AWW continues to provide up to date information on “Accordions Rising”, the important documentary on the accordion, created by prominent film maker, Roberta Cantow. So far the film has received the Winner, Award of Merit from the Accolade Global Film Competition and is the 2016 Official Selection of the Cinema On the Bayou Film Festival. Read future publications of the USA News for updates.

Roberta Cantow said, “Accordions Rising” had its debut screening at the Cinema on the Bayou Film Festival in Lafayette, Louisiana in January, 2016, where it was well received by an audience of film goers, music educators, music aficionados and film enthusiasts. Within no more than a week, the very reputable educational film distribution company, Filmakers Library expressed an interest in wanting it for their collection.  This is very good news for the film since Filmaker’s Library is now an imprint of Alexander Street Press, Inc.

This means that the film will have the possibility of being purchased, screened, streamed and presented in university and public libraries, and for college classrooms all over the country and beyond.” Roberta has a long-standing relationship with this company which has been distributing her film, Clotheslines, since 1982, and she is thrilled.

From the “Accordions Rising” Website: “Accordions Rising offers entertaining, conversational style interviews, anecdotal commentary and both formal and informal music performances from celebrated accordionists, composers and bands working in America today.

These musicians make up the colorful and thoughtful cast of characters who drive the story by tracing their uniquely personal attractions to the instrument and sharing their surprisingly divergent paths: from immigrant roots, Creole or Roma beginnings, for example, to a recognition of the very special niche this so-called “low art” form provides for inspirations in jazz, classical, new music, pop, fusion forms, operatic styles and beyond.

The film provides a tapestry of fascinating individuals, their attitudes, deep passions, and above of all else, profound dedication to the instrument. We learn that though still a rebellious lot, these music makers have an audience in some of the hippest hide-a-ways and most sought after mainstream venues. The film makes clear that the so-called “accordion world” is actually a curious continuum that includes everything from wacky and kitsch to sophisticated, serious, meditative and post modern. As Dr. William Schimmel points out, “the accordion is the icon of the 21st century.”

Someone in the audience in Lafayette pointed out that everyone in the film seemed to be saying, in one way or another, that “the roots of the rise of interest today seemed to be found in the evocative nature of the instrument.” 

“Roberta Cantow was recognized with her first 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 of 4 film works.

She received a NY Area Emmy for her film, Clotheslines, about the symbolic and artistic role of laundry in women’s lives. Her films and additional videos have garnered several Best of Category Citations in film festivals around the country as well as an Award of Excellence for Dreamtime, in 2008 and an Award of Merit for Not a Still Life, both in the documentary category, from the Accolade Competition. Her 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 work will be housed in the Sophia Smith Women’s History Collection of Smith College (in perpetuity).

If you would like to be informed of the film’s release on DVD, go to the website: www.accordionsrising.com – click on Contact and join the mailing list or contact Roberta: rcantow@originaldigital.net