Accordions Rising Documentary looks at the past, presents the present and considers the future of the accordion in our culture. It features a wide variety of players and styles, celebrates all and suggests that the musical possibilities are endless.

In the words of one Amazon Reviewer: “Hours after watching the terrific “Accordions Rising,” I find myself with a heightened awareness and a reconsideration of everyday things — always-present things I’ve paradoxically neglected in life. Such is the impact “Accordions Rising” has beyond the musical instrument it champions — it encourages a wider rethink and a re-invigoration of interest in all things ignored or maligned.

I shamefully had accordion players pegged as curiously happy-looking, older white men unduly obsessed with polka numbers. But here, accordionists themselves debunk my ignorance by providing their impassioned and charming oral histories of their own journeys leading them to a unique instrument; an instrument passively marginalized in society as something too quirky to be shown due respect or interest. These engrossing human interest stories and the sincerity and enthusiasm with which they’re told are interwoven with loads of music, which is now heard anew with freshly educated and reconditioned ears. We’re listening now, not just passively hearing and selectively ignoring.”

Accordions Rising Documentary is a wonderfully conceived and executed film which, by transcending its highly engaging subject matter, reminds us that we simply need to pay better attention — period — and afford things a preemptive curiosity and respect beyond what our knee-jerk inclinations may assume. Heavily recommended.”

Roberta shared, “The film is available on DVD from the website: www.accordionsrising.com where there is also more information about the featured players and musicians.  In addition to all  the streaming options listed on the purchae page,  it is available now on Apple TV as well.  If interested, people can also write to me at: (rcantow@originaldigital.net) to make special requests or ask questions.”

Blu Ray copies are available on-line at  Barnes and Noble, Amazon and Best Buy.”Accordions Rising” has won awards internationally and nationally including  two different Awards of Merit in the Documentary Category and one other: Global Accolade Competition – Award of Merit, November, 2015; Indie Film Fest, August, 2016 – Award of Merit;  Bare Bones International Music and Film Festival – Best Movie Poster, April, 2016. The film has been a winner at several accordion festivals across the country and in Wales, the UK and Germany.

Roberta Cantow was recognized with her first film grant from The American Film Institute while still a graduate film student at NYU. Through the years, The New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts and others provided grants for the completion and distribution of 4 film works and videos. She received a NY Area Emmy for her film, “Clotheslines” about the symbolic and artistic role of laundry in women’s lives, as well as many others.

Roberta’s work has been exhibited in many of the venues for independents, including a presentation in the Cineprobe Series of the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. Her four 16mm films were selected for archival preservation by the Donnell Media Center, New York City, in 2001. All of her film and video work will be archived in the newly named Special Collections of Smith College.

For further information: 
rcantow@originaldigital.net      
www.accordionsrising.com