The Heart of the Game

This documentary film explores the world of the bow and the extraordinary masters who make them. The bow is the Cinderella of the orchestra—the overworked and overshadowed ally to its more glamorous partners. Few people, even among lovers of classical music, think of the bow as an instrument in its own right, but players of stringed instruments see them differently. To musicians, the bow is as essential to expressing the soul of the music as the violin or cello. The film follows the journey of the “silent servant” of the music world—from the workshops of the virtuosos of the trade, to the birthplace of the bow in France, and to Brazil, home to the imperiled tree from which the world’s finest bows are made.

Seattle filmmaker Ward Serrill (The Heart of the Game, Miramax) follows one man's quest to integrate modern science and ancient mysticism through sound. It features the extraordinary life and work of country singer turned brain scientist and shaman of sound, Tom Kenyon, as he journeys from his homeland of Orcas island to the stage on Broadway, giant caves in the south of France, the golden-chandeliered symphony halls of Vienna and finally to the snowy peaks of Tibet.

The film follows Bill’s adventures as a child of a bank robber, raised in a gilded household, who turned his back on American devotion to materialism and went off to live in monasteries and mountains in Taiwan. He pursued a fascination with Buddhism and poetry and traveled to remote regions of China to rediscover an ancient tradition of mountain hermits vital to Chinese culture.

Produced for Alaskan Public Television, and broadcast on many PBS stations nationwide, The Bear Stands Up features Tlingit Elder Esther Shea of the Tongass Bear Clan. She dedicated her life to teaching the songs, language and values of Tlingit traditional life in Southeast Alaska. This is Esther's story-her journey from a traditional childhood living close to land and sea before being sent to a boarding school that punished her for speaking her language. She was forced to keep her culture locked inside for over forty years. At age fifty, she set out to rediscover her cultural identity. She began to teach and help her culture stand up again.