The Sound Is Innocent

A documentary following the conscious evolution of electronic music culture and the spiritual movement that has awakened within.

Quite simply the finest theremin player who has ever lived, Clara Rockmore began her performing life as a violin prodigy at the age of 5 years old, still the youngest person ever admitted to the prestigious Imperial Conservatory of Saint Petersburg where she studied under the great Leopold Auer. Due to childhood malnutrition causing bone problems in her teen years, she was forced to give up the violin and moved to New York City in the mid 1920's where she met and became involved with Russian electronics genius Leon Theremin and helped him to refine and perfect his new instrument, giving advice from the standpoint of a musical performer to make the theremin more playable and developing her own hand techniques and exercises for playing the instrument.

Over two hours of rare performances, interviews, animations, and experimental video. Milton Babbit’s discussion of the difficulties of working with archaic synthesizers in the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in the 1950s and ’60s is a firm reminder of just how foreign electronic sounds were to even the academic community only 40 years ago. Likewise, Paul Lansky’s private lesson with theremin inventor Leon Theremin is an example of how non-user friendly electronic musical instruments could be, even to people who should have the best sense of how to approach them.

This documentary offers a behind-the-scenes look at Björk and her touring entourage for the 2001 Vespertine tour. It includes interviews with harpist Zeena Parkins, the Inuit choir from Greenland, electronic duo Matmos, and an ongoing conversation with Björk herself about her recordings and her tours. The documentary is interspersed with live footage of songs from the tour shot by Ragnheidur Gestsdóttir, which themselves correspond to the performances chosen for the Vespertine Live album.

Beginning on the eve of her thirtieth birthday, “Brave Enough,” documents violinist Lindsey Stirling over the past year as she comes to terms with the most challenging & traumatic events of her life. Through her art, she seeks to share a message of hope and courage and yet she must ask herself the question, “Am I Brave Enough?” Capturing her personal obstacles and breakthrough moments during the “Brave Enough,” tour, the film presents an intimate look at this one-of- a-kind artist and her spectacular live performances inspired by real-life heartbreak, joy, and love.