By Jeannine Chatterton-Papineau - Although the musical group now called Novem, has become known on the internet after a 31-year silence, they weren't known to me and I wasn't keen to see a film about a bunch of talented kids who died young in a fiery accident.

Kansas City, Mo. - infoZine - But I was wrong -- Novem was fascinating.

We should start at the beginning. One beginning was when Jordan, a student at Harrison State University, paid five dollars at a garage sale for a box of records. Buried under the records were 14 undeveloped film reels and two 24-track recording reels. Scott Perry, film instructor at Harrison State had the 14 reels of film developed and Ben Harris, an HSU film student decided to make a project film of Jordan and his friends trying to piece the past together in a History Detective sort of way.

The other beginning was 31 years ago in the Spring of 1973 when nine musical students started jamming together. Soon, still unnamed as a group and loosely allied, they playing a few campus gigs. Early in their friendship, they discovered they had a flair for composing original material. It was Mark Winstead who suggested that each member of the group should write a song about something he or she felt strongly about.

It was also Mark Winstead who presented another opportunity. His uncle owned a recording studio about three hours away and offered the group a chance to record -- free. So in May they took off in Tom Lewdowshi's van and headed for Dark Horse Studio in Franklin, Tennessee. For a week they camped nearby having a good time and making recordings of their fresh songs. Dan Cook, nicknamed Doobie Dan, was the Dark Horse recording engineer.

Here, copied without permission from the Novem music website, is an article from the 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.

Mark Winstead and Kristy Doyle died shortly after the article was written.

Also from the website, "NOVEM's music was very rough when it was found. The master tracks you are hearing ... have been digitally mastered from the original tracking and vocal sessions on the reels. We can thank modern technology for making NOVEM sound so good!"

And Novem does sound good. It sounds great! I bought the CD. Despite that unmistakable 70's flavor, the songs are relevant for a modern audience. You can hear for yourself at profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=4268159 and you can glean much additional information about the musicians and the making of the film at: www.novemsongs.com/

But instead of just listening on the websites, try to see Novem. You will never forget it.

Novem has won numerous awards on the film festival circuit and it will have a limited theatrical release in the United States and Canada under an agreement with Panorama Entertainment. Later it will be shown on cable and will be distributed in Japan. Watch for it.

After the KIFF screening, producer/director Brad Kimmel and Dan Cook, now fully recovered from his stroke, conducted Q and A. Other's deeply involved in the creation of this film, in no particular order are Bradley David Productions of Evansville, Dennis Gage, Pat O'Connor, Tim Acres, Sherry Cothran, Jaimee Paul, Jordan Shipman, Dustin Sellers, Eric Hill, Duncan May, Brian Reed, Brad Crittenden, Kristy Osmunson, and Josh Gifford.