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Free To Rock is the social history of how western rock music spread like a virus across the Iron Curtain, becoming the symbol of freedom under the Soviet regime. And how it helped end the Cold War. The West's rock icons inspired thousands of underground rock bands and their tens of millions of passionate supporters in Eastern Europe and the USSR. Bands like Flowers, Kino, and Plastic People of the Universe sparked a revolutionary youth movement that openly defied the Communist government, survived the KGB crackdowns, and fueled a desire for freedom. Interviews and Performances Include: Presidents Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev and Latvian President Vike- Freiberga, KGB General Oleg Kalugin, NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow, Elvis Presley, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Elton John, Billy Joel, Bruce Spring¬steen, Scorpions, Cyndi Lauper (The Wall - Live in Berlin), Metallica, Stas Namin, Pits "Pete" Ander¬son, Boris Grebenshikov, Andrey Makarev¬ich, Valery Saifudinov, Yuri Schevchuk, and Mark Ross, who produced one of the largest free rock concerts in history - outside Moscow in 1991 - days before the USSR's collapse. Bonus disk for the DVD release: Rockin' The Kremlin: Outtakes & Original Stories Behind the Making of Free To Rock (123 min.) The 10-year journey behind FREE TO ROCK - outtakes, additional scenes, never before seen footage, commentary and historical insights. Created by Nick Binkley, Doug Yeager and Russian rock star Valery Saifudinov. Free To Rock is a ten-year production with production funding and support from The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, The National Endowment for the Humanities, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Grammy Museum Foundation, and The Stas Namin Centre in Moscow.

Sales Points

• Official Selection: Sun Valley Film Festival
• Advance Screenings: U.S. Congress and Department of State
• Disc 2 contains a 123 minute film called Rockin' The Kremlin: Outtakes & Original Stories Behind the Making of Free To Rock. It's an interesting collection of stories and in depth interviews, with several songs.
• Premiere Screening (April 2017) and funding by The Grammy Museum
• Advance Screening and funding by The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
• Official Selection: International Doc Festival, Amsterdam Docs For Sale
• Official Selection: Sonoma Valley Film Festival
• Official Selection: Newport Beach Film Festival
• Major nationwide exposure on PBS stations including all major markets, May 2017
• For fans of The U.S. vs. John Lennon, Janis Joplin: Little Girl Blue, What Happened Miss Simone, The Wrecking Crew, Twenty Feet From Stardom

Press Quotes

I didn't know that Rock & Roll was going to end the Cold War, but I thought it might warm things up.

     —Billy Joel

Perhaps we should not be raining bombs on the enemies of freedom; we should be raining Rock & Roll.

     —Jackson Sinnenberg

Free to Rock, beyond telling the unheard story of the upheaval and real power of Soviet rock music, carries larger implications for today. Perhaps both sides of the aisle could learn a thing or two from Free to Rock ...

     —Jackson Sinnenberg, On Tap Magazine

We understood that communism was that regime which we all hated when we were kids.

     —Stas Namin, Soviet rock pioneer

You can’t stop rock & roll. Recommended.

     —M. Hudson, The Sound View