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A Reel Life film section
Issue: Autumn 2016
Wide Open Sky (2015) movie review
Wide Open Sky aims high in story and production
Movie poster, Wide Open Sky
Wide Open Sky follows the heart-warming story of an outback Australian children's choir. Chronicling their journey from auditions to end-of-year concert, the trials of trying to run a children's choir in a remote and disadvantaged region are revealed. Here, sport is king and music education is non-existent. Despite this, choir mistress Michelle has high expectations. She wants to teach the children contemporary, original, demanding music. It becomes clear for the children to believe in themselves, they all need someone who believes in them. Set against a landscape of devastating beauty, Wide Open Sky is a moving portrait of the fragile world of possibility that is childhood and reminds us why no child, anywhere, should grow up without music.
Wide Open Sky is an Australian feature length documentary about an inspirational choir. Okay your mind says stop reading now. Choirs, inspiration got that. There has been a number of productions that have made it clear that this is a winning combination. Wide Open Sky is different in a number of respects. This is a true life David and Goliath story that exposes the fragile world of possibilities that is childhood and the potential to destroy it without the work of the people in groups like the Moorambilla Voices Program. This is not a little story.
Directed by Lisa Nicols, filmed by Carolyn Constantine and edited by Anna Craney Wide Open Sky follows the extraordinary choir master Michelle Leonard as she travels 4000 kilometres across out back NSW to bring together the kids from 55 schools into the Moorambilla Voices Program. Her aim is to bring music into their lives; to bring top notch young composers and young kids together in a once in a life time concert which is the finale of this Wide Open Sky.
The wide open sky they are talking about is the possible futures opened up for these children through working with, bonding culturally and having their eyes opened to new worlds, outside the lives they live normally, this experience quite literally gives them. This is a cracker of a film. It isn't just an inspiration it is so well made.
You experience life from the point of view of the kids involved. The key telling moments of their experience. For example the film includes in its telling the preparations for going on camp which for some of the kids is so novel it makes you realise the gulf between what is believed to be the normal range of experiences for Australian kids and reality. Structurally the film follows a number of key kids to flesh out the effects of the commitment to the choir including the family lives of the kids and the parent's feelings about what's happening. But part of the strength of the film is the way it is edited to include more of the kids so that we see them develop through a silent visual expansion of their involvement over the life of the choir.
You experience life from the point of view of the kids involved. The key telling moments of their experience. For example the film includes in its telling the preparations for going on camp which for some of the kids is so novel it makes you realise the gulf between what is believed to be the normal range of experiences for Australian kids and reality. Structurally the film follows a number of key kids to flesh out the effects of the commitment to the choir including the family lives of the kids and the parent's feelings about what's happening. But part of the strength of the film is the way it is edited to include more of the kids so that we see them develop through a silent visual expansion of their involvement over the life of the choir.
Good stuff.
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by Annie McLoughlin |
Just the facts:Title: Wide Open Sky (2015) The Players: , , Official website: For session times of current films, use the cinema listings on the Movie links page. For scheduled release dates, see the coming attractions section. For more information about this movie, check out the internet movie database (IMDb). |
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Published in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 
Filed: 20-Apr-2016