Palo Alto Film Series - Movies that Matter - Shut up and Sing

A powerful documentary from two-time Academy Award®-winning director Barbara Kopple and director Cecilia Peck. On stage at a 2003 London concert, Natalie Maines, lead singer of Texan trio the Dixie Chicks, spoke these 15 words to a small audience at the start of their sold-out international tour: "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas." The comment was delivered on the eve of the American invasion of Iraq, and drew cheers from the decidedly anti-war and anti-Bush British crowd. At the heightened moment of political polarization in the United States, many people empowered this simple, yet loaded remark to carry serious and longstanding ramifications. The film follows the lives and careers of the Chicks through the writing and recording of their first album since “the incident” – and three years of political attack, making music, birthing babies, bonding, death threats, and laughter. At the end, the film presents a complete reconsideration of who people think they are, who they want to be and who, ultimately, they really are as women, as public figures, and as musicians. ( 93 mins, 2006)