Tocar y luchar

It was a good idea to make this documentary about the hard labor with the orchestras in Venezuela, to show how big and hard was to make the project and all the years it took to see the results, now days the Venezuelan orchestra it's really famous and many Latinamerican countries are imitating the project.

The problem with this film it's the realization, I mean, the technical part it's bad, the edition has some serious problems, you can see a scene and then they cut it and put another in a rough way, same with the sound that sometimes don't let you hear the interviews so well, the cameras are moving all the time with not so good angles... that was the problem with this film, good idea, interesting but not so well done...

Something has been happening in Venezuela for the past thirty years, something that should sound a reveille around the world. This excellent film written and directed by Alberto Arvelo Mendoza with Carlos Díaz may at first seem like a propaganda film from Venezuela, but within moments of the opening aqueous credits the audience is poised for discovery.

TOCAR Y LUCHAR ('To Play and To Fight') is a documentary about the National Youth Orchestras of Venezuela, an organization now headed by Jose Antonio Abreu that focuses on providing instruments, musical training, and the experience of becoming part of a classical music orchestra to the children of Venezuela. The result is the truly superb Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela that has been touring the world under the leadership of principal conductor Gustavo Dudamel providing inspiration not only to young people who long for something meaningful in their lives, something like the majesty that classical music offers, but also bringing audiences in Berlin, Munich, Italy, and throughout the United States to their feet. This superb DVD explains how this happens, and the success of the film is the radiant faces of the thousands of young students who are becoming leading musicians of world-class quality.

Yes, there are live performances conducted by Dudamel as well as Claudio Abbado, Simon Rattle, and Giuseppe Sinopoli and there are moments of tribute from these conductors as well as from singers such as Placido Domingo and from commentators. But the real magic of the DVD lies in the expressions and the interviews with the members of the orchestra. This is a success story we should all heed: perhaps the salvation of our young people is here in this concept of providing opportunity and inspiration through classical music training. The film is not only a fulfilling visual and aural experience, it is also a beacon of hope whose light hopefully will be shared by all countries of the globe. Highly recommended not only for music educators but also for everyone who cares about the future of music and our children! Grady Harp

This film about the youth orchestra in Venenzula literally had me weeping at the very beginning. My god!! The Passion! The drive the kids had! This made me all mushy. The music the kids play is simply beautiful, and I don't know, it's just so emotional to see kids with such drive. I really enjoyed the subject of this film. It's just too bad it's ruined by the totally hideous camera work, it's just shaking all over the place, stupid editing (whoa! choppy choppy!) and bad BAD archival footage they had. I'm all for archival footage, but please, when you present something like this, you NEED to make it presentable, not in a total blur. The concert footage in this movie is just BAD. I wonder where they took the footage from. A terrible flaw in an otherwise great movie.

I just wanted to add a few comments regarding the criticisms to this film, specifically its production values. I wanted to provide some background so that the film is viewed within its historical context.

This film was originally a commission piece by the Venezuelan National Youth Orchestra to Director Alberto Arvelo. The orchestra wanted an internal corporate video to be used for the orchestra's 30th anniversary. It was not initially predicted that the film would have such international interest or that the film would eventually screen around the world. The film instead had a clear internal purpose: to document the role of the orchestra and its founders in the status of music education in Venezuela. The film was therefore produced with a minimal budget and very limited resources. There were no funds for online editing, fixing archival footage, color correction, online mastering, etc, etc. In addition, the editorial decisions had to be made in the context of its initial purpose.

Despite these limitations, the director created such a beautiful work that we agreed to help the film reach the international markets. We then began coordinating the film's distribution and festival appearances in 2006 and invested significant amounts of money in bringing the film to the international scene, mostly because we are committed to this story. Unfortunately, we did not have the resources necessary to re-edit the film and fix some of the technical and editorial problems, but we are working hard in raising these funds and we anticipate completing the re-edit this film in 2007. We hope that the new version of the film will facilitate its commercial distribution and ensure the dissemination of this inspirational story throughout the world.

Nestor L. Lopez-Duran Executive Vice-President Explorart Films