IN OFFICIAL SELECTION 'CALL OF THE MAESTRO' WRITTEN BY LOU HAMILTON

BIO:

Lou Hamilton is an award-winning film director, producer and writer working in drama and documentary. After being awarded a drama director and writers’s Mentoring scheme under award-winning Director David Yates (Harry Potter), and Screenwriter David Collier, she then went on to make short films for TV, art galleries and cinema, funded by the Arts Council. Two of these were nominated with commendation for the David Altshul Award for creative excellence in filmmaking. Lou was asked to write, direct and produce and a BAFTA-winning documentary series for channel 4, which was nominated for the Royal Television Society Awards and the Broadcast Awards. She runs the company Create Lab set up to make films that inspire positive change. She has just won Best Documentary Short at Moondance International Film Festival 2010 and has now teamed up with Producer Liz Trubridge and Director Jonathan Newman to develop a slate of feature films including her own screenplay The Unforgotten.

LOGLINE:

Call of the Maestro is about a journey taken to uncover how the 3000 year old tradition of Indian Classical Music is managing to survive in a modern world. Passed down orally from generation to generation it is on the shoulders of young people that its future lies.

SYNOPSIS:

Call of the Maestro is written and directed by award-winning director Lou Hamilton. It has been described as "beautiful", "spiritual", "mesmerising" and "important". It is a journey undertaken to uncover how the 3000 year old tradition of Indian classical Music is surviving a modern world. Passed down from generation to generation there is a threat now that young people are less interested in dedicating their lives to learning the skills of an art form that is a highly complex mix of structure, improvisation and spiritual faith. The current great Maestros of India are now in their 80's and 90s and unless they can inspire the next generation their music is at risk of dying with them. The film follows a student of music and a promoter of Indian Classical music as they travel around India finding the Maestros who have dedicated their careers to keeping the music alive. It shows exclusive access to the last of the living great Indian music Maestros playing in the intimate surroundings of their homes. It explores an ancient art-form that is rooted in spirituality, grows from its spirituality and embraces all religious faiths. The Maestros' daily practice is based on prayer, chanting and yogic meditation and exercise. The very first sounds came from ancient chanting and the beginning of every song starts with music in prayer form. This is a film about a faith and practice that faces a difficult future in a modern world. Many Maestros work as teachers to use imaginative ways to pass on their heritage but it is the young people upon whose shoulders the future of Indian Classical Music lies.