Overcoming Adversity, Inspiring Change, Finding Purpose and Toppling Political Regimes: Ten Films & Documentaries That Speak To the Transformative Power of Choral Singing

When one thinks of popular movies in which choral singing plays a central role, Sister Act (1992) starring Whoopi Goldberg, Pitch Perfect (2012), or Joyful Noise (2012) starring Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton might come to mind, but here is a list of ten films and documentaries you may not have heard of that speak to the role that choral singing plays in creating community, inspiring change, overcoming adversity, and in some cases, taking down political regimes.

1. The Singing Revolution (2006) Trailer

“Most people don’t think about singing when thinking about revolutions. But in Estonia song was the weapon of choice when, between 1987 and 1991, Estonians wanted to end decades of Soviet occupation.

The Singing Revolution shares how hundreds of thousands of Estonians gathered publicly to sing forbidden patriotic songs and share protest speeches, risking their lives to proclaim their desire for independence. While violence and bloodshed was the unfortunate end result in other occupied nations of the USSR, the revolutionary songs of the Estonians anchored their struggle for freedom, which was ultimately accomplished without the loss of a single life.”

2. Les Choristes (2004) Trailer 

Nominated for Academy Awards in both the Foreign Language Film and Best Song categories in 2004, this heart-warming French film directed by Christophe Barratier is an adaptation of the film A Cage of Nightingales (1945).  It tells the story of a young conductor, who after years of failed endeavors, tries to find his way in life.  When he takes a job teaching music in 1949 at Fond de l'Etang, a remote school for troubled boys orphaned by WWII, Clément Mathieu is unprepared for the harsh and depressing atmosphere perpetuated by the principal, an egotistical disciplinarian. Monsieur Mathieu finds himself at odds with the principal and decides to introduce choral singing as a way to win his students over.  With passion and unconventional teaching methods, he's able to spark his students' interest in music and bring them a newfound joy.

3. Gay Chorus Deep South (2019) Trailer

“In response to a wave of discriminatory anti-LGBTQ laws and the divisive 2016 election, the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus embarks on a tour of the American Deep South. Led by Gay Chorus Conductor Dr. Tim Seelig and joined by The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir; the tour brings a message of music, love and acceptance to communities and individuals confronting intolerance. Over 300 singers travelled from Mississippi to Tennessee through the Carolinas and over the bridge in Selma. They performed in churches, community centers and concert halls in hopes of uniting us in a time of difference. The journey also challenges Tim and other Chorus members who fled the South to confront their own fears, pain and prejudices on a journey towards reconciliation. The conversations and connections that emerge offer a glimpse of a less divided America, where the things that divide us—faith, politics, sexual identity—are set aside by the soaring power of music, humanity and a little drag. A Film by David Charles Rodrigues.”

4. We Are Together (2009) Trailer

“We South Africans sing before we sleep, sing before we eat, we sing when we are happy, we sing when we are celebrating, we sing when we are sad”. Slindile and her siblings have lived at Agape for four years, since their parents were taken by AIDs. Her elder siblings remain in the family home. Their lives are unremarkable on the surface. They go to school and play with their friends like all other children their age. Yet every evening after school, under the tutelage of Thelembani, the kids of Agape get together and sing: the result is truly extraordinary.  Full of twists and turns, We Are Together is the exceptional story of one family’s fight against adversity, and how music and friendship can brighten even the gloomiest of days.

5. The Homeless Chorus Speaks  (2019) Trailer

Directed and Produced by Susan Polis Schutz. Annukka Lilja, Editor. Bret Granato, Supervising Editor.

"The Homeless Chorus Speaks" is a compelling documentary that creatively depicts a critical and timely social issue: people living without support and shelter. Using a unique community choir (Voices of Our City Choir) in San Diego as a vehicle to tell the stories of people suffering with homelessness, the film -- like all of Susan Polis Schutz’s documentaries -- effectively puts a human face on a crucial problem and makes it strikingly clear just how easily someone can end up living on the streets. - Lauren Mills, American Public Television Watch film here.

6. Amandla!:  A Revolution in Four Part Harmony  (2003)  Trailer

“Through a chronological history of the South African liberation struggle, this documentary cites examples of the way that music was used in the fight for freedom. Songs united those who were being oppressed and gave those fighting a way to express their plight. The music consoled those incarcerated, and created an effective underground form of communication inside the prisons.”

7. Conducting Hope (2013) Trailer

Conducting Hope is a documentary film featuring The East Hills Singers--the only prison choir in the country to sing beyond prison walls.

