“We Start Again” - A Short Film for the Music Community

“We Start Again” is an interdisciplinary collaboration of multiple art forms. Narrated by the incredible John Noble, the film is for the music community, addressing the much needed social issues that have plagued both our industry and society. At the same time, the film resonates the hope that things will return back to normal and when they do we will incorporate what we have learned during this time and further better the world with our art.

Beautifully written by Ling Ling Huang, the text can be found below. The music set to the film is the second movement of the Cello Sonata in G Minor, Op. 65 by Frédéric Chopin performed by Ari Evan on cello and Sophia Zhou on Piano

Directed by Henry Wang, Produced and Edited by Tomomi Sato and Henry Wang

Thank you to our community members who submitted images and videos from their musical life to help make this film:

Andrea Casarrubios
Alex Hersh
Bridget Kibbey
Christine Wu
Cong Wu
Doori Na
Grace Park
Henry Kramer
Jenni Seo
Jordan Bak
Julia Choi
Ken Kubota
Kristin Lee
Maddy Fayette
Mark Dover
Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt
Nikki Chooi
Pauline Kim
Ramón Carrero Martínez
Ryan Meehan
Siwoo Kim
Stella Chen
Victor Caccese

Film Text

With a deep breath, I start again...

That pained rub
agitation held so close
of a bow drawn across the string

My hands work to bring
what each note deserves
How much air to let in the sound
for it to circulate in the hair
for it to breathe

Playing to release stilted phrases unheard, unanswered
to reanimate what has gone
for wood to speak

Each note threaded
pulled from one to the next
the most control yields the most expression

Your skin was on too tight
couldn’t be loosened
like a mask or my grip on the neck
as I shift

No sound continues forever
but flesh o’pressed against keys
always lets go in time

How to be?
in this time
a musician
a human

You know too well, pain
is how you get the thing to sound
a strike to sing

“I was just going home.”
Yes you were, Elijah.

When we play again
we will bring you with us
our pieces
for your peace

Did you hear us on your way,
we have been gathering
sound to see you home

Here we are at the end
of the movement
and the beginning of another

These arpeggiations augment time
like the last long gasps
soaring, reaching,
no longer asking
for understanding in this world, but in the next

“Mama.”