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cinemediapromo
Captain
Joined: Jan 18, 2008
Member#: 20035
Posts: 1128
    
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 Posted:
Thu Feb 18, 2016 10:36 pm Post subject: MA: Steve London/Chau, Beyond the Lines (Oscar nominated Doc |
 
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* * * MEDIA ALERT * * *
Academy Award® Nominated Documentary Short Film,
CHAU, BEYOND THE LINES
Features Original Music By Steve London
CHAU, BEYOND THE LINES - Academy Award® Nominee in the Best Documentary Short Subject.
During the Vietnam War, the United States dropped 20 million gallons of chemicals onto the dense jungles of Vietnam in order to rid the Northern Vietnamese Army of their food and cover. More than 40 years later, Chau, a teenager living in a Vietnamese care center for kids disabled by the chemical Agent Orange, battles with the reality of his dream to one day become a professional artist. With a rare disability in his arms and legs, Chau is repeatedly told his dream is not only unrealistic, but impossible. At age 17 and against all odds, Chau ventures out into the real world to see if, in fact, he can make his dream a reality.
CHAU, BEYOND THE LINES is nominated for an Academy Award® in the Documentary Short Film category.
ABOUT THE COMPOSER – Steve London
Having studied composition and conducting with Canada’s music elite: John Burge, Marjan Mozetich and Kristi Allik, Steve London received a certificate of specialization from the world renowned 'Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television' program at the University of Southern California. The opportunity to study in L.A. with such composers as Elmer Bernstein, Jerry Goldsmith and Christopher Young, was invaluable and integral to his development as a serious composer for film and television. He quickly went on to work as a score coordinator for Christopher Young on such films as UNFORGETTABLE, HEAD ABOVE WATER, and COPYCAT.
Mr. London lives and works in both Los Angeles and Toronto. He has composed the score for the Oscar nominated Best Documentary (Short Subject), CHAU, BEYOND THE LINES. He also has written music for many feature films including BANK$TAS (Main Street Films), SHALLOW GROUND (Universal) and the upcoming Ethan Hawke/Chet Baker feature, BORN TO BE BLUE (IFC). Also recently, the feature documentary he scored, ONCE UPON A CRIME: THE BORRELLI-DAVIS CONSPIRACY has won the juried award for Best Feature Documentary at the Austin Film Festival and DocUtah Film Festival.
COMPOSER’S STATEMENT
“Composing the score for CHAU, BEYOND THE LINES was a wonderful journey for me personally and professionally. The film had a huge emotional impact on me and it also resonated deeply with me as an artist. How can one not be inspired watching Chau's determination to succeed in realizing his dream of becoming a painter despite his physical disabilities and the odds stacked against him?
“Courtney Marsh, the director, took a very careful, measured approach to telling Chau's story because she was very aware that she could easily stray into territory that could make the film feel either maudlin or saccharine. Consequently, when it came time to score the film, we had very long discussions about what the themes of the film were and how just the lightest musical brush strokes to underscore these emotional points was what was needed.
“One of the key themes of the film that Courtney wanted to touch upon with the score was Chau's unconquerable spirit and she wanted to do it in a way that was "positive" but not overdoing it and pushing it into "happy" territory. I also felt that because the story is set against the backdrop of Vietnam and the terrible legacy of Agent Orange contamination, the score should reflect in the subtlest way possible some of the music and instrumentation of Vietnam. As well, the style of the score was also influenced partially by Chau and his art. Because of Chau's painting style, ie. he paints everything with his mouth, many of his painting have a diffuse look to them as he dabs little bits of paint at a time on to the canvas. I had the idea to mirror this diffuse style with the music and much of this can be heard in the organic soundscapes I created out of the traditional Vietnamese instruments.
“After sketching out and mocking up several ideas for Courtney, we then worked together to mold the minimalist but warm sound of the score. I used recorded material from a 'đàn tranh', a traditional Vietnamese plucked zither, and a 'đàn tam thập lục', a traditional Vietnamese hammered dulcimer, and created the warm organic textures by processing those sounds into pads. The melody themes echo fragments of traditional Vietnamese folk songs. I played those melodies on Tibetan prayer bowls and on a piano with felted strings, processing those as well. Finally, I mixed the score stems for the dub with a stereo-image enhancing plug-in so that it stretched the soundscapes slightly more than normal left and right, giving a wider stereo image and making the score slightly more diffuse and organic sounding once again.
“My heartfelt thanks to Courtney Marsh and Jerry Franck for allowing me the honour to be part of a film with such a strong voice, not only in bringing attention to the wider issue of the plight of Agent Orange victims but also in illustrating the unconquerable human spirit.” – Steve London
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
“Eight years ago, I traveled to Vietnam with a classmate to make a documentary on the plight of the street kids in Ho Chi Minh City. However, not too long into our trip, we were introduced to a small care center for kids disabled by Agent Orange, tucked away in the back of a maternity hospital. When I entered, something struck deep inside me and I decided to volunteer there for a week, becoming close with the kids almost instantly. I asked them if I could film their lives, and thus, began a two month journey that would span out into my 8 year endeavor.
“When I started the film, what really struck me was that kids are kids, no matter what label the outside world gives them. The children in the center were poster children for Agent Orange, a chemical they didn't really know or think about. They cared about candy, soccer, toys, and their own dreams. It was those children's perspectives that transcended the gravity of the Vietnam War for me.
“And as I finished this film, what I saw and began to believe was the truth of the unconquerable human spirit. I focused on Chau's story because of the relentless pursuit for his dream to be an artist. He taught me to hope in a world where, most often than not, there is a lack of such. If we could all look at the larger picture, focus on what we have rather than what we don't have, perhaps our seemingly impossible dreams would be actually within our reach.” –Courtney Marsh
# # #
#chau4change
For more information contact KrakowerGroup[at]gmail.com, or @KrakowerGroup on Twitter |
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