Composer finds 'soul satisfying' work at Sundance


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PARK CITY — Before she came to the Sundance Film Festival, Miriam Cutler had quite an eclectic music career.

Cutler performed in what she calls a "feminist ragtime vaudeville band," she joined Danny Elfman’s Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, she wrote and performed singing telegrams and composed scores for low budget horror movies, such as Witchcraft, parts two through eight. Still, something was missing.

“(I thought), you know, if this is what it is, I don't think it's for me — because it didn’t fulfill that other part of me that wants to do something that matters,” Cutler said.

She found what she was looking for when she scored filmmaker Arthur Dong’s documentary, “Licensed to Kill,” a study of murderers who killed gay men because of their sexual preference.

“It got into Sundance, and we came to Sundance in 1997,” Cutler said. “Suddenly I discovered this documentary film community that I didn't really know about. It was like finding my home.”

“I’ve always wanted to fight for the underdog, shining a light on things that aren’t right,” she said.

Since that first visit to Sundance, Cutler has made a career out scoring documentary films, many of which have played the Sundance Film Festival. Her work appears in films like “The Ghosts of Abu Graib,” about the abuse of inmates at an Iraqi prison; “Lost in La Mancha,” about director Terry Gilliam’s attempt to remake the story of Don Quixote; “Thin,” a 2006 documentary about young women with eating disorders; and “Ethel,” a profile of Ethel Kennedy.

“You have to be very purposeful and intentional in how you use music, because it’s a powerful tool,” Cutler said. “I’m trying to never get in the way of a film, never get in the way of the purpose of the film, the content of the film.”

She came to the 2015 Sundance Film Festival to participate in BMI’s roundtable discussions and to promote the latest documentary she scored, “The Hunting Ground,” about rape on college campuses.

Cutler has also served as advisor for the Sundance Composer’s Lab, a workshop for film composers at the Sundance Resort.

“To me it's very soul satisfying,” she said of her work scoring documentaries. “I want to use my powers for good.”

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