They Came To Play
Dec 18 - Dec 23, 2009
(Alex Rotaru, 2009, USA, DigiBeta, 91 min)
Seattle premiere
Ken Iisaka -- a finalist in the International Amateur Piano Competition -- will be performing on Friday and Saturday on a Steinway piano courtesy of Sherman Clay Pianos!
They Came To Play is a documentary about the International Amateur Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, hosted by the Van Cliburn Foundation. With humor and drama, it portrays several multi-talented amateur pianists as they strive to balance their work, home and musical lives. Many of them have overcome extraordinary challenges like drug addiction, AIDS, heartbreak or political asylum, and they all share an overwhelming need to express themselves, musically and otherwise. Their intense preparation comes to a climax during the weeklong competition, when they perform in front of a professional jury and discerning audience in three highly competitive elimination rounds.
Winner: 2008 Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival Audience Award
Bucharest’s B-EST International Film Festival
SENE Film, Music & Arts Festival
"...a wonderful and inspiring chronicle of amateur musicians with a lust for life that is truly infectious."
--Bryant Manning, Chicago Sun Times
“… a gem of a documentary...”
-- Elias Savada, Film Threat
"A crowd-pleaser in the vein of Spellbound...You’ll be unprepared for the unexpected dramatic turns taken by They Came to Play."
Bill DeLapp, Syracuse New Times
“Terrifically Entertaining.”
– Kristian Lin, Fort Worth Weekly
“THEY CAME TO PLAY is both entertaining and touching, with a marvelously quirky cast of characters that reminds you why documentary films are so much more surprising than fictional ones.”
– Mark Harris, Oscar Winner, Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport
Watch the trailer:
