Thanks to our fantastic music teacher, Mrs. Vaughn, our fifth graders had the opportunity to see the documentary Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings yesterday. This was a special schools-only screening through the Riverrun Film Festival, after which, we got a special Q & A session with director Tadashi Nakamura. As we discussed, a great documentary can make any topic exciting, as when you watch a great documentary, the film makers' passion for the subject really shines through. We discussed how a documentary is a research project, and how the steps that Mr. Nakamura described in gathering and then whittling down footage for the film directly mirror the students' steps in developing their Teaching Academy presentations.
This film was especially appropriate because the kids have been playing ukulele with Mrs. