Monday March 14, 2011 | 7:00pm
Studio Theatre, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts
6450 Deer Lake Ave, Burnaby
Tickets: $10
Tickets available from the Shadbolt Centre
Box Office (604) 205-3000
DOXA Documentary Film Festival’s Motion Pictures Series in partnership with the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts is proud to present the Vancouver premiere of Bruce McDonald’s Music from the Big House. When Rita Chiarelli “The Goddess of Canadian Blues” decided to make a pilgrimage to the birthplace of the blues (Louisiana State Maximum Security Penitentiary a.k.a Angola Prison) Bruce McDonald was there to capture her remarkable musical journey. Angola’s history with the blues is legendary. Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter) and Odea Mathews both did time there. (The apocryphal story is that Lead Belly penned “Goodnight for Irene” for the warden’s daughter, and gained early release as a result.)
As Rita works with prisoners who are serving life sentences for rape, murder and armed robbery, a remarkable process begins to unfold. In one of the most violent prisons in America, inmates use the healing power of music to forge new bonds of friendship, hope and ultimately redemption.
”Excuse me for gushing, but documentary filmmaking does not get any better than Music from the Big House.”
— CineSource Magazine
“It’s a film that tells it like it is and doesn’t let anyone off easily. It makes the audience directly confront those questions of crime, punishment and forgiveness. No matter where you stand on these issues, you won’t be the same once you’ve seen it. Like the blues itself, the film is all about truth, conviction and belief.”
— See Magazine
The screening will be followed by a Skype interview with Rita Chiarelli.
