In case you were wondering what Lou Reed has been up to lately, thought you be interested to know that he recently penned two new songs that were inspired by the soon-to-be-released documentary, Nanking. Nanking is a film about the Japanese invasion of Nanking, China during World War II. The movie recounts the events of the time through interviews with Chinese survivors, archival footage, and testimonies of Japanese soldiers, interwoven with staged readings of the Westerners’ letters and diaries. Some of the spoken word performers in the film include: Woody Harrelson, Mariel Hemingway, Jurgen Prochnow, and Stephen Dorff.

Nanking premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2007 and took home the award for best Documentary Editing. It opens in NYC on December 12 (in advance of a January 8 nationwide release) at The Film Forum. You can buy tickets here or you can win them by sending an email to contests@bumpershine.com and telling me what your favorite Lou Reed or VU record is. I’ve got two tickets to giveaway, contest entry deadline is Monday, December 10. Winners will be drawn at random, please include your full name and mailing address in the entry email.

Stream: Listen to Lou Reed’s new songs, “Safety Zone” and “Gravity”, here
Web 1.0: The Nanking Official Site
Web 2.0: Nanking on Facebook

In other Lou news, he’ll be screening the Julian Schnabel directed film version of Berlin at Art Basel Miami on December 8, 2007.