El Sistema: Music to Change Life 05/16 Blu-ray (Rental)

Product Description This moving documentary takes US from the rubbish dumps and barrios of Caracas to the world's finest concert halls. It shows how El Sistema, Venezuela's unique system of music education which has been founded by the visionary Jose Antonio Abreu. Review "El Sistema" is a remarkable documentary film by Paul Smaczny and Maria Stodtmeier about the remarkable Venezuelan music education program that has changed the lives of thousands of impoverished children of that country, bringing new meaning to their lives. Gustavo Dudamel is a product of this program, and of course he figures prominently in this film, as does the remarkable Jose Antonio Abreu, who began the educational program three decades ago. This is a positive look at today's youth, a memorable viewing experience. It is available in both regular DVD and Blu-Ray; there's little point in spending the extra dollars for the latter. -- Classical CD Review, Robert Benson, December 2009 DVD OF THE MONTH Fed up with hearing about Venezuela's El Sistema and its superstar young conductor Gustavo Dudamel? There has already been at least one very fine documentary about that country's transformational music education system. And this is another reminder of the role music can play in society. It focuses particularly on El Sistema's founder, Jose Antonio Abreu. And even if you know the story inside out, its power to inspire does not dim. -- Gramophone Editor's Choice, January 2010 El Sistema: Music to Change Life Blu-ray Review A lot of other, more developed, countries could learn a thing or two from Venezuela's incredible El Sistema music education program. I don't think it will come as much of a surprise to any of you in the United States who may be reading this review and who have children in the public school system when I say that Arts education has suffered horribly over the past couple of decades. When I was growing up (admittedly a long, long time ago, as my own sons never hesitate to remind me), it was simply de rigeur for every school to have a full assortment of Arts classes available to students, whether that be Drama, Art (as in painting) or Music. I know from personal experience with my own kids that that tradition has woefully fallen by the wayside here in the States, especially with regard to Music, which is strangely now often perceived as something not especially relevant to preparing today's youth for the challenges of tomorrow. Despite longstanding clinical studies which have proven that musical education ups most students' antes with regard to any number of other disciplines (notably mathematics), music education simply seems to be an afterthought nowadays. I know for example that at the elementary school both of my sons attended the only way we were able to maintain a full time music teacher (an absolute rarity in my neck of the woods) was with funding provided by the school's private foundation, which exists off of the goodwill of the mostly well to do parents, who contribute generously in order to make sure their children receive well rounded educations. Even with that parental support, we are sadly witnessing a generation (my kids included, I"ll admit it) who are just as likely to want to "play" an instrument in "Guitar Hero" as they are to actually put the time and effort into actually learning about music and mastering a real instrument. It therefore came as something of a rude awakening, if an appreciated one nonetheless, to be introduced to similar problems, at least in terms of music education if not Xbox 360, in Venezuela, a country of at times overwhelming poverty and teeming barrios which infest the hillsides of Caracas like Rube Goldberg shanty towns. The difference between, say, the United States and Venezuela is the incredible effort of José Antonio Abreu, an amateur musician who decades ago formed an organization nicknamed El Sistema (The System), a sort of boarding school for mostly low income kids where the driving force behind all education is music. The fact that the organization was originally named Social Action for Music and then ultimately became Fundación del Estado para el Sistema Nacional de las Orquestas Juveniles e Infantiles de Venezuela, (AKA Fesnojiv), (National Network of Youth and Children's Orchestras of Venezuela), may indicate to some politically paranoid people that the group may be hiding some sort of Marxist Socialist protocol in its motives (especially those who tend to demonize Venezuela's Hugo Chavez), but from the evidence given in this fascinating and often deeply moving documentary, that's simply not the case. Though this is indeed a government funded program, and there is a sort of worker bee ethos which runs through both the teachers' methods and the students' daily struggles, there's simply too much good happening here to get hung up on the political backstory. It's almost mind boggling to realize that over 250,000 children are currently having their lives changed by El Sistema. T