Films
All films will be shown in Cheatham Hall, World Forestry Center.
A SUITCASE FULL OF CHOCOLATE, Tuesday, July 10 at Noon & Thursday, July 12 at 12:30 pm
Lincoln Mayorga
93 minutes
When Hitler invaded Austria in 1938, Sofia Cosma, a young prize winning Jewish pianist, was forced to abandon her musical studies in Vienna and return to Latvia. She was later arrested and sent to labor in a Soviet prison camp. Staving off hunger and cold for seven years of imprisonment, Sofia thought that she would never get out alive, let alone resume her career as a musician. But survive and triumph she did, through an extraordinary chain of events. While in the labor camp, she married a fellow prisoner from Romania and gave birth to a child. She was then released and separated from her husband for two years. Ultimately, she reunited her family in Romania, raised two children, and, after fourteen years of not playing the piano, became one of the most celebrated pianists of eastern Europe! The documentary on Sofia Cosma was begun in 1980, at the time of her defection from Romania to the United States. In 1990, Cosma made her emotional return to Russia to play with the Moscow Philharmonic as an internationally celebrated artist, an American citizen, and an uncommonly free woman.
CHOPIN AT THE OPERA, Saturday, July 14 at 6:00 pm
Jan Schmidt-Garre
60 minutes
To celebrate his 200th birthday on March 1, 2010, this film shows little known facets of Frédéric Chopin: the passionate opera fan, the admirer of the great female singers of his time, the advocate of the aesthetics of bel canto – the art of beautiful singing accompanied on the piano. For Chopin the opera represents the highest form of art, even though he never thought about writing for the stage himself. His contemporaries Bellini, Donizetti, and Rossini meant more to him than Beethoven, Liszt, or Schumann. Their decisive influence is reflected in the vocal parts of Chopin’s piano compositions.
Phil Grabsky
139 minutes
In Search of Beethoven takes a comprehensive look at the composer’s life through his music output, bringing together the world’s leading performers and experts on Beethoven to reveal new insights into this legendary composer. The line-up of performers and interviewees includes Sir Roger Norrington, Claudio Abbado, Fabio Luisi, Hélène Grimaud, Janine Jansen, Paul Lewis, and Emanuel Ax among others. Above all, In Search of Beethoven addresses the romantic myth that Beethoven was a heroic, tormented figure battling to overcome his tragic fate, struck down by deafness, who searched for his 'immortal beloved' but remained unmarried. It delves beyond the image of the tortured, cantankerous, unhinged personality, to reveal someone quite different and far more interesting.
MIRACLE IN A BOX, Wednesday, July 11 at 12:30 pm & Friday, July 13 at 12:30 pm
John Korty, narrated by John Lithgow
57 minutes
Miracle in a Box is an inspiring film about the coming together of three events: the bequest of a grand piano, the student competition to win it, and the months and months of work required to make it sing again. The winner of the competition, Jared Redmond, finally makes his debut on what is now his Steinway grand at the party given in the workshop as a finale. The celebration is not only about talent, but also about the dedication of craftspeople who give good performers a means to play better than they had imagined to be possible.
RAVEL, Tuesday, July 10 at 5:15 pm & Thursday, July 12 at 5:15 pm
Larry Weinstein
103 minutes
A beautifully made homage to the great French composer Maurice Ravel. Many of Ravel's foremost interpreters, Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Alicia de Larrocha, Victoria de los Angeles, Jean-Phillipe Collard, Augustin Dumay and others, capture the sensuality, sweetness and power of Ravel's works. Also rare home movie footage, photographs, and unpublished letters give the flim deep insight into Ravel's elusive life.
