Screening of “Sound to Music”

Wed 16 Oct 2013, 8 pm
ATK

From The Onion Cellar:

The Onion Cellar proudly presents: the highly-anticipated prologue to SAD AND BEAUTIFUL WORLD – our little film festival taking place in Hanoi next month.

A preview screening of the incredibly moving Japanese music documentary SOUND TO MUSIC!

SOUND TO MUSIC (2010)
Tomoyuki Hattori

* SAD AND BEAUTIFUL WORLD takes place in Hanoi from the 15th to the 24th of November. More information here. More films to be announced this week.

SOUND TO MUSIC is a documentary about the Japanese OTO ASOBI project.

OTO ASOBI consists of 16 people with learning disabilities and their families, about 20 artists from various fields, and music therapists. Individuals with learning disabilities include autism, Down syndrome, Williams syndrome and so on, whose ages range from 8 to 42. They collaborate freely with artists such as free improvisers, pop musicians, butoh dancers, and installation artists. Over 50 guest artists have been involved so far to create new performances. Parents of the people with learning disabilities are also important members who make their own music using cardboard boxes, kitchen utensils, and even hoovers.

“I came to know about OTO ASOBI only very recently, and yet this little intriguing project immediately garnered a great deal of my interest and respect, for its beautiful objective, its humanity, and its tireless efforts in trying to bring an idea not the easiest to realise, into the realm of reality.

Having certain past experiences with individuals with learning difficulties, I am aware of how tricky it must have been to gather all these idiosyncrasies into even the least resemblance to a unit, let alone one that is supposed to play music together, in sonic harmony of an improvisational nature.

Furthermore, how well would the professional musicians get along with the kids? Would the two groups play equal roles in the ensemble, or would the latter simply be dragged along the former’s artistic trails? Would the project be able to achieve its aim of discovering a new language of musical expression?

Happy to report, they succeeded. It is difficult not to be moved by the enthusiasms of all involved. And when came the days of the public performances the whole group were working towards, it was truly a pleasure to witness such coming-together of minds and souls – no distance found between kids, musicians, volunteers, parents, and music’s profound power of connecting people championed, once again.”
(Hung Tran)

Free entry.

Languages: Japanese with subtitles in both Vietnamese and English

[youtube]http://youtu.be/iMS2sXgL0hQ[/youtube]