Prequel: John Fort s Amazing Journey to the Festival

We followed the Fugees producer and TFF 2013 Juror, who composed the score for the Festival film The Project, as he prepared for the one-year reunion concert of his travels and collaborations in Siberia.

Filmmaker, musician, and Brooklyn native John Fort has an amazing backstory. He shot to fame at age 21, with a Grammy nomination for his work producing the Fugees 1996 album, The Score. The group also featured Fort on several tracks, and the aspiring star was soon offered his own recording contract at Sony. But after the commercial failure of that record, he turned to a job drug-trafficking to support his sophomore album. Fort was arrested, served seven years, and then was granted a presidential pardon by President Bush on Bushs way out of office.

After leaving prison, Fort and a former schoolmate launched a music and philanthropy tour of Russia, stopping between performances to collaborate with local artists and visit schools, orphanages, and childrens hospitals (who were given all of the tours profits). This tour was documented in 2012 TFF favorite, Russian Winter. Since then, Fort executive produced the critically-beloved documentary, Brooklyn Castle. You can also catch Fort in this years festival - he wrote the score for The Project, a documentary that follows a group of Somali pirate-hunters as they try to save the Middle-Eastern shipping trade.

In the second edition of Tribecas Prequel series, where filmmakers share their journeys, Fort walks us through the creation of Russian Winter, as he prepares for the one-year anniversary concert, reuniting him with the artists he collaborated with on his Siberian expedition. If you want to see more, you can download Russian Winter on iTunes, and check out The Project at this years festival.

More from the Prequel series:

Prequel: Director Bryan Buckleys Journey to the Oscars For "ASAD"

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LINK:	http://www.tribecafilm.com/festival/features/john-forte-the-director-p...
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