Novem Trailer
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"This Film is Terrific!"
- Ben Fong-Torres, Legendary Rock & Roll Journalist

"NOVEM is a unique film in several respects, but is above all a nobel act, dedicated to the music and the memory of talented musicians..."
- Aarhus Festival of Independent Arts

See what the Press is saying about NOVEM!


NOVEM was selected and won awards at many film festivals.

Visit our film festival page for more information.

Novem Updates and Announcements

02.19.2009: Novem airing on WNIN
Novem will be airing on WNIN March 5th at 7PM CT.

01.16.2009: Novem DVD is Now Available...
The Novem DVD is now available. To purchase go to buynovem.com.

03.18.2008: Novem Hits the Small Screen!
Novem will be airing on Canada's Super Channel on March 20th, 2008 at 8:00AM (MST) and 2:00PM (MST). Visit the Super Channel website for further details and airtimes.

01.04.2008: Novem to be shown in Osaka
Novem will be playing in Osaka, Japan January 5th - 12th, 2008.

10.30.2007: Official Date for Japan Debut
We've just heard that the official date for NOVEM's debut in Japan is November 24, 2007 at the AMUSE CINEQUANON.

08.13.2007: NOVEM to Open in Japan!
NOVEM has had its first press screening in Japan, and will have several more throughout August and September. So far all press feedback has been positive. Opening Day is tenatively scheduled for late November.

03.22.2007: NOVEM Gets Theatrical Premiere!
NOVEM will be showing at the Keystone Art Cinema in Indianapolis, IN starting April 20th, 2007. For more information visit the Landmark Theaters website.

03.15.2007: NOVEM will be screening at the Newport Beach Film Festival April 19th-29th. For more information check out our festivals page.

02.18.2007: NOVEM will be screening at the Westchester County Film Festival March 9th-11th. For more information check out our festivals page.

11.08.2006: NOVEM will be screening at the Santa Fe Film Festival December 8th & 9th. For more information check out our festivals page.

10.10.2006: NOVEM will be screening at the Tallgrass Film Festival October 21st @ 1:30PM. For more information check out our festivals page.

09.29.2006: NOVEM has been selected to screen at the Vermont International Film Festival. For more information check out our festivals page.

08.31.2006: NOVEM Gets Distribution! We are thrilled to announce that we have signed a seven-year deal with Panorama Entertainment to distribute the film in the U.S. and Canada.

Early plans include a limited theatrical release for the film.  “We are planning on opening the film in Indianapolis later this year,” says Panorama President, Stuart Strutin.  “NOVEM is an amazing film with a lot of potential.” 

This is truly exciting for us and we greatly appreciate all of the support.

08.29.2006: NOVEM has been selected to screen at the Kansas International Film Festival. For more information check out our festivals page.

05.19.2006: NOVEM has been selected to screen at the Stony Brook Film Festival. For more information check out our festivals page.

05.04.2006: NOVEM was awarded the Respect Award for Feature Film at the Aarhus Festival of Independat Arts (AFIA).

04.12.2006: We've just returned from the Sonoma Valley Film Festival and beautiful Sonoma, CA where NOVEM was awarded the jury prize for Best American Independent Feature.

04.03.2006: Novem has been selected for screening in Baltimore, MD at the Maryland Film Festival May 11-14, 2006.

03.16.2006: NOVEM reaches to Denmark!
Novem has been selected for screening at the Aarhus Festival of Independent Arts (AFIA) in Aarhus, Denmark. Click here for more information on screening times and this festival.

02.17.2006: We have just been informed that NOVEM has been selected selected to be shown at the 9th Annual Sonoma Valley Film Festival, April 5-9, 2006. If you're in the area come out and show your support.

01.25.2006: We are excited to announce that NOVEM has been awarded the Audience Choice award from the Beloit International Film Festival. This is the 3rd Audience Choice award and 8th award NOVEM has won on the festival circuit.

01.04.2006: NOVEM has been selected by the Beloit International Film Festival. Visit our film festival page for more information about the festival and screening times.

11.01.2005: NOVEM has been awarded the Grand Jury Prize for Best Competition Feature at the Bethel Film Festival.

10.25.2005: In an effort increase the awareness of NOVEM and help spread the word, we will be launching a College Radio Promotion where we will be sending a CD and information on NOVEM to college radio stations across the country.

You can help by contacting your favorite station and requesting they play NOVEM.

09.27.2005: NOVEM continues to do very well on the film festival circuit. We've just come back from the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival where NOVEM was given the Audience Choice Award.

Check out our festival page to see where NOVEM will be screened next.

09.02.2005: NOVEM has been selected to screen at the Bethel Film Festival in Bethel, Connecticut, October 25-30. Visit bethelfilmfestival.com for ticket info.

08.26.2005: We just learned that NOVEM will be showing at the SIDEWALK Moving Picture festival in Birmingham, Alabama, September 23rd-25th.
Also, the NOVEM Tribute band will be playing 5 of NOVEM's songs at the festival party on Saturday night. Visit sidewalkfest.com for more info!
Hope to see you there!

07.07.2005: Hello all! Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend.

We are still working hard to spread the word. NOVEM rocked the festivals this summer and got some great exposure, not to mention took home some very nice awards. In an effort to step it up a little we are currently looking for a distribution outlet for NOVEM. Something that will hopefully expose NOVEM to a much larger audience. We'll be sure to keep you updated.

By the way we've added a newsletter thing. Now you can have NOVEM news and updates sent right to your inbox.

06.13.2005: Novem rocked the seventh annual Waterfront Film Festival this weekend. There was a lot of support and packed viewings.

04.25.2005: Novem was honored with three awards from the Indianapolis Film Festival. Best Indiana Film, Special Jury Prize for Best Cast Performance, and Grand Jury Prize for Best Competition Feature!

04.11.2005: Ben's independent film NOVEM received the coveted "Audience Choice" Award for Best Film and the "Best Soundtrack" Award at the Phoenix Film Festival. Thanks to everyone for their support.

03.22.2005: Novem has been selected to the Phoenix Film Festival, the Palm Beach Film Festival, and the Indianapolis Film Festival. Please come out and help us support the film and NOVEM's music!... Read More

03.16.2005: THE VERDICT IS IN: The Judge has ruled and Jordan has has full rights to the music and film that was purchased. Weww! What a relief... Read More

We are now excited to announce that Novem's music is now available for purchase. Visit buynovem.com to order yours today!

09.12.2004: FAQ page added. Answers to the most common questions are here. Post other questions in the forums.

07.08.2004: A U.S. District Judge ruled that Jordan is the rightful owner of NOVEM's music and film. The bottle is being passed in celebration as you read this! However, his attorney did mention that the families will probably appeal. But, for now, enjoy the website and rest assured that Jordan will be ready if they appeal.

05.19.2004: Jordan met with an attorney today. Bottom line: he's going to fight to keep NOVEM's music and film. More to come...

05.08.2004: New video posted of Doobie Dan.

05.01.2004: Jordan just received a letter from an attorney informing him that some of NOVEM's family members are requesting that he turn the music and film over to them. If he doesn't, they are threatening to file a lawsuit. They also want this web site shut down. Jordan is not in a good mood. Keep checking back, hopefully this site will still be here.

04.26.2004: The wait is over... Jeff has been able to piece together some of the video with the music and it has been posted on the site. Click on the video link above or here.

04.18.2004: Jordan finally got a hold of the woman who sold him the box of NOVEM's music at her garage sale. Hopefully, she will be able to give us more information as to who NOVEM was.

04.17.2004: There have been an enormous amount of requests to post pieces of the NOVEM video we found. Be patient. We will be adding those once Jeff gets done reviewing and editing all of the footage. Stay tuned! It's definitely worth the wait!

04.11.2004: We discovered two huge pieces of the puzzle today. First, the members of NOVEM were all students here at Hairy State. So weird. Second, apparently they all died in a van crash in 1973. This changes everything.

04.09.2004: Ben Harris, a film student here at Harrison State,  has approached us about filming us and our quest to find out about NOVEM for his student film project. Hollywood, here we come!

04.07.2004: We just saw the first film footage synced to the music. This stuff is pretty cool!

04.05.2004: Welcome to novemsongs.com. We (Jordan, Jeff, Laura Jo, Liz, Jenna and I) are launching this site to share the music we recently found and to find out more about the band that created it. We think the band's name may be NOVEM. If you have any information about this, please contact us.

Check out the forums for other Updates and Announcements

 

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HARRISON TIMES NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
Dated Monday, May 21st, 1973

Early Sunday morning, a truck broadsided a van filled with Harrison State University students, killing 7 of the 9 students inside. The accident occurred around 2am at the intersection of Old Mill Road and Highway 31 near Bowling Green, Kentucky. Two students remain in critical condition at Nashville Memorial Hospital. The truck driver was not seriously injured, police said.

According to the truck driver, the van failed to stop at a stop sign and entered the intersection at a high rate of speed. The resulting impact sent the van careening into a nearby wooded area where it came to rest on its side and burst into flames.

Authorities have identified the dead as Austin Rowles, 21, Dana Taylor, 20, Mark Winstead, 20, Kristy Doyle, 21, Peter Shipley, 19, Alan Levinly, 20 and Thomas Lewdowski, 23. The two injured students are Dennis Clark, 21 and Jaslyn Walker, 28.

The students were returning to Harrison State from a camping trip in Franklin, Tennessee. A memorial service is scheduled for Friday night at St. Mary's Church in Harrison.

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Novem Songs Novem Music Novem Film
     
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 Bridges to the Sun | Listen

Who is Novem? - The Cliff Notes version of what we know about them.
In the spring of 1973, a group of nine college students formed a strong friendship on the campus of Harrison State University, sharing a common bond of music. Four of them were music majors, and the other five had various degrees of musical talent. Austin Rowles, thought to be the unofficial group leader, encouraged the group to “jam” together after classes.

Novem - Alan, Mark, Tom

Within weeks, the group was performing in front of fellow college students at frat parties and beer picnics. Very quickly it became apparent the group had a special chemistry and a lot of talent, mainly composing original material.

Apparently in April, Mark Winstead came up with an idea for each member of the group to write a song about something they felt strongly about. His uncle owned a recording studio called Dark Horse in Franklin, Tennessee. He offered the group a chance to record their songs free of charge after the spring semester was complete. The group jumped at the chance, and they spent a week camped out at this remote studio, recording their songs and becoming closer friends.

On May 14, 1973, the group packed their clothes and gear into Tom Lewdowski's van and headed for Dark Horse Studios about three hours away. When they arrived, they met Dan Cook, a 38 year-old recording engineer that worked for Mark's uncle. Dan provided the experience and expertise necessary to record the group's music. Shortly, work began on the first of 11 amazing tracks of music.

During the next week, the group recorded, slept, and partied together. Dennis Clark even proposed to Kris Doyle; she accepted. Toward the end of the week the group was exhausted, but the recording sessions were going better than expected, and everyone was stoked by the amazing music and vocal arrangements the group was producing.

Novem - Circle

The group never actually named itself. It appears they didn't even think of themselves as a band or group when they arrived at Dark Horse. The name NOVEM didn't even exist until after their recording session when Dan Cook wrote 'NOVEM Songs' (NOVEM is Latin for nine) on the outside of the master music boxes. This is where NOVEM came from and why we refer to the group as NOVEM.

Late on the night of May 19, 1973, the group said goodbye to Dan Cook, packed all their stuff in Tom's old Chevy van and left the rural studio to head back to campus. Tragically they never made it. For some unknown reason, the van failed to stop at a stop sign and entered an intersection at a high rate of speed where it was struck broadside by a large truck. The resulting impact sent the van careening into a wooded area where it flipped several times and burst into flames. Seven of the nine students died that night. Two survived the accident but died days later. Although empty beer cans were found in the van, police suspected that the driver of the van fell asleep at the wheel.

We believe the brakes on Tom's van may have failed.

As it turns out, very few people other than the group members and those involved knew about the recording sessions. The group left with the master session tapes that night, but no evidence of them was found at the accident site. It appears that the group stopped by Mark's parent's home in Brentwood, Tennessee shortly after they left Dark Horse. Our best guess is that Mark put the tapes on a shelf in his parent's basement thinking he'd be back later to finish mixing the music.

Novem

Here's where we come in. In March 2004, Jordan was at home in Brentwood visiting his family when he decided to go by this garage sale near his parent's home. Jordan loves old records, and he thought he might find some at this garage sale. As it turns out, he did. The old records were in the top of this box that also contained two large boxes of recording tape and about 20 cans of 16mm film. The whole box was marked $10. Jordan only wanted the records and offered the lady running the sale $5 for the old records only. The woman told him he could pay $5 but he'd have to take the whole box. He agreed and returned to Hairy State with the box. Jordan took the records out and added them to his collection, and the recording tape boxes and the film just stayed in the corner. Several weeks later, Jeff came by and asked about the recording tapes and film. Jordan explained that he knew nothing about them. Jeff asked if he could take it and see what was on them. Jordan said sure, and that's how we stumbled on to the original 24 track recordings of their music and Alan's undeveloped 16mm film that he shot while the group was recording the music.

Once we heard their music and saw the film footage, we were hooked, and a small group of us, Jordan, Jeff, Laura Jo, Liz, Jenna and I started to find out who these people were. Early on, we thought they were still alive, and the idea was to return the music to them. In late April, we discovered two bomb shells. First, that they were dead and second, and maybe even wilder, they were all Hairy State students!!

If you're interested in learning more about the NOVEM story, I suggest getting a copy of Ben's student film project. He was bright enough to tape us as we unraveled the NOVEM story, and of course, if you haven't heard their music, check out the downloads on this site.

-Sean

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<bgsound src="/bkgrnd/EyesofaChild.mp3" loop="false"> Peace of Mind Eyes of a Child Bridges to the Sun