Following the Ninth: In the Footsteps of Beethoven’s Final Symphony

PRESENTED BY: Beacon Hill Meaningful Movies
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7:00 PM, Friday, February 10, 2017 PST
Location: Beacon Hill (click for map)

Following the Ninth is a documentary film about the global impact of Beethoven’s final symphony. The film, released in mid-2013, has screened in over 250 cities in the United States and around the globe, with more to come.

Written in 1824, near the end of Beethoven’s life, the Ninth Symphony was composed by a man with little to be thankful for. Sick, alienated from almost everyone, and completely deaf, Beethoven had never managed to find love, nor create the family he’d always wanted. And yet, despite this, he managed to create an anthem of joy that embraces the transcendence of beauty over suffering.

Celebrated to this day for its ability to heal, repair, and bring people together across great divides, the Ninth has become an anthem of liberation and hope that has inspired many around the world:

At Tiananmen Square in 1989, students played the Ninth over loudspeakers as the army came in to crush their struggle for freedom.

In Chile, women living under the Pinochet dictatorship sang the Ninth at torture prisons, where men inside took hope when they heard their voices.

As the Berlin Wall came down in December 1989, it collapsed to the sound of Leonard Bernstein conducting Beethoven’s Ninth as an “Ode To Freedom.”

In Japan each December, the Ninth is performed hundreds of times, often with 10,000 people in the chorus. Following the Ninth gives us insight into the heightened importance of this massive communal Ninth, known as “Daiku,” in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami of 2011.

Sponsors: Joe  McKinstry Construction Company Beacon Arts

Release Year: 2013

Running Time: 78 minutes

Director: Kerry Canaele

1 Comment so far

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  1. Tanya Maurer
    #1 Tanya Maurer 6 February, 2017, 01:40

    In these times of political turmoil, this film sparked hope and resolve in our Wallingford community after watching it. It’s a tremendous film which I strongly encourage others to see.

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