Tocar y luchar | To Play and to Fight Alberto Alvero Venezuela, Documentary, 2006 70 min., Color Spanish with English Subtitles George Washington Carver Museum Sunday, April 22, 4 PM Alamo South Lamar Monday, April 23, 9:45 PM All Audiences

To Play and To Fight presents the captivating story of the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra System—an incredible network of hundreds of orchestras formed from Venezuela’s towns and villages. Once a modest program designed to expose rural children to the wonders of music, the system has become one of the most important and beautiful social phenomena in modern history. The documentary portrays the inspirational stories of worldclass musicians trained by the Venezuelan system, including the Berlin Philharmonic’s youngest player, Edicson Ruiz, and world renowned conductor, Gustavo Dudamel. With interviews with many of the world’s most celebrated musicians, including the great tenor Placido Domingo, Claudio Abbado, Sir Simon Rattle, Guiseppe Sinopoli, and Eduardo Mata, To Play and To Fight is an inspirational story of courage, determination, ambition, and love showing us that only those who dream can achieve the impossible.

Alberto Arvelo’s A House with a View of the Sea fetched more than 15 international awards, including Best Director at the New York Latino Film Festival and the Miami International Film Festival. His 1997 feature One Life and Two Trails won him the New York Film Festival’s Best Director award. Arvelo’s previous features also include: Song of the Mountain, Flames on the Snow (1986), La hoz y el forastero (1998), Habana, Habana (2004), and feature documentary Tocar y luchar (2005). Arvelo is the President of production company Cinema Sur and heads the Film Director workshop at the Venezuelan National Fim School. He recently directed the feature film Cyrano Fernandez, a Latin rendition of the masterpiece Cyrano de Bergerac.

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Producer: Nestor L. López-Duran, Pedro Mezquita, Gerardo Montilla

Screenwriter: Alberto Alvero, Carlos Díaz

Cinematographer: John Márquez, Cezary Jaworski

Editing: Juán Carlos López Duran

Music: Nascuy Linares