El Sistema documents power of music

By Lee Hyo-won

There is nothing as invisible as sound, yet as powerfully gripping as music.

In 1975, a group of 11 children, including juvenile delinquents, gathered in an old garage in a Venezuelan barrio. They picked up musical instruments ― instead of guns ― and learned what it’s like to play in an orchestra. Thirty-five years down the road, El Sistema has become a pan-national program with centers dotting the entire country, and what began with less than a dozen students now has over 300,000.

``El Sistema: Music to Change Life’’ documents the namesake music program that has truly transformed the fate of Venezuela. This 2008 film is so positive ― like the stuff of Disney dreams ― that it initially seems like ― and if you think about it, it really is ― a promotional video for El Sistema.

But the system has had plenty of publicity. Gustavo Dudamel, the not-yet-30 maestro with a mound of wild, curly hair that shakes rhythmically to his baton, has given El Sistema enough spotlight with his rags-to-riches story. Sure, the newly appointed music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic makes an appearance to share how wonderful El Sistema is, but the film shows that the system’s ultimate goal is not discovering and fostering world-class musicians from the most ``unlikely’’ of places ― as in Dudamel’s case, and is more than inspiring, but it is about the means rather than end. Taking kids from drug- and violence-infested slums and anchoring them with something meaningful.

Children first experiment with papier-mache instruments, to learn that music must come from the heart, rather than perfecting technique. These young musicians go on to experiment on actual instruments, and one must be reminded that they are barely toddlers as their eyes fire up the moment they start playing in unison. Moreover, El Sistema, true to its policy that music education should be inclusive, invites deaf or hard-of-hearing children to join the White Hand Choir to sing in sign language.

The urgency of the music-making and the message it conveys are so powerful that any doubts one may have in the mise-en-scene or the film’s intentions are ultimately silenced ― or rather, drowned out by zestful orchestra tunes featured throughout the film.

Moreover, the focus of the film is on the people of El Sistema. Dr. Jose Antonio Abreu, the economist-cum-musician and visionary founder of El Sistema, shares his views while tireless teachers express enthusiasm about their work. But most of all, the children, who are at once the beneficiaries and the propelling power of El Sistema, are the crown jewels of the film. Paul Smaczny (the 2006 International Emmy Award-winning film ``Knowledge Is the Beginning’’) and co-director Maria Stodmeier follow three children for over a year, and suggests that Roderyk Alvarado, for example, a proud member of El Sistema, is less likely to join a gang in poverty-struck Caracas. El Sistema is revolutionary at both micro and macro levels, beginning with the family members of El Sistema students, who support them wholeheartedly.

Some of the kids may grow to follow in the steps of Dudamel. The most affecting part of this young conductor’s appearance is how he shows, rather than speaks, about the power of El Sistema: The Simon Bolivar Orchestra, under his direction, creates classical music in a way like it has never been played before. They demonstrate the significance of live, contemporary classical music-making in this MTV age ― indeed as Maestro Simon Rattle once said, ``The future of classical music lies in Venezuela.’’

``El Sistema’’ has naturally hot-wired the film festival circuit, touring and picking up prizes in Chicago, Orlando and Honolulu to Switzerland, Greece and the Czech Republic. Since its release in 2008, it has probably become staple audiovisual teaching material in classrooms across the world. Yet its belated theatrical release here, where illegal downloading has become the norm, does not seem to be an entirely lost cause. The film, particularly with its roof-raising score, deserves to be seen on the big screen, and would make an apt outing for families with children on summer vacation.