[This is an \u201cExtended Edition\u201d of the article\u00a0originally published at Christianity Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2013<\/p>\n Those Who Have Ears to Hear\u2026 Let Them Watch<\/strong><\/p>\n Three documentaries bring cultures and conflict to life through music.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I must have been about one year old when I first heard the merry, musical words \u201cI\u2019d like to teach the world to sing \/ in perfect harmony<\/em>\u201d coming from my family\u2019s black-and-white television. It\u2019s amazing to me that I remember it so well, and even more amazing that I can remember seeing people dance to that Coca-Cola commercial jingle. In a powerful way, music helps us see<\/em>\u00a0more clearly.<\/p>\n That song became a hit single for the Hillside Singers, and it\u2019s been recorded more than seventy times since then. Such a simple sentiment, but its fundamental idea is powerful and true\u2014music cultivates harmony and peace.<\/p>\n How we need that kind of reconciling influence in our lives! Today, please! I can hardly endure television news anymore, and my preferred information source\u2014NPR News\u2014has been stripping years off of my life with constant coverage of America\u2019s political strife. While we debate emotional subjects\u2014religious, political, and cultural\u2014it\u2019s a good time for all of us to be reminded of what unites us.<\/p>\n This month, three new DVDs give you an opportunity for unforgettable musical journeys. All you need is a DVD player, and you can voyage to the Talladega National Forest, or the Ozarks, or South Africa, to experience soulful, inspiring music from unforgettable people.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve seen them, and I encourage you to make all three trips. You won\u2019t regret it.<\/p>\n AWAKE MY SOUL: THE STORY OF THE SACRED HARP<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIf you sing it very long it\u2019ll be in your blood and you\u2019ll never get it out.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s Elene Stovall of Birmingham, Alabama, and she\u2019s talking about Sacred Harp singing. She\u2019s committed to this communal form of worship, a musical tradition of a capella hymn singing with deep roots in\u2026<\/p>\n \u2026 wait. You\u2019re tuning out, aren\u2019t you?<\/p>\n Church music may not be the big-screen\u2019s most scintillating subject. But stick with me. Awake My Soul: The Story of the Sacred Harp<\/em>\u00a0inspired me so much that I watched it again the very next day with my surround-sound system turned up to \u201c11.\u201d The DVD is on my list of \u201cThings to Give the Family for Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n Sacred Harp singing has roots in America\u2019s rural South that run about 200 years deep. The name comes from the only musical instrument involved\u2014\u201dthe instrument given by God\u201d\u2014 the human voice. And before this lively documentary is over, you\u2019re likely to conclude that the music\u2019s power is inspired by the gospel at its heart.<\/p>\n It pays to have a powerful sound system. You\u2019ll wonder how these singers, pressed tightly into the pews of small church sanctuaries, have any voice left at the end of a gathering. They\u2019re trying to shatter the stained glass windows, singing for hours and hourse. The power resonates in the floor, through the soles of your shoes, and up into your ribs\u2014as if the music is trying to shake your own voice loose.<\/p>\n Turn it up. Awake My Soul<\/em>\u00a0will make you want to sing.<\/p>\n I asked Erica Hinton, who co-directed the film with her husband Matt, what drew her to make Awake<\/em>. \u201cI was taking a documentary film class at Georgia State University in 1998,\u201d she said, \u201cand had to make a ten-minute film. Matt suggested the topic of Sacred Harp. I\u2019d been to a handful of singings and immediately agreed that it would be a great subject to document. I quickly came to realize that ten minutes was nowhere close to enough time to tell the story of this deep subject. We were both inspired to make a more in-depth film. \u2026 Basically, we just didn\u2019t stop filming, even after I was done with that film course. \u2026 Eventually [we] had to make ourselves quit filming and start focusing on turning our huge amount of footage into a film.\u201d<\/p>\n Showing exemplary respect for their subjects, the Hintons draw out the history of Sacred Harp from longtime devotees like Richard Delong of Whitesburg, Georgia, who brings us into the assembly at Shoal Creek Church in Talladega National Forest. He describes \u201cshape note singing,\u201d a method of teaching music that grew popular as Protestant churches sought to cultivate some form of musical discipline.