Method Sampling: How to Build the Future Together wins Best Music Documentary at the Downtown Los Angeles Film Festival and is released on DVD and streaming this week.
BURBANK, Calif., Nov. 13, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- "Method Sampling: How to Build the Future," an award-winning documentary about the creative process for new music, was released this week by Cinema Libre Studio. The one-hour documentary features Ensemble Mik Nawooj, a Bay Area Hip Hop Orchestra, and recently won 'Best Musical Documentary' at the Downtown Los Angeles Film Festival. The film was released this week in the US and Canada on DVD and streaming platforms including Amazon, Apple TV, Google TV, Vimeo and YouTube TV.
The film follows the ensemble as they prepare for the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2022, developing their repertoire with compositions that fuse hip-hop and classical music based on the practice of music sampling.
"It's one of the rare films you'll see this year which will not just get your mind going but force you to rethink how you see the world." – Steve Kopian, UnseenFilms.Net
Music sampling is the reuse of a portion (or sample) of a sound recording in another recording. It was initially used in the early 40s by French composer Pierre Schaeffer who developed an experimental form of music created by recording sounds to tape, splicing them, and manipulating them to create sound collages. It became more broadly used with the advent of electronic synthesizers used in pop and hip-hop music in the 80s. (Source: Wikipedia.)
Expanding the traditional idea of sampling to sampling of methodology and principle is at the core of EMN's work – by integrating hip-hop and into a full blown classical orchestra where the conventional hip-hop beats are filled by woodwinds, French horns, strings, piano, and drums, executed with resident MCs, a lyric soprano, the music is rigorous, nuanced, accessible, and free from the dogmas of Western European concert music aesthetic.
Directed by Josh Nesmith and Matthew Boman, the documentary features conversations with the ensemble's co-founder and artistic director, Korean-born JooWan Kim and other musicians, performing artists and creatives who are mixing modalities to generate something new. These includes Marc Brew, a disabled choreographer who revolutionized modern dance; William Padilla-Brown, a self-taught Black mycologist who wrote the first books on Cordyceps cultivation; Abel Zimmerman Zyl, a tiny house builder with a shipbuilding background who looks at houses as inverted boats. In addition, Kim meets with the Italian Critical Theorist, Fabio Vighi, for a far ranging conversation on critical thinking in times of crisis.
"If you look at people like Henry Ford, he was walking around and saw a butchering plant and he realized that everybody was just doing one job. And he used that method to come up with the assembly line to do mass production of cars. This unexpected discovery-- by reframing something foreign that generates new technology– eventually in our system of thought, Method Sampling, will generate change, spark innovation, change paradigm, create new culture," explains Kim.
SYNOPSIS: Method Sampling is the principle used by an Oakland, CA globetrotting orchestra which fuses hip-hop and classical music to magical effect. JooWan Kim, its Korean born composer, believes that any paradigm shifting change only happens by sampling and reframing differences which spark innovation. To test his hypothesis, he meets a disabled choreographer who revolutionized modern dance, a self-taught Black mycologist who wrote the first books on Cordyceps cultivation, and a tiny house builder with a shipbuilding background who looks at houses as inverted boats. In addition, he meets the Italian Critical Theorist, Fabio Vighi, to explore how Method Sampling may allow society to overcome the challenges it faces today.
DVD Bonus features include extended Interview with William Padilla-Brown; 11 tracks from Ensemble Mik Nawooj album, 'Death Become Life' and closed captions in English.
Details: Genre: Documentary, Music| Not Rated | Running time: 57 minutes| UPC: 881394129528 | SRP: $19.95 | Format: 16:9 Widescreen |Audio: Stereo
This Nesmith's first feature, with credits as a contributing DP for "Flamekeeper," a documentary that aired at the Country Music Hall of Fame and was released on Amazon Prime. Boman has previously directed a feature documentary 'Blurring Man", which won the Audience's Choice Award at the LA Lift Off Film Festival.
ABOUT ENSEMBLE MIK NAWOOJ (EMN) – Led by composer/pianist, JooWan Kim, the Hip-Hop Orchestra Experience featuring EMN creates Metamusic by sampling principles of Hip-Hop and Classical. Executed with resident MCs, a lyric soprano, woodwinds, French horns, strings, piano, and drums, the music is rigorous, nuanced, accessible, and free from the dogmas of Western European concert music aesthetic.
ABOUT CINEMA LIBRE STUDIO: Cinema Libre Studio is a full-service mini-studio known for producing and distributing high-quality feature films and social impact documentaries. Headquartered in the Los Angeles area, the team has released over 200 films. www.cinemalibrestudio.com
Media Contact
Beth Portello, Cinema Libre Studio, 1 818-588-3033, [email protected], www.cinemalibrestudio.com
SOURCE Cinema Libre Studio
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