Award-winning documentary filmmaker Jim Brown, who has
covered such recording icons as Pete Seeger, Harry Belafonte, Woody Guthrie and
Peter, Paul and Mary in his decades-long career, turns his focus in his latest
film on a recording star who has taken a very different path to fame.
Pop Twist Entertainment, Inc., with sales and distribution
expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has tabbed Aug. 14 as the DVD
release date for Sir Ivan: I Am Peaceman.
Ivan Wilzig is the son of Holocaust survivor Siggi Wilzig
and his wife Naomi. His father was a
successful businessman, while his mother was more free-spirited and the founder
of World Erotic Art
Museum in Miami, Florida. Perfect
opposites … a match made in heaven.
As
the story goes, Siggi wanted his son to have a career that would be stable, so
he introduced him to the world of banking.
In 1980, with law degree in hand, he joined his father at The Trust
Company of New Jersey (Siggi had purchased the century-old financial
institution in 1968) and it seemed certain that his career path was set. Banker!
By
2001 his mother’s side of his brain kicked in and this New Jersey banker began
exploring a career in music. With the
death of his father in 2003, the Wilzig family sold The Trust Company of New Jersey
for three-quarters of a billion dollars and Siggi’s banking days were done.
His
recording persona is that of Peaceman, and he even founded his own recording
label, Peaceman Music, which serves as the vehicle for his unique style of
dance-themed reworks of famous recordings from the 1960s and 70s. He is Peaceman, he lives that — complete
with his iconic cape — life and views music that glorifies drugs, hate and
violence as “the cancer of the music world.”
But
it doesn’t end there. Peaceman also has
his own chartable foundation, which is dedicated to helping service members with
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (in honor of his father, who survived Auschwitz
and suffered throughout his life with PTSD).
Sir
Ivan, the Peaceman, recording artist, philanthropist and party animal — yes
that too, for the past 16 years he has hosted elaborate “costume parties” at
his “castle” (with a dungeon, of course) on Long Island. Even Donald Trump was on the guest list one
year.
So if Ivan Wilzig, Sir Ivan or Peaceman are unfamiliar to
you, pick up a copy of filmmaker Jim Brown’s Sir Ivan: I Am Peaceman on
Aug. 14 and have yourself a good time.
Bonus goodies include five Peaceman music videos and footage from his
lavish “castle” parties.
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