<\/p>\n For many, 91-year-old Raymond Hamrick, a watch repairman and Sacred Harp songwriter, will be the most memorable character. Hamrick composed \u201cLloyd,\u201d a popular Sacred Harp hymnal tune, after hearing a heavenly host in his dream. \u201cHe\u2019d like this song sung at his funeral,\u201d says Erica, \u201cbut only if there\u2019s more of a handful of singers singing it. \u2026 I find comfort in the thought that there will be singers spilling out of the room when that sad day comes, possibly in small part due to our film.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s the appeal of vigorous hymn singing? For one thing, it\u2019s not about<\/em>\u00a0performing<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s experiential,\u201d says one enthusiast. \u201cYou just do it.\u201d And while it\u2019s clear that there are levels of skill and experience, it\u2019s also clear that anyone of any age is welcome to join the chorus. This isn\u2019t music for consumers (although, if you pick up the deluxe DVD package, you\u2019ll get a CD full of Sacred Harp singing. (The soundtrack and the various artists compliation arrived on October 14, and you can listen to selections on\u00a0the official site<\/a>\u00a0and at\u00a0MySpace<\/a>.) This open invitation creates a unique communal experience that strengthens the ties that bind\u2014generation to generation, neighbor to neighbor, congregation to God, and even heart to mind and body.<\/p>\n Young Richard Ivey, beaming with joy, raves, \u201cIt\u2019s almost like the ground is shaking under you. I feel like sometimes I\u2019m just going to be lifted up\u2026 it\u2019s such a strong powerful sound.\u201d<\/p>\n And isn\u2019t that what we hope for in worship\u2014that sense of being lifted up? Consider this DVD a \u201cgateway drug\u201d to music that inspires a healthy, holy high.<\/p>\n HOMEMADE HILLBILLY JAM<\/strong><\/p>\n What comes to your mind when you read the word \u201chillbilly\u201d? It\u2019s probably not a glamorous picture.<\/p>\n But Rick Minnich\u2019s documentary Homemade Hillbilly Jam<\/em>\u00a0helps redeem the term by introducing us to descendants of Scotch-Irish immigrants in the mountains of rural Missouri. These hard-working farm communities reject the insulting stereotype inspired by The Beverly Hillbillies<\/em>\u00a0and perpetuated in American entertainment. Interviewing old-timers on the farm, hard-rocking guitar-strummers at the local hang-outs, and families who sing together in their living rooms, Minnich captures a meaningful tradition of farming, family, and music that makes you want to pack your bags, hit the road, and find them in person.<\/p>\n Minnich avoids lectures and history lessons. He\u2019s more interested in the personalities and perspectives of the \u201cneo-hillbillies.\u201d<\/p>\n We meet 34-year-old singer\/songwriter Mark Bilyeu of the popular folk-rock band Big Smith, and he invites us to his family\u2019s Thanksgiving dinner\u2014several generations of Ozark tradition gathered around one table on a brisk autumn day. They hold hands for a prayer, expressing their hope that the next generation will \u201clearn to love Jesus in the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n The scene may seem foreign, or as familiar as canned cranberries. But what is likely to surprise most viewers is what happens after<\/em>\u00a0dinner, when the Bilyeus gather in the living room with mandolins and electric guitars. Have you ever heard \u201cWhat a Friend We Have in Jesus\u201d sung to washboard percussion? \u201cAny family can get together and watch football,\u201d says Mark, \u201cbut not every family can get together and play five guitars at once and make it sound halfway decent.\u201d<\/p>\n He explains that the drive to keep Big Smith together has everything to do with preserving the traditions of his elders. \u201cThere\u2019s so much about our everyday existence that\u2019s not worth keeping. When you come upon something that is<\/em>\u00a0worth keeping you really want to hold onto it. \u2026 There are some things that are timeless, and we\u2019ll hold on to those things.\u201d<\/p>\n Much could have been made of the colorful history in these hills, or the political perspectives of these edgy backwoods musicians. But Minnich isn\u2019t out to make any political points. Instead, he lets the contagious spirit of the music\u2014in bars, in living rooms, in churches\u2014break down preconceptions and prejudice. The Bilyeus may not behave like your friends and relatives, but by the end of Homemade Hillbilly Jam<\/em>, you\u2019ll want to call them family.