Kenneth Bowser ( Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and Live From New York, SNL in the 70s ) has directed a film on the life and music of Phil Ochs. Entitled PHIL OCHS: There But For Fortune, the documentary will open on January 5th at the IFC Center in New York. First Run Features is releasing the film, which chronicles Och’s efforts to use folk music as a form of protest. Ochs was at the fore of this movement but “by 1968, the mood of the country had changed. With the death of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, and the events of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, all that seemed possible just a few years earlier began to fade. Phil took this hopelessness to heart as if the failings of the movement were his own. His mental and physical health declined as he sank deep into depression and alcoholism. He took his own life in 1976 at the age of 35.” Joan Baez, Tom Hayden, Pete Seeger, Sean Penn, Peter Yarrow, Christopher Hitchens and Ed Sanders are among those who appear in the film.