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April 5, 2013

As mentioned in the last update, Peter was feted in absentia at the American Film Festival. He received the "Making a Difference, One Film at a Time" award for his contributions to documentary film. Festival director Teddy Grouya said, "Peter, of course, thought it was a unique award and was extremely flattered, especially that we are acknowledging him specifically within this genre. In this genre, Peter Coyote tops them all!" Check out this link to see a video of Peter accepting the award.

March 21, 2013

The 2013 American Documentary Film Festival in Palm Springs will be honoring Peter with their "Making a Difference, One Film at a Time" award. Having narrated more than 170 documentaries over his career, he has earned a special place in filmmaking. His most recent documentaries include Ken Burns’ “The Dust Bowl”, which aired on PBS in November, and “1962 U.S. Open: Jack’s First Major”, which aired last summer.The award will be announced at this year's Opening Night but, unfortunately, scheduling conflicts prevent him from attending in person. Peter previously won a news and documentary Emmy in 1992 for his narration of the PBS series "Pacific Century".

Last year Peter joined the filmmaking team as narrator for Rick Beyer's documentary "The Ghost Army". The film made its world premiere earlier this month during the Opening Night of the 6th Annual Salem Film Festival in Massachusetts. The 68-minute documentary chronicles the astonishing true story of the 23rd HQ Special Troops during World War II. A handpicked group of American GI’s undertook a bizarre mission: create a traveling road show of deception on the battlefields of Europe, with the German Army as their audience. They were officially known as the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, but became known as The Ghost Army. From June 1944 to March 1945, the unit of artists and soldiers staged 20 battlefield deceptions, beginning in Normandy and ending along the Rhine River. The deceivers used inflatable rubber tanks, sound trucks, and dazzling performance art to bluff the enemy again and again, often right along the front line. In their spare time, they painted and sketched their way across Europe, creating a unique and moving visual record of their war, one that would be kept secret for 50 years. The film will be shown on PBS on May 21, 2013.

Besides being an actor, writer and film narrator, Peter is also a countercultural visionary whose ordination as a Zen Buddhist priest has led him to an examination of the limits of human intelligence. Though our applied intelligence has resulted in incredible innovations (tools, technology, science), Peter is concerned with the unintended consequences of advancement: violence, war and destruction. He will be discussing the power of intelligence to address social ills on May 21st at the Lafayette Library in Lafayette, CA.

March 5, 2013

Shout Factory has officially announced and detailed its upcoming Blu-ray release of director William Dear's "Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann" (1982), starring Fred Ward, Belinda Bauer, and Peter Coyote. The release will be available for purchase online and in stores across the nation on March 19th. Lyle Swann (Fred Ward) is a champion off-road racer who accidentally gets zapped into a time-travel experiment and sent 100 years into the past. Later he runs afoul of American outlaws Porter Reese (Peter Coyote) and his henchmen, Carl (Tracey Walter) and Claude (Richard Mauser), who steal his motorcycle. Swann must outsmart the local cowboys and submit to the desires of a beautiful outlaw woman (Belinda Bauer). Armed with only his wits and a map from an Exxon station, Lyle Swann must survive the Wild West and get back to his future.

February 23, 2013

On February 20th, Peter and his wife attended the SF screening of "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel". Captured through the lens of her granddaughter in-law, Lisa Immortado Vreeland, the film chronicles Diana Vreeland’s fantastical life, which revolved around fashion, big ideas and unbridled imagination.The screening, hosted by Mark Rhoades and sponsored by Banana Republic, brought A-list style aficionados. The evening began with a festival cocktail party. The first photo shows Peter and his wife with Lisa Immortado Vreeland.

January 9, 2013

Last month a new poster book was published called "Art of the Dead" by Phil Cushway. The coffee table book tells the story of poster art through the Grateful Dead, which frequently partnered with artists, and offers a chronological evolution of the art from the band's beginning in 1965 through Jerry Garcia's death in 1995. The book includes interviews and profiles of the decade's biggest artists, including Rick Griffin, Stanley "Mouse" Miller, Alton Kelley, Wes Wilson and Victor Moscoso. It also offers essays, including one by Peter. The book is in four-color throughout, featuring iconic and rare images as well as extensive “process” material, including sketches, original art, blue lines, film, and printing plates that show how the art was created. Ultimately, the book makes the case that poster art is truly an original form of American fine art.

The Houston Zen Center has invited Peter to participate in two upcoming events on February 1 & 2, 2013. The Friday night gathering will include brief dharma words and an informal reception. On Saturday, he will conduct a Mask Workshop as a benefit for the Center. Since the workshop is limited to 20 participants, tickets are no longer available.

December 14, 2012

Here are a couple photos of Peter attending the screening of Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained" at the Ziegfield Theater in New York City on Tuesday evening. The right photo shows Peter with actor Richard Belzer.

