Golden Prague win for “Music and Power”

The Accentus Music documentary by Maria Stodtmeier and Isa Willinger won the distinguished Dagmar and Václav Havel Foundation VIZE 97 Award.

The 5.000 EUR award acknowledges the film’s analysis of distinct views on the political aspects of music. “Music and Power” is the third and last installment in the three-part documentary series “Music, War and Revolution”. The series explores known and unknown as well as obvious and hidden connections between music, power, revolution and war.

Music and Power
A film by Maria Stodtmeier and Isa Willinger

The great seminal catastrophe of 1914 was not merely a historical upheaval for politics and society. Music had also lost its political innocence. But can music be political? Already in the 19th century, an increasing number of composers and musicians had started to adopt political agendas, and to this day many musicians position themselves politically.

“Music and Power”, the final part of the three-part documentary series “Music, War and Revolution” embarks on a search for the political aspects of music, combining historical examples with the present. The film itself thus deals with various standpoints of music’s political moments and starts a dialogue with renowned artists such as conductor Valery Gergiev, Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero or cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, one of the last survivors of the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz.

The complete series is available in the Arte online library until 15 October via the button below.

A production of Accentus Music in co-production with WDR/Arte, supported by Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung.

The series will be released on double-DVD in November.

Production Company Accentus Music GmbH
Co-Production Company WDR/Arte
Director Maria Stodtmeier
Director Isa Willinger
Executive Producer Paul Smaczny
Producer Lothar Mattner