The Joy of Singing

  • Sundance
  • Rotterdam
  • HotDocs
  • CPH:DOX

The Joy of Singing is a music film about the positive power of singing together and the longing to be part of something.

Year

2022

Length

90 min / 108 min

Director

Torsten Striegnitz & Simone Dobmeier

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Synopsis

There is a special magic in singing together – everyone who has ever sung in a choir agrees on that. When a wide variety of voices come together in all their diversity, an enormous musical power is created. THE JOY OF SINGING follows this magic and accompanies three choir directors  as they turn a group of singing enthusiasts, some of whom could not be more different, into choirs of rousing musical intensity. It is a glimpse into a field of work in which closeness and distance, identification and projection have to be brought into balance anew each time. Sometimes playful, sometimes serious, but always highly fascinated and open-hearted, the documentary illuminates choral singing as a unique symbiotic connection between all participants. The overwhelming feeling of being part of a whole determines the rhythm of the film. Humanity is discovered in music, where the shared experience of sound becomes a social adventure and a moment of self-realization in equal measure.

The two filmmakers Torsten Striegnitz and Simone Dobmeier have succeeded in creating a great symbiosis of music and documentary film with THE JOY OF SINGING, which gives a true-to-life impression of the sense of community that singing in a choir means. Their film finds humanity in art and the magic in music. A moving and stirring cinematic experience of great warmth that emphasizes the unstoppable power of community in times of isolation and makes understandable how music brings people together.

Directors
Torsten Striegnitz & Simone Dobmeier

Produced by
Christian Beetz

Executive Producer
Georg Tschurtschenthaler, Kathrin Isberner

Producer
Zora Nessl

Associate Producer
Rabea Rahmig

DOP
Max Preiss, Marcus Winterbauer, Christoph Krauss, Falco Seliger

Editor
Torsten Striegnitz, Simone Dobmeier

Sound
Karsten Höfer

Soundmixing
Jörg Höhne

The Joy of Singing
Trailer
  • „Just in diesem Moment überraschen uns die aus dem Theaterbereich stammenden jungen Regisseure Hans Block und Moritz Riesewieck mit einem erstaunlichen Dokumentarfilm, der seit Monaten Publikum und Kritik auf den wichtigsten Festivals der Welt elektrisiert. Völlig zu Recht: Es ist, als würden einem die Scheuklappen weggerissen, als sähe man das, was sich seit Jahren direkt vor unseren Augen abspielt, zum ersten Mal unverschleiert... eine fesselnde ,Doku noir' mit höchstem Anspruch...Dieser Film müsste an allen Schulen gezeigt werden.“
    Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
    17.05.2018

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