“Recidivism rates for prisoners have never been higher. Now the new documentary film Conducting Hope explores an inspiring solution, in the story of the East Hills Singers, the only men’s prison choir in the country to perform outside prison walls. Highlighting the extraordinary therapeutic power of music to change lives, the choir is also comprised in part by volunteer community members who serve as role models as well as former inmates who continue to sing with the choir after release. The film movingly portrays how a group of present and former prisoners, together with community volunteers, can forge a successful path back into society.”

8. Big Voice (2016) Trailer

Big Voice is a feature musical documentary that chronicles a year in the life of high school choir director Jeffe Huls and his most advanced ensemble. Mr. Huls’ passion for the choral arts and music literacy fuels his desire to exceed all standards and expectations. The results are hard won, yet exquisite. Following a series of competitive auditions, Mr. Huls compiles his dream ensemble - the most ideal combination of voices he’s ever had. He soon discovers that these thirty-two talented teenagers are also the most unwieldy group he has ever taught. Mr. Huls must convince his students to set aside their egos, conflicting styles, and teenage angst to achieve the artistry he knows they are capable of.

Big Voice is a story brimming with musical performances as it interweaves slices of life, interviews, and multi-camera coverage of masterwork performances to engage and entertain.

9. The Beatbox Choir (2007) Trailer

This is an award-winning documentary film from 2007 about the creation of beatboxer Shlomo's choir "The Vocal Orchestra". Filmmaker Colette McWilliams and her team were granted exclusive access throughout the 6 weeks between the choir's first meeting and performing their headlining show for the International Human Beatbox Convention. The film follows the highs and the lows as Shlomo, the Swingle Singers, MC Zani, Bellatrix and Spitf'ya break new ground to create a whole new performance sound - it's The Beatbox Choir! This film was independently produced in London and has previously only been shown at film festivals, including the OS International Film Festival where it was awarded Best Documentary, and at the D Reel International Film Festival, Australia where it was included in the official selection. Watch film here.

10. Never Stop Singing  (2019) PBS-Watch documentary here.

Minnesota is renowned for its outstanding choral music at the college, community and professional levels. What inspires this intense love of singing? Noted musicians Dominick Argento, Anton Armstrong, Philip Brunelle, David Cherwien, Rene Clausen, Stephen Paulus, Robert Robinson, Kathy Romey, Dale Warland and other composers share their passion for the choral art along with performance excerpts.

Commemorating the Centennial of The Red Summer, Grace Chorale of Brooklyn Commissions “A Stone to the Head: The Death of Eugene Williams.”

This year marks two significant anniversaries in American history:  the 400th anniversary of African slaves being brought to what is now the United States and the centennial of the Red Summer of 1919, when deadly racial clashes and lynchings across the country led to the deaths of hundreds of people, mostly African-Americans, as well as the destruction of thousands of African-American homes and businesses.  In the decade leading up to the summer of 1919, the Great Migration had begun in 1910, initiating the relocation north and west of six million African-Americans from the southern United States. Spurred by economic oppression and Jim Crow segregation laws, African-Americans found employment in Northern cities that were experiencing labor shortages due to World War I. However, returning white soldiers resented black Americans who had been given the jobs they themselves once held. African-American soldiers, in turn, resented their exclusion from the peacetime benefits enjoyed by white soldiers. Tensions reached a boiling point in the spring of 1919 when the first racially motivated attacks began. Lasting from May through October, the period of these conflicts became known as the "Red Summer."

 In a spirit of equal justice and reconciliation, Grace Chorale of Brooklyn commissioned Tanyaradzwa Tawengwa, a Zimbabwean composer and singer, and Flannery Cunningham, an American composer and musicologist, to write a piece that would commemorate this seminal period in American history that is often overlooked.  They chose to tell the story of the death of Euguene Williams, and the Chorale premiered the piece in March of this year.

 Eugene Williams was killed a century ago today on Sunday July 27, 1919, when five teenagers met at the 27th Street beach by Lake Michigan. The 25th Street beach was known as the “black beach” and at 29th Street was the “white beach,” but the boys had claimed 27th Street as their own. For several weeks, a team of black boys had come to 27th Street to work on a raft that would keep them afloat on the lake. The boys could not swim, but they knew if they held onto the raft, they could safely enjoy the water.

