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1-18 of 18
- Known for his mournful "Adagio for Strings," Samuel Barber was never quite fashionable. "Samuel Barber: Absolute Beauty" is a probing exploration of the American composer's music and melancholia.
- A cinematic presentation of music composed by Daron Hagen, in combination with the original 1920 public domain film "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," and concert footage filmed and edited by H. Paul Moon of the live performance by Tramp Orchestra conducted by Erin Freeman at the world premiere.
- A visual setting of selected Civil War poems from Walt Whitman's "Drum-Taps" in "Leaves in Grass."
- 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.
- 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."
- "95 Theses" is a documentary film project that coincides with the 500th anniversary of the symbolic start of the Protestant Reformation. Instead of telling Martin Luther's whole biographical story, the film incorporates interviews with theologians of different faith traditions, from Catholic to Anglican to Presbyterian to Lutheran. The 500th anniversary is really about Luther's posting of the 95 Theses on October 31, 1517 - and so, resisting the evangelical fanfare of other films for the occasion, this one focuses on the document itself, and asks what it can tell us 500 years later. Combining lush cinematography of Saxony, with rapid-fire footage of today's social and religious movements, this unique film includes original music by experimental hip hop artist Black Saturn. "95 Theses" asks questions we can't ignore, and takes a hard look at who we've become.
- In the first half of the 20th Century, a massive diesel engine in Copenhagen, Denmark was the world's largest. Still preserved and working, it fires up monthly. 'Simple Machines,' as a short visual study, takes this occasion to explore the notion of human machinery: not just what we create, but circling back to the systems inside us, before us, and beyond us. 'Simple Machines' also lays homage to communication in culture, especially our printing machines that so recently and vastly accelerated civilization. R. Luke DuBois' electronic score, much like his visual work, combines programming process and creative inspiration into an evocative, motoric result that is at once organic and digital.
- In 2007, a portion of the poem 'The Wound Dresser' (1865) by Walt Whitman was inscribed into the granite wall around the north entrance escalators of the Dupont Circle Metrorail Station in Washington, D.C. A site-specific performance was staged and filmed there on May 24, 2014. Performers rode the escalators continuously with smart phones, cassette recorders and hand-held sound producers. Morse Code + MIDI transcription of the inscribed stanza serves as the basis of the music score.
- R. Luke DuBois is a composer and visual artist in New York City. His creative output builds on notions of cultural and romantic memory, exploring how information can be accelerated for emotional impact. This half-hour documentary interweaves conversations with visuals, performance, and behind-the-scenes footage. Featured in the film are MIVOS quartet and the Fair Use Trio.
- 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.
- A music documentary about the punk band Hamac Cazíim, who come from an remote region of northern Mexico, fusing the modern sound world of rock music with the indigenous language and musical traditions of their Comcáac nation.
- Combining cinematic western landscapes with intimate poetry recitation, 'Mining the Mother Lode' is an agrarian dirge on wasted resources, our culture of consumption, and brokers who trade on our most precious resource: water.
- A documentary film about artists who moved to an unexpected place in the heart of America where creativity thrives and a city's history unfolds.
- From the untold history of America's largest early immigrations, this half-hour documentary tells the story of 19th-century Saxons who settled in rural Missouri. Unprepared for the harsh conditions of America in 1838, and dismayed by the scandal of their leader Martin Stephan, they persevered to sow the seeds for one of the world's largest bodies of Lutheranism today. From interviews with historians and curators, to archival pictures and centennial re-enactments, this documentary interweaves historical storytelling with the music of J.S. Bach, in a tribute to faith and founding principles.
- 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.
- "Time Crunch" is a visual inspiration from Jordan Kuspa's same-named musical composition, originally presented in synchronization with a live chamber orchestra. The landscape/environmental footage came together slowly over two years of travel that included Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nevada, Russia and Denmark. Using familiar time-lapse techniques and framing movements, it is in some sense by now a "genre piece" following the rich tradition of pioneering filmmakers like Godfrey Reggio and Ron Fricke. The intention, at the very heart of time manipulation itself, is to evince broad ruminations about our civilization, our consumption of resources, and our place in nature.