THE WILL of VICTORY (A Doc Opera)
by you Robert A Ferretti has won the Action On Film International Film Festival Best Editing Documentary.
Having seen the film, it is no surprise to this audience member.
If you have not had the pure pleasure to see this film, you are missing one of the most provocative & progressive historical films to be seen, ever!
This historical Doc Opera does not hammer home the black & white, scratchy filmed, high, nasal-toned male voice so many of us are familiar with on other films.
In this film the colored 400 hours of unseen footage and musicality become symbiotic story-telling that wraps the audience, opening with the fruitful, joyous lives of the Russian people and takes you onward to the pathos of buildings exploding, culture demolished and human lives blow out beneath a wintry shadow.
The music seamlessly parades itself through joy, loss, tragedy, then swings the audience back to strength and joy, all with the most beautiful Russian music and pounding German ballads, which create a softening backdrop to the horror the human eye is viewing on the "Big Screen."
If instruments could speak, and they do in this film, libraries would shrink in comparison to the words the strings, violins, which are placed in lyrical tongues throughout the film.
The boom of the Timpani fires endorphins and mood elevating sensations throughout the film.
There is no slip in the pen in editing, all is compressed and concise, as the man, Robert Ferretti.
With brevity and self-styled musical procession the audience will travel to the past and will not even be aware that they no longer carry the weight of war time propaganda, but are clothed in the raiment of humanity, at its worst and best.
The distinguishing benchmark of Robert A Ferretti is; all questioning becomes moot and the audience is left wanting more. And that says quite a bit about the magic of Ferrettis gift of editing.
War is bad but Ferretti unlocks the horror and brings a palpable sounding-rod to history and to humanity. This is not a film for the squeamish or children, the photos and film show death in its darkest hours. But it is a film that begs to be seen. Nadene R Chavez-Lopez
