24th September 2014

Phil talks to WFMT while he's in Chicago with In Search of Chopin for a special series of preview screenings prior to its release next year. See below or follow the link for the original article: http://ow.ly/BRCeD

Documentary Filmmaker Phil Grabsky at WFMT

Friday, September 19, 2014 by Noel Morris

Filmmaker Phil Grabsky at WFMT, photo by Noel Morris

When Phil Grabsky looks out into the world, he sees stories that need to be told. As an independent filmmaker, he’s followed his passion from Brazil to Angola, from Chernobyl to Afghanistan. He also has a fascination for great composers.

In Search of Chopin
“His grave in Paris remains a place of pilgrimage and his music continues to sell out concert halls worldwide – but who exactly was this man who was terrified of public performance, who fled his Polish homeland for Paris never to return, took up with the most notorious transvestite in France, rarely gave public performances and, despite a life of ill-health, wrote some of the deepest and most powerful music ever written? How exactly did a young Polish boy rise to such heady heights?
For four years, Phil Grabsky has traveled the globe in his quest to lay bare the life and music of Chopin.”
—Seventh Art Productions

Phil Grabsky is in Chicago to introduce his new film In Search of Chopin. He stopped by WFMT to play Guest Host with Kerry Frumkin, and offered a mixture, including Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, and (of course) Chopin. “I can’t understand why someone wouldn’t want to explore Chopin.” According to Mr. Grabsky, with all the negativity in the world, it’s essential to immerse oneself in the works of people who are so inspired.

Phil Grabsky speaks with Kerry Frumkin, photo by Noel Morris

He talks about a moment in the film, In Search of Chopin, when pianist and performance artist Hershey Felder wonders how so much talent could be poured into one person [Chopin]. “Is it a gift from God?”
According to Mr. Grabsky, one can’t help musing about such things, but the challenge is to train the lens upon “what can be explained.” That is, stitching together a narrative through the art, the people, and the events of a subject’s life.
In Search of Chopin is the latest in Phil Grabsky’s composer series which includes In Search of Haydn, In Search of Beethoven, and In Search of Mozart.
Click to learn more about Phil Grabsky and his company Seventh Art Productions.
In Search of Chopin runs at the Gene Siskel Film Center through October 2nd. Director Phil Grabsky will be present for audience discussion at all screenings, Friday-Monday, September 19-22. The 2:00 pm shows on Saturday and Sunday will be moderated by WFMT’s Andrew Patner.

November 12th 2008

Things are going well - I have had meetings with the leading arthouse cinemas of LA, New York and Chicago and all are very excited by Beethoven. At a time when many films, and certainly that includes docs, are getting no cinema screenings at all, it's nice to feel wanted! And we're talking minimum 2, even 4, week runs. The dates are a little bit here and there - some wanting next May/June 09 - others March 2010. I've even been told to have a go at Oscar qualification (which means a minimum of one week in NY and LA) but that seems a little bit fanciful to me. I have also been talking to film & music journalists, music venues, etc, etc, and what is really great is how encouraging they all are. The fact that they know the Mozart film is really helping. Meanwhile, dusk & dawn, the emails fly between my editor in the UK and me. Snip, snip, snip we go and the film pulls ever tighter together. But it's hard now saying goodbye to an interviewee whose last piece may just have gone or even one or two music pieces. The first of the 9 symphonies is under threat - and guess which one? The second. I mentioned this last night to a very charming man from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and he said 'it's always the second which gets squeezed out!' - and you know what!? That made me determined to keep it in! I am writing this at 4.35am in Chicago airport, en route to New York and a 10am meeting with the Lincoln Centre - so fingers crossed that goes well. (Last time we screened Mozart there, there was a fight outside the cinema because tickets were sold out! I remember thinking 'how awful' and 'great!' at the same time... Well, I've resisted the lure of the brick-sized muffins till now but I'd better eat something; American airlines seem not to serve food anymore. I bet Beethoven would have hated all this travelling.