BEETHOVEN’S NINE: ODE TO HUMANITY

BEETHOVEN'S NINE: ODE TO HUMANITY
Larry Weinstein | Canada / Germany 2024 | 83' | Original language

In early 2023, filmmaker Larry Wein stein set out to explore the enduring legacy of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony 200 years after it was composed - only to be drawn into his own film by world events themselves: His sister and brother-in-law were murdered in the attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, 2023 - prompting Weinstein to turn the project into a deeply personal reflection on the power of art in the face of political catastrophe.

The film shows nine contemporary positions on Beethoven's epochal work, including the Ukrainian-Canadian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson, director of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra made up of Ukrainian refugees; the composer Gabriela Lena Frank from the USA, who was born with significantly impaired hearing; the Polish rock singer Monika Brodka and the Canadian psychologist Steven Pinker; but also with the celebrities Charles M. Schulz (the creator of the "Peanuts" comic strip) and Leonard Bernstein - an exploration of resilience at the interface between art and life, driven by the same urge that may have inspired Beethoven to write his masterpiece: to consistently stand up for peace, freedom, compassion and humanity.

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