The documentary
Pete Seeger: The Power of Song focuses on a much-misunderstood American-music figure. Many rockers once saw Seeger as an uptight purist who threatened to pull the plug on Bob Dylan's electrified set at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival an anecdote still disputed forty-plus years later. (Seeger has said he was upset by the distorted sound, not Dylan's alleged apostasy.) But Bruce Springsteen's 2006 CD
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions served as a reminder of Seeger's rousing approach to songcraft, not to mention his deep belief in protest and free speech, which led to his being hauled before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1955. Seeger didn't talk then, but he's made himself heard ever since.
Power screens at 7 and 9 p.m. tonight through March 7 at Muenzinger Auditorium, on the University of Colorado campus in Boulder. General admission is $5; students with UCB identification save a buck. Learn more at 303-492-1531 or
www.internationalfilmseries.com.
March 5-7, 7 & 9 p.m., 2008