The important documentary on the accordion, “Accordions Risings”, created by prominent film maker, Roberta Cantow, continues to garner awards and nominations. The latest one is “Nominee for Best Music Documentary” at the 2016 Barebones International Film & Music Festival to be announced at the Gala Awards Ceremony on April 24, 2016.
The festival was created by filmmakers, screenwriters and actors and was created for filmmakers, screenwriters and actors who are involved in independent motion picture projects anywhere in the world.
Named one of the “25 Festivals worth the entry fee” by Moviemaker Magazine and named one of the “20 best festivals for new and emerging filmmakers.” PBS included Bare Bones as one of the top 20 documentary festivals. The Bare Bones Film Festival experience has long been touted as the “Friendliest Film Festival” by the many filmmakers who return year after year.
The festival will feature narrative and documentary features, short documentary, short narrative and student films, music videos, animation and live screenplay readings in it’s competitive program.
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, Louisiana 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 Global 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 formal release on DVD, go to the website: www.accordionsrising.com – click on Contact and join the mailing list or contact Roberta: rcantow@originaldigital.net
