As a mother resists an increasingly oppressive regime, her young daughter’s passion for the bassoon inspires a counter-narrative.
Angie’s about to knock on the door of the boy she’ll teach to play the bassoon. But, a quick glimpse of him through the parlor window triggers a memory– when she first fell head over heels for the instrument.
Eight years old, Angie is oblivious to the oppressive forces suffocating her community. Her punk-rocker mom, Valentina and her music teacher Danylo protect Angie from their harsh reality in a cocoon of magical thinking. When the day comes for Angie to choose her first instrument, her mother struggles with tragic news while Angie watches an imaginary elephant seal wrap her mouth around a bassoon’s bocal. Her world goes technicolor. But, tragically Angie’s handed a flute.
When a protest threatens to turn violent, Angie reorients the drama with an air-bassoon performance. This inspires her mother and Danylo with a new tactic. Rather than confront the oppression, they’ll unbalance it with music.
Angie’s given a bassoon and despite being told she sounds like a dying elephant seal, she plays with unreserved passion. Her bassoon case becomes a secret convoy to transport documents among an underground network of resistors. Musical interludes, puppetry and animations culled from Angie’s imagination dance themselves into this resistance. Their collective musical performances disorient the oppressive forces and make space for hope that nurtures tactics and overtakes the gloom. Humorous and magical, they also reveal Angie’s innocence eroding. When Angie is targeted by the regime, Valentina deliberates. Could she lose her daughter in this fight for her future? But, instead she fights and as men leap from the shadow and seize Angie's beloved instrument, it's Valentina four months pregnant who's torn from Angie's arms.
As the film closes on Angie holding the boy that we now understand to be her brother, we’re left wondering who the innocent, playful Angie has become.
Emily’s films span fiction, documentary and interactive realms. Her work includes SANDORKRAUT, a NEW YORK TIMES Op-doc; a chimerical puppetry short THE NEVER BELL, a feminist-futurist film THE CLOCK and her lyrical feature SONG OF THE BASQUES. She wrote and produced KARLA’S ARRIVAL - short-listed for Spain’s Goya’s- and directed NBC’s Comedy Showcase. She’s written two award-winning screenplays MIDLAND and ALL THAT FOLLOWS and two of her pilots ABUELA HIERBA and INVISIBLE ISLANDS have won development awards from multiple arts councils and foundations. She’s currently directing THE BABY DIDN’T HURT HER JUMP-SHOT and also in development with a period-drama sports series THE NARRATIVE about the unlikely friendship between Muhammad Ali and George Plimpton. Recognized by national film bodies across Europe and Latin America, Emily’s earned accolades from The Smithsonian Institute, NBC Talent, Tribeca Film, HBO, Fulbright Foundation, PBS, Sundance, Marble House, IFP, Film Independent and the Sloan Foundation. Studies in Art and Music at Amherst College sparked her interest in Film; after earning a Masters at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, she dove into camera and art crews in Europe. Emily plays cello, competed as an elite triathlete speaks Spanish, French, and Basque and volunteers as a translator for detained migrants and asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border.
