Digital Film Screening Kinshasa Symphony

A digital film series by Goethe Pop Up Kansas City

LUDWIG VAN: A cinematic celebration of Beethoven’s 250th birthday
 
Our Digital Film Haus is celebrating Beethoven’s 250th birthday with a series featuring various documentaries about LUDWIG VAN. Each film focuses on a different aspect of the composer’s work and life to explore influences and interpretations of his unforgettable music.
 
Kinshasa Symphony
Germany, 2010
By Martin Baer and Claus Wischmann
French with English subtitles 
95 min.
 
The musicians and vocalists of the “Orchestre Symphonique Kimbanguiste” in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, describe themselves as the only Black symphony orchestra. They are all amateurs who attend rehearsals after a hard day’s work and, finally, give a captivating concert in their capital. 

Kinshasa Symphony is, ultimately, an account of remarkable dedication. Founded in 1994, the orchestra and its concerts are not the result of a development aid project but of independent initiative. Claus Wischmann and Martin Baer observe the numerous rehearsals in preparation for the ensuing concert. They visually and audibly bring the long and cumbersome process to life, looking into the problems that the protagonists face – their day-to-day worries and the difficulties of turning their musical projects into reality. These range from the daily struggle for survival through to the complicated process of acquiring instruments, which they, if need be, have to build themselves. The focal point of the rehearsals is Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The highlights of the final concert include pieces by Handel and Orff. 
   

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