arts & life

A girl plays violin, El Sistema-style, in Crescendo.

4°1

The Greater Farmington
Film Festival brings movies
with a conscience.

Jamie Bernstein

The Greater Farmington Film Festival
runs March 5-8 at various locations.
Admission is free for the children's film,
$5 per film for the others and $25
for a festival pass. Gffilmfest.com .

I

°4 linspirea

Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer

amie Bernstein has one regret
regarding her first film project,

Crescendo: The Power of Music. She
can't show it to her father, the late composer
and conductor Leonard Bernstein.
Visitors to the Greater Farmington Film
Festival, however, will be able to view the
documentary at 7 p.m. Friday, March 6, at
the Farmington Civic Theater. The festival
runs March 5-8 at various locations and is
hosted by the nonprofit organization kick-
stART Farmington.
One of seven films featured during the
festival, Crescendo documents the uplift-
ing nature of specialized music programs
for young people, a goal championed by
Bernstein's father through his televised
Young People's Concerts. "We followed three
kids for several years to convey how they
evolved through music:' says Bernstein,
based in New York.
"It all started about seven years ago when
I was on Facebook. Somebody had posted a
video of a guy conducting a youth orchestra
in the mambo from West Side Story, which
my father wrote. I watched young kids play-
ing the mambo like I never heard it played
in my life.

"Plus, they were jumping around, laugh-
ing and twirling their instruments. They
were suffused in joy, not dropping a note.
All I could think of was that this was basi-
cally everything about my dad all rolled
into one."
Bernstein learned she had been watch-
ing the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra
of Venezuela as conducted by Gustavo
Dudamel. Part of the El Sistema initiative,
the orchestra was launched to bring social
transformation to disadvantaged children.
After traveling to see the musicians for
herself, Bernstein discovered Sistema-
inspired programs in the United States. The
idea for filming three U.S. students — two
in Philadelphia and one in Harlem — was
developed with producer Elizabeth Kling.
"I'm not a filmmaker by training," says
Bernstein, who transformed herself into a
director. "If I had a clue what I was getting
into, I wouldn't have had the guts to pursue

it.

"Every time I scrambled to learn how one
thing worked, I would then be confronted
with the next gigantic learning curve. One
of the hardest parts was the fundraising:'
Bernstein, 62, had graduated Harvard
as an English major and briefly pursued a
career as a singer-songwriter until start-
ing a family. After her two children were

Get Inspired on page 59

February 26 • 2015

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