 That Sunday, however, their safety was challenged by a white man, George Stauber, standing at the breakwater near 26th Street. The man hurled stones in an effort to drive the boys off. At first the boys made dodging the stones into a game, but the game soon turned tragic. Eugene was struck on the forehead and drowned.  All this was reported to a black policeman, who marched up to 29th Street to identify Eugene’s killer. Officer Daniel Callahan, the white police officer on duty, refused to permit the arrest. As the two policeman argued, word spread like wildfire; hundreds of black patrons descended upon 29th Street beach and violence ensued. The death of Eugene Williams triggered a vicious clash that would be recorded in history as the “Chicago Race Riot,” the most devastating of at least 25 violent racial wars that took place during the summer of 1919.

 “A Stone to the Head: The Death of Eugene Williams” is a choral drama for a mixed chamber group, including an improvising percussionist and fixed media which features mbira recordings performed by Tanyaradzwa Tawengwa. The composers explain, “The Mbira dzaVadzimu is a Madzimbabwe (present-day Zimbabwe) instrument whose ritual purpose is to facilitate communication between the human plane and the ancestral realm. In Madzimbabwe cosmologies and spiritual practice, a murdered spirit cannot become an ancestor unless Kuripa, a ritual of confession and collective responsibility, is conducted. Until this happens, the spirit is to doomed to wander listlessly in the realm of the living — Kudzungaira — with no way to transition to Nyikadzimu, the land of the ancestors. Eugene’s spirit was condemned to such a fate. The purpose of this piece is to call on Eugene’s spirit, to tell his story and to assume collective responsibility that will at last usher his spirit to the land of ancestors where he can finally rest. As such, our goal with the text was to honor Eugene’s narrative through the use of as much primary source material as possible. We spent a great deal of time in detailed research, looking at sources that would serve our intention to tell this story as honestly as we could. These sources included firsthand accounts as well as the music and songs of the time.”

 James Baldwin is quoted as saying, "The great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it with us and are unconsciously controlled by it... history is literally present in all that we do."  This work is a vivid reminder of a painful chapter in American history that still defines who we are as a country today.

 Learn more about the Red Summer by reading Cameron McWhirter’s Red Summer:  The Red Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America.

Armed National Guards and African American men standing on a sidewalk during the race riots in Chicago, Illinois, 1919.

Jun Fujita/Courtesy of the Chicago History Museum

OperaDelaware and Wilmington Children’s Chorus Take the Choir to the Child with Neighborhood Choir Program-Wilmington, Delaware

In 2014, OperaDelaware and the Wilmington Children’s Chorus partnered to launch the Neighborhood Choir Program, a satellite-site model that creates smaller choirs in community centers and schools throughout the area.  Since then, the program has expanded into a 22-week choral music program that includes over 200 singers in grades K-5 who attend the Latin American Community Center After School Programs in three locations.  The singers perform a public concert at the end of each school year.

"There are plenty of opportunities to reach children where they are, both at Warner and within many neighborhood schools," said Kimberly Doucette, artistic director of Wilmington Children’s Choir. "We know through our work with WCC that exposure to musical training and the arts can be life-changing for children in underserved communities. This project makes it easy for more children to grow through a curriculum that values beautiful singing and musicianship while developing leadership, focus and positive social interaction." 

VOICES of Kentuckiana Spreading Message of Acceptance and Equality Through Their Music-Louisville, Kentucky

VOICES of Kentuckiana, founded in 1994 as an inclusive chorus that strives to change hearts and minds through song, “is a chorus for the community that celebrates diversity and is dedicated to fostering positive social change through artistic excellence.”  Under the direction of Jeff Buhrman, the chorus initiated a Youth Outreach Program in 2014 in an effort to bring their music and their message of acceptance and equality to local high schools.  Since then, they have partnered with GSAs, GSTAs and The Louisville Youth Group on performance projects and school programming. 

VOICES has a large footprint in the broader Louisville community.  The group has performed at the Indiana Bicentennial Celebration, Volunteers of America’s annual breakfast, the Louisville AIDS Walk, Kentuckiana Pride Festival, Shine on Louisville, The March for Justice, and World AIDS Day.  VOICES has partnered with choruses from Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Nashville to present joint concerts in Louisville, and they have performed with the Louisville Orchestra, the Louisville Brass Ensemble, the Louisville Gay Men’s Chorus, and with several community church choirs.

