This movie was shown nationwide tonight (September 21, 2010) at 7 p.m. my time. Not sure what time it was shown your time. Other than that, my understanding is that it will be on limited release in Los Angeles and New York City. Tough cookies for the rest of us. I found this a wonderful, remarkable film that should probably be required viewing in high school history classes. There is a lot of first person and second generation history going on in this film. Lots of oral history. Great stories. Moving family tragedy and rebuilding. All in the last 100 years. I have yet to tell you what this is about! I better get to it!
The Premise: Cantor Nathan Lam arranges an historic visit to Warsaw with 100 Cantors to sing at the Warsaw Opera House to bring back Jewish culture and, more importantly, Jewish music, to Warsaw and Poland. Warsaw was the "Center of the Universe" for Cantorial Music. This roughly translates to the "Vatican of Jewish Music". Joining the Cantors is Charles Fox, an American Jewish composer who wrote "Killing Me Softly" and "I Got a Name" among many others, and whose father was born in a small Polish town.
The Fun Part: Prior to the beginning of the movie, the audience was treated to a "mini-concert" featuring several Cantors singing compositions written by Jewish American composers. Such as: Orange Blossom Special (with fiddler), Maria (from West Side Story), Blessing from Fiddler on the Roof, Oh What a Beautiful Morning from Oklahoma! And OOOOHHHHH, did they sing it well!
Now the serious stuff. This is a very informative film. With lots of excellent music. Operatic, orchestral sounding music. And, from time to time, jazzy music. With personal stories, personal histories and very moving scenes. I especially loved the two ladies who survived Auschwitz and Birkenau, and were able to go back and "walk back in and walk back out". Nothing like a little chutzpah in life. I greatly admire these two ladies. And all the survivors who went on to make a life, a family, a community and continue to love after surviving such horror.
Most of all, the movie shed light on a tradition of which I was unaware, that became popular and, I found out, some Cantors had such popularity that they had groupies. Who knew?
If you find you have the opportunity at some time to see this film, I encourage you to do so. I found it informative, from a historical, musical and personal perspective. Maybe I've led a very sheltered life. I can tell you, my history and music classes never covered this.
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