The first episode of Freedom Needs a Soundtrack intertwines two stories unfolding half a world apart. In America, teenager Erin Potts begins a journey that will eventually lead to the Tibetan Freedom Concerts. In Tibet, imprisoned nun Ngawang Sangdrol risks everything by singing songs of freedom inside a Chinese prison.
Through archival recordings and new interviews, the episode explores how music can inspire resistance, preserve identity, and connect people who have never met. Both stories reveal how music becomes an act of resistance, setting in motion a series of events and chance meetings that would eventually bring together some of the world's biggest musicians in support of Tibet.
Freedom Needs a Soundtrack is a six-part documentary series marking the 30th anniversary of the Tibetan Freedom Concerts.
Through first-person stories and archival audio, the series follows how Erin Potts, — who co-founded the concerts with Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys — and a small team of twenty-somethings turned an improbable idea into one of the defining music and activism stories of the 1990s.
Along the way, listeners travel from a study abroad program in Nepal, to a prison cell and protests in Tibet, to backstage interviews and conversations at sold-out concerts with some of the most influential artists of the era, including U2, Rage Against the Machine, Björk, Radiohead, Pearl Jam, A Tribe Called Quest, R.E.M., Foo Fighters, De La Soul, and more.
Freedom Needs a Soundtrack is a Rangzen production produced by Adonde Media and distributed in partnership with KALW Public Media.
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