BEETHOVEN’S NINE: ODE TO HUMANITY (Hot Docs)
When the story becomes personal
A Film by Larry Weinstein
World Premiere
Country: Canada
2023
Languages: English
Director Larry Weinstein
Produced by Liam Romalis, Jason Charters, Riddle Films Inc.
Executive Producer Sarah Polley
Runtime: 83 minutes
This film's synopsis doesn't do it justice. The film veers way beyond the concept of Beethoven's music and war to connections to art, and psychology and then it becomes personal for the director.
I was captivated by this film and originally thinking it was just going to be a history lesson about Beethoven and his career. It was that and so much more. Told through some archival footage and interviews with psychologists, music historians, and people connected to art and culture. There are links to the music and war and it starts off with references to Hitler and the Germans. This film was in progress during the Russia/Ukraine conflict so it references that war as well. The film was also filmed in the middle of the October 7, 2023 attack on the Israelis by Gaza. The connection to that conflict became extremely personal to the director as his sister was one of the people who was shot in a field with her husband and they didn't know if they were alive or not. The director was then forced to connect his personal story to the original story in the film making this a richer layered and sad connection to the film.
The other notable connections to Beethoven were the cartoon strips created by Charles Schulz. You will never look at that comic strip the same way after seeing the connection. Conductor Leonard Bernstein's last performances are portrayed in the film and the connection is made to his life.
The making of Beethoven's last compositions was extraordinary because he was deaf and the making of this film became equally as extraordinary because of the real-life situations that were parallel to the making of the film.
There are many themes including, equality, power, wealth, art, suffering, freedom, and many other emotions that are brought to the surface.
I don't have a release date. The doc had 3 screenings at the Hotdocs.ca film festival.
If it gets released soon please make sure you put it on your watchlist. It's a very important film.
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