{"id":107252,"date":"2024-08-30T13:40:15","date_gmt":"2024-08-30T17:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=107252"},"modified":"2024-09-03T08:00:02","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T12:00:02","slug":"interview-filmmaker-kerry-candaele-talks-about-exploring-the-power-of-beethovens-music-in-love-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2024\/08\/30\/interview-filmmaker-kerry-candaele-talks-about-exploring-the-power-of-beethovens-music-in-love-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Filmmaker Kerry Candaele Talks About Exploring The Power Of Beethoven\u2019s Music In Love & Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"L-\/R
L-\/R (clockwise): Butoh artist Mar\u00eda Bel\u00e9n Espinosa Pe\u00f1a and filmmaker Kerry Candaele; a scene from Fidelio as staged in the film; a scene from Bel\u00e9n\u2019s performance in the film Love & Justice: In the Footsteps of Beethoven’s Rebel Opera
(Photo courtesy of Kerry Candaele)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Canadian-born filmmaker Kerry Candaele is coming to Toronto to screen his latest film Love & Justice: In The Footsteps of Beethoven’s Rebel Opera<\/strong>. The screening takes place September 11 at the Royal Theatre, presented in cooperation with Casa Salvador Allende.<\/p>\n

The documentary was filmed in Valpara\u00edso, Chile, and the screening date is no coincidence. It was on September 11 back in 1973 that General Augusto Pinochet and a renegade group of officers seized power in a stunning coup d’\u00e9tat.<\/p>\n

Love & Justice… begins with Candaele\u2019s attempts to stage Beethoven\u2019s opera Fidelio in Chile, and develops into another story of its own.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s part of a planned trilogy, but despite the format, though, each stands as its own film. \u201cIt\u2019s not necessary to see them in sequence,\u201d Candaele says. Unified by the theme of how Beethoven\u2019s expression retains its power to move people through the centuries, they each tell a different story.<\/p>\n

Kerry Candaele<\/h3>\n

Born in Vancouver, Kerry\u2019s parents came from Winnipeg. His mother Helen Callaghan St. Aubin and her sister, Marge Callaghan, played baseball in the now famous All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which operated from 1943 to 1954. From that family connection, he helped brother Kelly make the documentary A League of Their Own<\/a> \u2013 a documentary that was released in 1987. It caught the eye of director Penny Marshall, who made the Hollywood fictionalized version, starring Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, and Madonna.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat got picked up, just by accident,\u201d he says. Candaele notes that his motivation was simply to honour the true family history. \u201cThat was the start of it.\u201d He notes another connection to baseball in his brother Casey, who went into professional baseball in his mother\u2019s footsteps, and went on to build a career as both utility player and coach. He\u2019s currently on the Blue Jays payroll.<\/p>\n

A step back to the first film in the series describes the first link between Beethoven and Chile.<\/p>\n

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A scene from Fidelio as staged in the film; Butoh artist Mar\u00eda Bel\u00e9n Espinosa Pe\u00f1a (Photo courtesy of Kerry Candaele)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Beethoven & Chile<\/h3>\n

The first film in the trilogy is Candaele\u2019s Following the Ninth: In the Footsteps of Beethoven’s Final Symphony, which he released in 2013. Kerry\u2019s random discovery of Beethoven\u2019s 9th Symphony during a difficult time in his life in led him to appreciate the expressive and restorative powers of the music.<\/p>\n

When he researched the work, he became aware of its link to global protest movements. Kerry was in his late teens when the Chile\u2019s coup took place in 1973. It marked him emotionally. \u201cI was a politically sentient human being at the time.\u201d After his discovery of Beethoven in his late 20s, it led to more connections. \u201cI discovered this connection between Chile and Beethoven\u2019s 9th Symphony.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the Ninth… the first film follows people around the world who were profoundly affected by the music.<\/p>\n

Leonard Bernstein famously conducted a performance of the iconic Beethoven symphony in Berlin in 1989 as the Wall came crashing down. That same year, protesting students in China\u2019s Tianamen Square played it. Each year, it\u2019s performed publicly in Japan annually on December 9, often with thousands joining the chorus.<\/p>\n

And, women in Chile who\u2019d lost loved ones to Augusto Pinochet\u2019s brutal dictatorship sang its Ode to Joy outside the prisons where they\u2019d been tortured, imprisoned, and often killed. It was the US connection to Chile<\/a> that strengthened his resolve to pursue that particular thread.<\/p>\n