River City Drumbeat
2019
River City Drumbeat had its World Premiere at DOC NYC in November of 2019.
Ed Nardie White (aka Mr. Nardie) has led an afterschool community drum corps in Louisville, Kentucky for nearly three decades, drawing on Pan-African culture and music to mentor youth in his neighborhood. Now in his sixties, Mr. Nardie feels he must step down so the group has a chance to continue on. The film follows his final year as he trains his successor Albert Shumake, a young man whose own life was saved by the drumline community. With compelling characters, evocative visuals, and powerful drumline performances, River City Drumbeat is a testament to the power of art, culture, and community on the human experience.
Symphony for Nature: The Britt Orchestra at Crater Lake
2017
A vibrant half-hour documentary about the world premiere of “Natural History,” the powerful new composition by Michael Gordon inspired by and performed at Oregon’s breathtaking Crater Lake. Commissioned by the Britt Music & Arts Festival in honor of the centennial of America's National Parks Service, the new musical work brought the Britt Orchestra together with a diverse ensemble of regional musicians, including Klamath tribe drum group Steiger Butte Singers. The documentary artfully portrays dynamic interaction between this extraordinary musical experience and the eternal power of the legendary lake.
Serenade for Haiti (Serenad pou Ayiti)
2016
Filmed over a seven-year period, Serenade for Haiti tells the story of a remarkable music school located in the heart of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, before and after the devastating earthquake of 2010. Journeying into Haiti’s beautiful and diverse rural regions and deep into the streets of Port-au-Prince, Serenade for Haiti brings to the screen an unforgettable and vivid tableau of this complex and widely misunderstood country. The film finds a story of transcendence and great humanity as the students and teachers of the Sainte Trinité Music School turn to music and education to unlock the power of their own lives. The soundtrack features the stunning music of Haiti's great composers who until this time have been largely unknown to international audiences.
Music Makes A City NOW
2010
Music Makes A City NOW, a web series inspired by the film Music Makes A City, follows 27-year-old conductor, composer and rising star Teddy Abrams, a man on a mission to revitalize the Louisville Orchestra in his first year as Music Director and to discover and connect with the local music culture. Music Makes A City NOW is not only a musical comeback story, but an exploration of arts advocacy and leadership, the intersection of civic community and arts culture, the benefits of music on society, and the value of new music and music education.
All episodes are now available online at YouTube/MusicMakesaCityNow.
Music Makes A City
2009
In the late 1940s, an orchestra in Louisville, Kentucky was about to go out of business. At that point, a new mayor stepped into office whose views about civic vitality were founded on the ideas of the Chinese sage Confucius. His vision of prosperity was focused on making the arts available to every citizen of the city. Music Makes a City tells the rousing, inspiring, nearly unbelievable story of an American city and its orchestra.
Night Waltz: The Music of Paul Bowles
2001
Two years before his death in 1999, Paul Bowles welcomed first time filmmaker Owsley Brown into his life. Bowles was enthusiastic and supportive of Brown's idea to make a film about Bowles's relatively unknown life as a composer. They began working together to present Bowles's music in a manner which would allow the audience to experience it for themselves. Night Waltz is the happy result of Brown's long time fascination with the world famous expatriate writer.