<\/p>\n WE ARE TOGETHER<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThere is a song I like to sing to remember my mother. It was her favorite song. I try to sing it so that I never forget her in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n Those words are spoken with evident sadness by Slindile Moya, a 12-year-old girl from KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, at the beginning of We Are Together<\/em>. She sings the song, her voice tender and soulful. And then, she looks into the camera and breaks into the biggest, most beautiful smile I\u2019ve seen on any screen in years.<\/p>\n Without that smile, without that voice, We Are Together<\/em>\u00a0might feel like just another documentary about African suffering. But director Paul Taylor and producer Teddy Leifer capture the radiance and heart in the Moya family, and in the children of Agape\u2014the Christian home for AIDS orphans called where Slindile has grown up.<\/p>\n It\u2019s harrowing to consider the hardship that the Moyas and their neighbors suffer, and when Agape\u2019s orphans gather in a choir to make soulful, spirited music, it\u2019ll break your heart. The regal matriarch of the orphanage\u2014the formidable, unforgettable personage of Gogo \u201cGrandma\u201d Zodwa \u2014says, \u201cAt Agape, we have unconditional love.\u201d<\/p>\n We Are Together<\/em>\u00a0shows how music has bound people together in hope through poverty and the spread of AIDS. These are not just poster-children for misery. This is a vibrant family, and we don\u2019t want to leave their company. It\u2019s easy to root for the Agape choir as they record a studio demo, in order to send their music out into the world\u2014a beautiful S.O.S.<\/p>\n The film is a sort of cry for help. Taylor, a volunteer at Agape, took a break from working there to make the film for about $200,000. With help from the Channel 4 British Documentary Film Foundation, editor Masahiro Hiraku (Trainspotting<\/em>), and composer Dario Marianelli (Atonement<\/em>), the movie won 13 audience awards and other prizes at 30 film festivals around the globe.<\/p>\n For all of its popularity, it\u2019s hard to ignore the fact that We Are Together<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>follows the simplest\u2014and cynics would say, the most exploitative\u2014documentary formula. We Westerners can get this kind of emotional distress, swiftly followed by predictable uplift, on a weekly basis, thanks to shows like \u201cExtreme Home Makeover.\u201d At times, Taylor\u2019s methods feel a bit invasive, zooming in on dramatic family ordeals and deathbed struggles. Slindile and her siblings are prompted to answer obvious questions about where it hurts and how badly. And the film\u2019s climax may inspire you to pray for some hope more substantial than charitable gestures from American celebrities like Alicia Keys and Paul Simon.<\/p>\n Still, compared to the \u201creality TV\u201d programs that wring manufactured drama from manipulated situations, We Are Together<\/em>\u00a0is an example of admirable restraint. Taylor and his team let the images and the music speak for themselves. By the end of the film, the chorus \u201cOh happy day, when Jesus comes\u201d has become an overwhelming expression infused with weariness, grief, hope, and joy. We\u2019re reminded that Africa is not as far away as we might think. The Moyas are not foreigners\u2014they\u2019re the neighbors we\u2019re commanded to love.<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n These three films\u2014Awake My Soul: The Story of the Sacred Harp, Homemade Hillbilly Jam,<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>and We Are Together<\/em>\u2014would make a fine festival for anyone who loves good movies and great music.<\/p>\n I\u2019m grateful for the privilege. I\u2019ll never forget Slindile\u2019s smile. I\u2019m haunted by the song of Mark Bilyeu\u2019s grandmother, which he sings from memory in an empty chapel. And whenever I set my watch, I\u2019ll think of dear Raymond Hamrick in Macon, Georgia \u2014 a man who repairs pocketwatches in his workshop so they\u2019ll tell the proper time, and who then composes glorious music that recalibrates body, mind, and soul, to show us what is timeless.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [This is an \u201cExtended Edition\u201d of the article\u00a0originally published at Christianity Today. \u2013 Those Who Have Ears to Hear\u2026 Let Them Watch Three documentaries bring cultures and conflict to life through music.\u00a0 I must have been about one year old when I first heard the merry, musical words \u201cI\u2019d like to teach the world to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1051,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2364,2512,2513],"class_list":["post-40322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-awake-my-soul","tag-homemade-hillbilly-jam","tag-we-are-together"],"yoast_head":"\n