“The art is bold, cinematic, and deeply shadowed, and the unexpected ending is a product of cynical wisdom from looking back at the two decades since the event, and stronger for it. This is a resonant tale for troubling times.”
Graphic novel now available for preorder at Fantagraphics.
PLEASE NOTE: All pre-ordered books are shipped via Media Mail in the U.S. and Air Mail internationally. Please select the appropriate shipping method when checking out to avoid being overcharged for shipping!
Set in a New York City in mourning, this poignant graphic novel explores the push-and-pull between love and obligation.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, an undocumented worker named Balthazar busses tables at New York City’s famous Windows on the World restaurant. Back in Mexico, his family watches their TV screen in horror as the Twin Towers collapse. Refusing to give up hope that Balthazar is alive, his son Fernando embarks on a treacherous journey across the border to New York to find him. Along the way, Fernando learns what it means to be undocumented in America — encountering at turns an indifferent bureaucracy and a supportive group of fellow immigrants who help guide him through his quixotic mission to bring his family back together.
Now a major motion picture!
“Every now and then a soundtrack pops up, which distinguishes itself from the large selection of soundtracks. That is now the case with the soundtrack for the film Windows On The World…”
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Available Now!
Produced by David Russo and Robert Mailer Anderson
Executive Producer: Robert Mailer Anderson
Available on 12” vinyl from Ropeadope and UpCal Entertainment.
Inside Of Us All (featuring David Hidalgo, Charlie Musselwhite)
Every Tear I Cry For You (featuring Emily Braden, Sean Jones)
Fernando’s Theme - David Sánchez
Lou’s House - Harland Voyager
Don’t Break My Heart Again - The Collective Quintet
New York, New York - Abiodun Oyewole
Party People - The Live Wire
Can You See Me Falling - New World Order
Black Lion Rap- The Black Lion
Renaissance Man - 26 Reds
Review:
Original Soundtrack - Windows On The World
Format: CD and Vinyl / Label: Ropeadope Records
Release Date : August 2, 2019
Text: Peter Marinus
Every now and then a soundtrack pops up, which distinguishes itself from the large selection of soundtracks. That is now the case with the soundtrack for the film Windows On The World, a film by Michael D. Olmos, written by Robert Mailer Anderson.
The film is about a Mexican boy who goes looking for his father, who has been missing since the World Trade Center disaster on 9/11. The film describes the journey from Mexico to New York in which the boy encounters issues such as the immigration problem.
Before I could watch the film, I already enjoyed this very versatile soundtrack. A soundtrack that jumps from blues to jazz and funk.
The opener immediately hits the mark. Inside Of Us All is a song by David Hidalgo, known from Los Lobos, and blues harmonica player Charlie Musselwhite. A wonderfully surging song with a Tex Mex sound, soft beating percussion, a warm accordion, the howling harmonica of Charlie Musselwhite and piercing, bluesy guitar work. This song is reminiscent of the better work of Los Lobos.
Fernando's Theme by David Sánchez is a floating instrumental with a warm double bass and a soulful jazz sax. Singer Emily Braden performs in the smoky, Chet Baker-like jazz ballad Every Tear I Cry in which of course the trumpet of Sean Jones the leading role plays alongside the intimate soulful vocals of Emily Braden.
Lou's House is a song by Eric Harland, Josh Giunta, Dan Bovin, Kaleta & Timothy Robinson . A funky Afrorock song with singer-guitarist Kaleta from Benin as a sort of African James Brown, or, as you wish, as Fela Kuti.
The softly whispering jazz ballad Don't Break My Heart Again comes from The Collective Quintet in which the velvety soft sax by David Sánchez and the sparkling piano by Edward Simon predominate.
Abiodun Oyewole is known as a member of The Last Poets. In New York, New York he proves that he has not lost anything of his powerful jazz rap style.
The Black Lion is also known as reggae artist Jah Lion. However, there is no sign of reggae in Black Lion. A dark grooving hip hop song with a floating Miles Davis trumpet.
There are three acts on this album that fall under the name "unknown but certainly not unloved". The Live Wire is represented with a cutting electrofunk number, Party People. A song that reminds me of Cameo in the distance. New World Order represents the techno dance in Can You See Me Falling. An almost Prodigy-like song with cutting pulsating synthesizers and a hypnotizing groove. The closing is for the unknown 26 Reds with their filthy punky Renaissance Man, which is full of fuzz but also occasionally has a B-52's sound, mixed with a Suicide-like monotony and Iggy Pop-like vocals.
This soundtrack makes me eagerly await the accompanying film. But if I never saw it it would not be a disaster because I am having fun with this beautiful soundtrack!