The UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Hammer Museum have teamed up for a free matinee screening series of new and classic family-friendly films from around the world. Sing China! (2009), directed by Academy Award-winner Frieda Lee Mock, which follows the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus (LACC) on the trip of a lifetime to perform in Beijing at the pre-Olympic International Youth Arts Festival, opens the film series on Sunday, September 19, 2010, 11 AM. The director and representatives from the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus will make a personal appearance at the screening.
In this inspiring and heartwarming film, packed with amazing musical performances, Mock captures the adventurous spirit and personal stories of the Chorus’ young singers as they explore a new culture and prepare for their big night.
Sing China! is the latest in a trilogy of documentaries about the acclaimed chorus and will be featured at the upcoming Hawaiian International Film Festival, and Vancouver, Washington, D.C., film festivals. It has also played at San Francisco’s International Asian American Film Festival, where it received the prestigious Spotlight Award, the Los Angeles International Asian American Film Festival and many others. It began a limited commercial run in Idaho and will continue to be shown commercially in cities around the country beginning this fall.
Mock’s first documentary on the chorus, Sing!, about a year in the life of the chorus, was nominated for an Academy Award in 2002. It was released commercially in art house theaters and had its television premiere on PBS, where it continues to be broadcast. Sing Opera! – Mock’s second film about Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, chronicles the making of the world-premiere of Keepers of the Night, an opera by composer Peter Ash and librettist Donald Sturrock that was commissioned by LACC. It played at the Bilbao International Film Festival, Copenhagen’s Buster Film Festival, and the Cleveland International Film Festival, among others, and received the Best Documentary film award at the International Family Film Festival in Los Angeles.
All three films will broadcast as a limited series on primetime PBS next year. For information on Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, please call (626) 793-4231 or visit www.lachildrenschorus.org.
