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The Reach of Resonance

2012: A Musical Odyssey 2012 / The Reach of Resonance / USA, Slovak Republic, Palestine, France, Czech Republic, Canada, Australia 2010

Violinist Jon Rose uses his bow to turn Palestinian barricades into musical instruments; Miya Masaoka uses music to communicate with insects and plants. Shot in ten countries, this film portrait gives us contemporary musicians with a social conscience, and all are connected through the famous Kronos Quartet.

The Reach of Resonance

Synopsis

How would we describe music whose makers use it to cultivate a deeper understanding of the world around them? Canadian filmmaker Steve Elkins shot his film meditation in ten countries with the collaboration of four representatives of contemporary music philosophy: all of them are ultimately connected through the world famous Kronos Quartet, who perform their works. Violinist Jon Rose uses his violin bow to turn fences and barbed wire into musical instruments in Palestine and the Australian outback; Miya Masaoka creates music to interact with insects and plants; John Luther Adams "translates” the geophysical phenomena of Alaska into musical forms; and Bob Ostertag, who made his entire work freely available on the Internet, examines socio-political issues through processes as diverse as transcribing a riot into a string quartet, and generating live cinema from refuse. The film explores music not as a form of entertainment or as a means to a career, but as a tool to develop more profound relationships with people and today’s complex world.

About the film

116 min / Color, DIGIBETA

Director Steve Elkins / Dir. of Photography Steve Elkins / Music Jon Rose, Bob Ostertag, Miya Masaoka, John Luther Adams / Editor David Marks, Steve Elkins / Producer David Marks, Steve Elkins / Cast Jon Rose, Bob Ostertag, Miya Masaoka, John Luther Adams, Kronos Quartet / Contact Steve Elkins
www: www.reachofresonance.com

About the director

Steve Elkins

Steve Elkins is a private investigator, "Venetian” gondolier, writer, musician and photographer who spent the first decade of the 21st century filming a wide variety of pioneering composers and free improvisers: the result is his first film The Reach of Resonance. His autobiographical The Grammar of Fire (2007, Warner Bros and Ad Astra Books) contains a true account of his being asked to lead a riot in the slums of Mumbai. In 2011 Elkins began shooting his second film, whose locations include Eastern Siberia and CERN’s Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.

Contacts

Steve Elkins
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E-mail: [email protected]

Guests

Pavel Klusák
Freelance journalist

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