Friday, July 16, 2010

Small Wonders (1995)

When you move into a new place and you have no cable... and all of your DVDs are packed, then you decide it's time to finally watch the Netflix movies you've had for the past 3 months.

Tonight, I watched "Small Wonders." This is a documentary (you know I love documentaries) about Roberta Guaspari, a woman who teaches students in East Harlem the violin. She works at three different schools, lugging instruments and supplies up and down stairs. She teaches these children the violin, but also self-discipline and how to build self-confidence.

It was amazing to see what these kids were able to play. The kids got to play the National Anthem at a Knicks game and it was awesome to see how excited they were and how the crowd reacted to them. The players were nice, but Pat Riley ignored them. They also did a concert at Carnegie Hall and had several renown violin players join them.

This documentary was the seed for the 1999 movie "Music of the Heart," which had Meryl Streep play Roberta. I haven't seen that movie, but it's in my Netflix queue, so I'm sure I will see it - it would interesting to see how the movie is spun from the documentary.

It was an interesting film if you are into music and/or education.

Mo's Review:
Small Wonders (1995): 3 out of 5 stars

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