VOICES values inclusivity, courage, musicianship, cooperation, empowerment, integrity and joy.  The chorus has participated in international LGBTA choral festivals in Tampa (1996), San Jose (2000), Montreal (2004), Miami (2008), and Denver (2012, 2016).  “Joe Nord, who has been a member of VOICES for two years, loves the inclusiveness. ‘For a few years, I had been wanting to join a choral group but I hadn’t sung in several years and was concerned that I wouldn’t be good enough. My friend, Paula Head, had been singing with VOICES of Kentuckiana for several years and suggested I come to their open enrollment in the Fall of 2013. I knew very quickly I had found the right group!’”

Las Vegas Master Singers a Wellspring of Creativity & Joy in the Desert-Las Vegas, Nevada

When one thinks of Las Vegas, choral music is likely the last thing to come to mind.  However, The Las Vegas Master Singers have been defying that stereotype by making stunning choral music in the Las Vegas Valley since 1993.  The 100-voice community choir, founded by Susan L. Johnson, grew from a small group of dedicated vocalists who came together to sing "for the joy of it." Since then, the Master Singers quickly became recognized as one of the premiere choral organizations in the Las Vegas Valley.

The choir, under the direction of David B. Weiller, is comprised of teachers, choral directors, organists, pianists, and performers from the Southern Nevada community who are committed to forging partnerships with other arts organizations.  LVMS performs with Las Vegas Philharmonic, the Henderson Civic Symphony, the Desert Chorale, the Nevada Chamber Symphony, the Southern Nevada Opera Association, and the Cultural Arts Society.  The group has welcomed students from the Las Vegas Academy, Nevada School of the Arts, Las Vegas Dance Theater Studios, Palo Verde High School Chamber Singers and Boys Chorus of Southern Nevada as guest performers.

Evanston Civic Chorus United Through Harmony-Evanston, Wyoming

Evanston, Wyoming, population 12,400, was founded during the construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad.  The first train arrived in December 1868.  With an elevation of 6,800’, the city enjoys over 300 days of sunshine.  The mayor states on the town’s website, “I don’t think a day goes by that we don’t see an antelope or mule deer or maybe even both! Within the Bear River State Park we enjoy our own herd of buffalo and even a couple of bull elk!”

Since 2007, the Evanston Civic Chorus, a non-auditioned group, has been welcoming singers and enriching the community with their choral concerts.  It began as a community class offered by Uinta B.O.C.E.S #1 Education Center and then in 2012, the Evanston Civic Orchestra board voted to adopt the Civic Chorus, so membership was no longer by class enrollment.  “Though the details of how the Chorus functions have changed, and membership varies from year to year, the focus on community has remained constant since the beginning.  Singing together as a community unites us - Unison through Harmony.”

In addition to their two concerts a year, the chorus has performed at the Memorial Day Ceremony, the Fresh Air, Freedom and Fun Festival on July 4th, the Uinta County Museum Dedication, and the opening ceremony of the Tour of Utah bike race.  According to their website, “some of their most meaningful performances have been for audiences at the State Hospital and the Senior Center.”
 

Lowcountry Voices Celebrate Rich Cultural Heritage of the African-American Choral Tradition-North Charleston, South Carolina

South Carolina’s coastal region, known as the Lowcountry, has a rich musical history that has been shaped by people who have inhabited the region, including the native Edisto, Sewee and Kiawah Indians, planters from Barbados, early French Huguenot settlers and of course West African and Caribbean slaves brought to work the rice, indigo and later, cotton, plantations that were the Carolinas' economic engine. Today the influences of Gullah culture, including remnants of a creole-based language and culinary and craft traditions, are a vital part of Lowcountry heritage.

In 2012, Nathan Nelson founded Lowcountry Voices, a multicultural and ethnically diverse choral performing arts organization based in North Charleston, SC, in an effort to give voice to those distinct traditions and to preserve the cultural legacy and authenticity of African-American music.  Its repertoire includes traditional and contemporary gospel music, spirituals, hymns, jazz, classical choral music, and music from the theater and movies.  The choir is based in North Charleston, but its members are drawn from across the entire Lowcountry region and beyond.  

LCV has cultivated partnerships with various choirs in the region, including the College of Charleston Gospel Choir and Claflin University Concert Choir, and has performed at the Inaugural Lincoln Center Global Exchange Evening Performance and with James Taylor in 2015.  The Lowcountry Voices provided music at the services for the Honorable Reverend Clementa Pinckney, the slain pastor of the Mother Emanuel AME tragedy, and provided the background singing behind President Obama’s rendition of Amazing Grace.  In July, 2015, LCV took the sounds of the Lowcountry internationally to Bermuda for two enthusiastically received performances.