Tonight Peter will be attending the "Bring Leonard Peltier Home" Concert at the NYC's Beacon Theatre. Hosted by Harry Belafonte and Pete Seeger, the concert will feature performances by Jackson Browne, Bruce Cockburn, Jennifer Kreisberg, Bill Miller, Margo Thunderbird. Besides, Peter, guest speakers will include Author Peter Matthiesson, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, and Former Amnesty International President Jack Healey. Leonard Peltier is a Native American activist imprisoned since the mid Seventies for his involvement with controversial incidents at Wounded Knee and Oglala, South Dakota, including the shooting deaths of two FBI agents. If you click on the photo below, it'll take you to Peter's interview yesterday with Democracy Now!

November 18, 2012

THE DUST BOWL, narrated by Peter, will be shown in a two-part program airing tonight and tomorrow night. Filmmaker Ken Burns chronicles the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history. The four-hour documentary chronicles this critical moment in American history in all its complexities and profound human drama. It is part oral history, using compelling interviews of 26 survivors of those hard times - what will probably be the last recorded testimony of the generation that lived through the Dust Bowl. Filled with seldom seen movie footage, previously unpublished photographs, the songs of Woody Guthrie, and the observations of two remarkable women who left behind eloquent written accounts, the film is also a historical accounting of what happened and why during the 1930s on the southern Plains.

October 30, 2012

There's an article by Coyote presently online at Salon.com called "The Progressive Case for Obama" - Drones, the drug war and income inequality are important. But a vote against Obama only makes other issues worse". Check it out!

September 6,  2012

A new link has been created in the "Archives" section for Coyote's friends, Don and Trace Yeoman. Don is one of the great living totem-pole carvers and his wife is a painter. Their son Kyran, who hopes to follow in his father's footsteps, has made a beautiful 20-minute video. They are Haida Native people from Canada and one of Don's creations is a 40-foot totem pole on display at Vancouver Airport terminal. You can watch the video at this link.

In mid-November, PBS is planning to air the latest Ken Burns mini-series, "The Dust Bowl". This 2-episode production is already announced for release on DVD and Blu-ray Disc, with a street date of November 20th...the day after the show finishes airing! Peter, Patricia Clarkson, Kevin Conway,  Amy Madigan, and Carolyn McCormick lend their presence to this documentary, which runs approximately 160 minutes long.

On a personal note, Coyote will be laying low for the next six months as he undergoes a rigorous medical treatment for Hepatitis C. We wish him well and hope he'll return to good health soon.

August 9,  2012

The July edition of Vanity Fair included Peter in an article called, "Suddenly That Summer."  Journalist Sheila Weller writes, "It was billed as 'the Summer of Love,' a blast of glamour, ecstasy, and Utopianism that drew some 75,000 young people to the San Francisco streets in 1967. Who were the true movers behind the Haight-Ashbury happening that turned America on to a whole new age?" Most fans know that Coyote took on a major role in that San Francisco scene if they've read his biography, "Sleeping Where I Fall". You can read his comments about the Diggers at the Vanity Fair link. Here's an old photo from those glorious days.

California's public TV station KQED serves as the premiere Bay Area showcase for independent film featuring a new season of its documentary series, "Truly CA: Our State, Our Stories". On November 18th, it will present "Stage Left, A Story of Theater in San Francisco". The 90-minute film by Austin Forbord begins with the founding of The San Francisco Actor’s Workshop in 1952 and extends through 2010. Inspired by a Western history of risk taking and exploration, a climate of political and social activism, a particular multicultural mix, and a geography that is seismically unstable, San Francisco theater artists have focused on pushing the boundaries of the form. Peter is among the artists interviewed.

July 6, 2012

Peter has agreed to narrate a documentary about a cycling expedition, dubbed "The Roadmelt". Six bicyclists will travel 500 miles to Yosemite National Park. Led by Jacob Goff, co-founder of California conservation organization Snowmelt, the group will ride under its own power this month in an effort to raise water conservation awareness before meeting with Muir's March, a movement to restore the Hetch Hetchy Valley. "Our idea is to do our own march on bicyles to show the landscape of California and show how much we are dependent on water," Goff said. Founded in 2010 with the aim of turning adventure into conservation, The Snowmelt modeled its philosophy on the ideas of John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club.

June 12, 2012

"For the Love of the Music: The Club 47 Folk Revival" is a new documentary exploring the rich history of Club 47, the iconic Cambridge folk music mecca from 1958 to 1968. Narrated by Peter, it incorporates old photos, rare footage of audio and video recordings, and personal accounts, as it explores the influence the club had on folk musicians from the 1960s folk revival. Featured are interviews with Joan Baez, Taj Mahal, Judy Collins, Tom Rush, Maria Muldaur, Geoff Muldaur, Jim Kweskin, Jackie Washington, Jim Rooney, Peter Rowan and many more. The film features previously unreleased audio recordings and photographs of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Eric Von Schmidt and new performances from Club 47 stars, as well as by today's emerging folk performers. The photos below were taken by John Bonner.

 
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