Filmed in ten countries, THE REACH OF RESONANCE (2010) is a meditation on the meaning of music, which juxtaposes the creative paths of four musicians who use music to cultivate a deeper understanding of the world around them. Among them are Miya Masaoka using music to interact with insects and plants; Jon Rose, utilizing a violin bow to turn fences into musical instruments in conflict zones ranging from the Australian outback to Palestine; John Luther Adams translating the geophysical phenomena of Alaska into music; and Bob Ostertag, who explores global socio-political issues through processes as diverse as transcribing a riot into a string quartet, and creating live cinema with garbage.

By contrasting the creative paths of these artists, and an unexpected connection between them by the world renowned Kronos Quartet, the film explores music not as a form of entertainment, career, or even self-expression, but as a tool to develop more deeply meaningful relationships with people and the complexities of the world they live in.

Meet Jon Rose

When he's not busy being chased down by militaries with tear gas and stun grenades for turning border fences into musical instruments, Jon Rose is probably creating a chamber orchestra of bicycle powered instruments, developing interactive violin bow technology, writing a two volume history of a family that doesn't exist, confusing the hell out of unsuspecting morning talk show hosts, disrupting live performances of Tchaikovsky with previously unheard violin solos, or being evicted from the grounds of the Sydney Opera House by security. 

For more on Jon Rose: https://www.steveelkins.net/Interviews/On-Music/Jon-Rose/

Meet Bob Ostertag

A kayak instructor who is rumored to have connections to the shadowy guerilla media pranksters The Yes Men, Bob Ostertag has been exploring the tension between human bodies and machines through decades of instrument building, software design, and spending extended time in places where bombs are falling. His radically diverse musical collaborators include dyke punk rocker Lynn Breedlove, drag diva Justin Bond, heavy metal star Mike Patton, jazz great Anthony Braxton, Québécois film maker Pierre Hébert, avant garder John Zorn, and the Kronos Quartet. Ostertag has published a history of independent journalism in the United States since the Civil War, a social history of estrogen and testosterone, co-authored a book on labor organizing in Las Vegas and serves on the board of directors for QuestionCopyright.org.

For more on Bob Ostertag: https://www.steveelkins.net/Writings/And-No-Angels-Sang-Liberation-Theology-In-El-Salvador/

Meet Miya Masaoka

A maverick of Japanese and Korean court music, free jazz, and a pioneering inventor of electronic musical instruments, Miya Masaoka's work has been described as "Shinto animism revealed sonically by technological means." She has created a laser koto, a musical kimono made from electric fabric that responds to brain waves, and uses music to investigate the social patterns of insects, plants, and her own body. Her sprawling inspirations range from CIA interrogation specialists to giant squid, strippers, and Bangladeshi physicists. She is writing a dictionary for Kosectese, a language of her own invention derived from the sound of insects and Japanese and Hindustani phonemes.

For more on Miya Masaoka: https://www.steveelkins.net/Interviews/On-Music/Miya-Masaoka/

Meet John Luther Adams

Described by Alex Ross of The New Yorker as "one of the most original musical thinkers of the new century," Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Luther Adams has explored the sonic geography of Alaska through birdsong, Alaska Native language and drumming, and the geophysical phenomena of the land and sky. His monumental piece "The Place Where You Go To Listen" is a room which instantly translates the weather, earthquakes, and aurora borealis of Alaska into music in real time.

For more on his exploration of ecology through music, his translation of fractals into sonic forms, the ancient sculptures scattered across the Arctic which inspired his piece "Inuksuit," and why noise can be experienced as a form of prayer that contains "all the songs of the world": https://www.steveelkins.net/Interviews/On-Music/John-Luther-Adams

Meet Kronos Quartet

David Harrington summed up Kronos Quartet well when he said, "I've always wanted the string quartet to be vital, and energetic, and alive, and cool, and not afraid to kick ass and be absolutely beautiful and ugly if it has to be. But it has to be expressive of life. To tell the story with grace and humor and depth. And to tell the whole story, if possible."

THE REACH OF RESONANCE follows Kronos from San Francisco to the Sydney Opera House as they face the challenges of performing a queer riot as music and transforming barbed wire fences into musical instruments. For more on Kronos Quartet:
https://www.steveelkins.net/Interviews/On-Music/Kronos-Quartet/

SOME REVIEWS

"Ten years before director Steve Elkins made the powerful ECHOES OF THE INVISIBLE he made his first feature film THE REACH OF RESONANCE…The first time through I was floored. So much was given to me to think about that I when the film ended I just stared at the screen trying to process it. For me this was like a grand banquet where you want to try every dish and then find half way in it's too much but you can't stop watching it...

Like Elkins' most recent film, REACH brings together a great deal of things into a intriguing look at the world and how we can see it, which in this case is as a kind of giant musical instrument. But while saying that is a kind of right it is also kind of wrong. Elkins is not really looking at things quite the simply, he is looking for a greater truth, at the interconnectedness of the world, and at how the resonances generated by every day objects influence the rest of the world while producing unexpected patterns in ways that are magically alive. Steve Elkins is a genius and his films are highly recommended." -STEVE KOPIAN (UNSEEN FILMS)

"Thoughtful, fascinating...could not be more timely. THE REACH OF RESONANCE deserves the prizes it’s received to date, as well as those it is likely to receive from this point on; the general public has just received a gift." -RICHARD ALLEN (A CLOSER LISTEN)

More About The Film

For a deeper dive into the making of THE REACH OF RESONANCE, visit: https://www.steveelkins.net/Interviews/Making-Reach

THE REACH OF RESONANCE premiered in October 2010 at Hollywood's Angel City Jazz Festival, before receiving the "Best Film Essay" prize at Montreal's Festival International Du Film Sur L'Art and top prize at Portugal's Temps d’Images Lisboa “for a film which reflects the importance of arts in human society in the most original way.”

Highly sought after at film festivals, universities and art museums, THE REACH OF RESONANCE was presented in twenty countries and translated into eight languages between 2010 and 2015, including screenings at the Louvre (Paris), Tate Modern (London), National Gallery Of Art (Washington D.C.), Harvard University, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Czech Republic), Boston Museum of Fine Arts, OXDOX International Film Festival (UK), CERN's Large Hadron Collider (Switzerland), MUTEK Festival of Digital Creativity and Electronic Music (Mexico City), Tel Aviv Museum of Art (Israel), Santander Cultural (Brazil), Beirut International Documentary Film Festival (Lebanon), National Gallery of Fine Arts (Quebec), Grauman's Egyptian (Hollywood), ARTLOOP (Poland) and much more.