Samuel Barber: Absolute Beauty

By George

A one-hour documentary about our first real moment of declaring independence 250 years ago, when New Yorkers toppled the statue of King George III at Bowling Green after a first public reading of the freshly inked document on July 9, 1776. In this film, we consider the rise and fall of empires, the toppling of statues, and the removal of monuments to Confederates and slave holders in the afterlife of George Floyd. We follow historian Abby Suckle on her trail to finally find the missing head of King George III, telling the story of how it all happened, along with reflections from Ivan Schwartz whose Studio EIS in Brooklyn has spent a half century sculpting statues of legends from American history in all its complexity: from Presidential libraries, to a re-creation of King George's statue.

Shadow Axe

The electric guitar has been the most iconic instrument of musical inspiration and social change for almost one hundred years. Today, Yaron Deutsch is one of the world's leading electric guitarists who bridge classical and contemporary music. This documentary is a portrait of the artist, and an exploration of the guitar's evolution in music and electricity. Combining interview, master class, concert, and movie clips, the film asks what it means to interpret a composer's work, and how legacy thrives in shadows of greatness.

Collective: Unconscious

A man and his grandmother hide out from an ominous broadcast. The Grim Reaper hosts a TV show. The formerly incarcerated recount and reinterpret their first days of freedom. A suburban mom's life is upturned by the beast growing inside of her. And a high school gym teacher runs drills from inside a volcano. What happens when five of independent film's most adventurous filmmakers join together to literally adapt each other’s dreams for the screen?

Beside Myself

Step outside yourself, look back at yourself, whom do you see? That’s the question Bob Holman asks in his poem “Beside Myself.” A small band of Bob's friends voice the poem in alternating identities for this meditative reflection on A.I. and the life cycle of the creative process.

Panorama

A musician's journey through the urban landscapes of New York City, collecting postcards of her Italian identity, diaspora, origin and destination

The Passion of Scrooge

Is this a film about Scrooge? About a composer’s life? An opera within an opera? The Passion of Scrooge blurs these lines between performance, documentary, and fiction, into a cinematic concert experience that’s seasoned with magical reality. Composer Jon Deak has adapted Charles Dickens’ timeless tale into a contemporary opera that melts the heart, but doesn’t avoid the darkness in Scrooge that’s still resonant with the material concerns of our time. Using neither period costumes, nor set pieces to reconstruct old England, the film invites you to experience A Christmas Carol with the imaginative possibilities of a radio play. And then, to meet those visions in your head, filmmaker H. Paul Moon‘s floating camera intimately captures musicians performing the score as characters themselves, in this ageless haunted redemption story about “us, every one.”

Quartet for the End of Time

A music documentary about Olivier Messiaen's transcendent masterpiece, that he composed in a World War II prison camp, and debuted there on January 15, 1941. This film was completed on the 75th Anniversary of that historic premiere, and features "The President's Own" United States Marine Band Ensemble performing in rehearsal and at The Phillips Collection, in Washington, D.C. (Note by H. Paul Moon)

Sitka: A Piano Documentary

The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. has been presenting concerts alongside its paintings since 1941. Some of the world's leading pianists have played its Steinway Concert D 542016, but they started hearing something wrong with it: the soundboard. This half-hour documentary - named for the spruce wood that replaced it - tells the story of tearing the piano apart, and bringing it back to life. Along the way, we learn how a piano works, and witness the consummate art of restoration by PianoCraft. Rising international star Olivier Cavé puts it to the test, playing his specialty of Joseph Haydn, in this richly textured cinematic music documentary by independent filmmaker H. Paul Moon.

György Ligeti: Poème Symphonique For 100 Metronomes

Video documentation of György Ligeti’s "Poème symphonique for 100 metronomes," presented by the 21st Century Consort on December 22, 2020 in Washington, D.C. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill.

America - Walt Whitman

The confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was politically divisive, but Walt Whitman's 19th century wisdom remains timeless. In 1892, the poet wrote in prose: "I have sometimes thought, indeed, that the sole avenue and means of a reconstructed sociology depended, primarily, on a new birth, elevation, expansion, invigoration of woman." Towards the end of his life in 1888, he added "America" to his collection "Leaves of Grass," and then recited four lines from the poem, onto a wax cylinder recording, before he died (it is the only record of his voice in existence): "Centre of equal daughters, equal sons, All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old, Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich, Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love" And the written poem proceeds to say: "A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother, Chair’d in the adamant of Time."

Facing West

A cinematic setting of poems by Walt Whitman that span his whole life's work, commemorating his bicentennial year. Features the poet's Long Island native "personator" Darrel Blaine Ford, manifesting and reciting "Song of Myself," "There Was a Child Went Forth," "Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun" and "Facing West From California's Shores." Filmed at the poet's birthplace, the Long Island shore, Manhattan, and where West meets East.

Four Minutes

Jenny is young. Her life is over. She killed someone. And she would do it again. When an 80-year-old piano teacher discovers the girl’s secret, her brutality and her dreams, she decides to transform her pupil into the musical wunderkind she once was.

August Rush

Evan, a musically gifted orphan, runs away from his orphanage and searches New York City for his birth parents. On his journey, he's taken under the wing of the Wizard, a homeless man who lives in an abandoned theater. After discovering his talent, the Wizard gives Evan the name "August Rush" and devises a plan to profit from his talent. Little does Evan know that his parents, Lyla and Louis, are searching for him too.

Once

A vacuum repairman moonlights as a street musician and hopes for his big break. One day a Czech immigrant, who earns a living selling flowers, approaches him with the news that she is also an aspiring singer-songwriter. The pair decide to collaborate, and the songs that they compose reflect the story of their blossoming love.

Amadeus

Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Salzburger composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.