Synopsis

In the early stages of quarantine, two friends, composer/vocalist Magos Herrera and composer Paola Prestini, decided to create music remotely together with other prestigious musicians from their global community. From this collaboration "Con Alma" was born: an album of nine sonic experiences which translate the feelings of confinement and the experience that humanity collectively lived through during the pandemic.

From the point of view of the musicians, the film explores these recent memories of coping with confinement and the meaning of creating this album from their homes in Brooklyn, San Miguel del Allende, Leipzig and Madrid. These world renowned musicians suddenly found themselves in isolation and decided to share their experience through music.

As the horizon clears for musicians to play on stage again, Con Alma will be finally presented in early 2022 as a live concert with an audience in a natural reserve in San Miguel de Allende (Mexico), where much of the music was originally written. The documentary is a journey woven from collective memories of confinement to the final concert, presented through archival material, animation by the visual artist Kevork Mourad and scenes filmed by the directors Marta Ferrer and Pedro González Rubio. A poetic travel experience that elevates isolation to bonding and creation.

Featuring

Magos Herrera and Paola Prestini, with special collaboration from Gonzalo Grau (Venezuela), Jeffrey Zeigler (USA), Vinicius Gomes (Brazil), Kinan Azmeh (Syria), Ensemble Sjaella (Germany), The Young People’s Chorus of New York City (USA), Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería (Mexico) and visual artist Kevork Mourad (Syria).

Technical Data

Working Title: Con Alma | Length: 80 min | Aspect Ratio: 1.85 | Sound: 5.1 | Color Original Languages: Spanish, English | Year: 2022 | Countries: México, USA Locations: San Miguel de Allende, New York, Leipzig, Madrid, Mexico City Companies: Una Comunión, BHD Estudios

Directors’ Statement

We envision this documentary film as a soundscape and musical voyage, from confinement to gathering, from indoors to outdoors, from silence to song, from pause to creation.

This project brings us Marta and Pedro together for the first time as co-directors. We believe that our naturalistic and intimate styles are complemented by the personal experience of Magos and Paola in creating the album “Con Alma”. We want to approach this documentary in an artisanal way, without compromising quality and being true to our own style.

In addition to our film shoot, we will enrich the narrative of the personal journey and feelings of the musicians involved by using archival footage and voice-over narration as a blueprint of what triggered the creation of this album. The archival material will guide us to experience moments of deep authenticity that allow the viewer to identify with these universal emotional states that we all lived during the pandemic. The scenes we will film in the houses, the rehearsal spaces, the natural reserve, are planned to direct our focus to the details, the small gestures, and people’s relationships to their environment. Filmed from a very organic, intuitive and poetic point of view, the scenes will help the image and the sound bring the viewer closer to the filmed moment. The hand-held camera will work as an extension of us observing, listening, and feeling, appealing to the senses rather than the intellect of our spectators.