I saw Wide Open Sky at the Sydney Film Festival and I haven't been part of a cinema audience that engaged for years - it came from nowhere to win the audience award for docos. It's beautifully put together, funny and interesting and while the reviews seem to insist on calling it 'heartwarming' it's much better than that. It's about kids and schools in western NSW and a music teacher who travels around and picks kids with talent to come together for a choir that performs one weekend a year, mostly from schools where there are no formal music lessons.
It's visually gorgeous and the cinematographer must have been unobtrusive to the point of invisibility to get out of the kids what she did. It's well-structured and really tightly pulled together with humour and compassion without ever seeming hurried, or dragging, or selling anything about the story short. It touches on issues like equity of opportunity, unrecognised talents and education and funding priorities but never labours the point, everyone on screen was treated with respect and all of the impacts of distance and isolation and small towns were present but were handled with a light touch. The filmmakers must have picked through hours of film to piece together a complex set of stories into a beautifully clear narrative arc. And I loved the interviews with the parents! If you or your family have never seen outback NSW, or are interested in education or music, or geographic equity, or choirs, or the best ways to train groups of girls vs boys, or want to know the best busking spots in Brewarrina (don't give up your day job), trot along and see it. If you think your inner-city/suburban kids are getting a bit blasé about how much opportunity they have, send THEM along - it's absolutely suitable for school-age kids. It's just a glorious film.
