an underscore that spoke to the glaring differences and exponential pace at which income inequality is widening in our country. The music throughout was character driven, which made for fun times when writing themes for the fat-cats of Wall Street. Swagger, bravado and nod to the rat pack at times was all included.”

Some names among those “fat cats” to make it onto the chopping block of this film include Sen. Chuck Schumer (with his slew of Wall St. connections), and conservative activist Ed Koch (known by the door men at 740 Park for being the stingiest tipper).

Check out the film that AETN says is “sure to inspire and infuriate” on Hulu now!

“Win Win”, the latest feature film from director Tom McCarthy (“The Station Agent”, “The Visitor”) premiered at Sundance in January. The film, featuring additional music by duotone, showcases Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Bobby Canavalle and Jeffrey Tambor in a touching comedy/drama set in Northern New Jersey. The Hollywood Reporter praises the film, comparing it to “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Napoleon Dynamite”, and particularly singles out McCarthy’s “unerring touch” and remarking on his “rare ability to shape unexpected connections between very real people, guiding them toward gently uplifting outcomes that are neither manipulative nor sentimental… That might make him one of the least cynical filmmakers working in America.”

We’ll be keeping tabs on this Fox Searchlight film as it approaches wider distribution. For the full Hollywood Reporter article, click here.

Two new documentary films with scores from the duotone crew debuted at last week’s Tribeca Film Festival.

First, the as-yet-to-be-titled Eliot Spitzer documentary, scored by Peter Nashel:

This work-in-progress documentary from the Academy Award®-winning director of Taxi to the Dark Side takes an in-depth look at the rapid rise and dramatic fall of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. Nicknamed “the Sheriff of Wall Street” when he was New York’s attorney general, Eliot Spitzer prosecuted crimes by America’s largest financial institutions and some of the most powerful executives in the country.

After his election as governor with the largest margin in the state’s history, many believed Spitzer was on his way to becoming the nation’s first Jewish president.

Then, suddenly, shockingly, Spitzer’s meteoric rise turned into a precipitous fall when the New York Times revealed that Spitzer—the paragon of rectitude—had been caught seeing prostitutes. As his powerful enemies gloated, his supporters questioned the timing of it all: as the sheriff fell, so did the financial markets, in a cataclysm that threatened to unravel the global economy. With unique access to friends, acquaintances, and enemies of the ex-governor (many of whom have come forward for the first time), this film explores the hidden contours of this tale of hubris, sex, and power.

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Second, Freakonomics, with score by Peter Nashel and Pete Miser, premiered in the festival’s coveted closing-night slot on Sunday, April 30 at 8:00p.

Based on the book by journalist Stephen Dubner and economist Steven Levitt, Freakonomics is less about economics than about the strange connections between seemingly disparate topics—for instance, how drug dealing is like working at McDonald’s or why good parenting methods don’t really matter in the long run.

This unique documentary is directed by a number of critically acclaimed filmmakers: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (Jesus Camp), Alex Gibney (My Trip to Al-Qaeda, Untitled Eliot Spitzer Film), Seth Gordon (The King of Kong), Eugene Jarecki (Why We Fight, The Trials of Henry Kissinger), and Morgan Spurlock (Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?, Super Size Me).

Peter Nashel and Pete Miser scored the Eugene Jarecki portion of the film, which has locked-up a distributor in Magnolia Pictures.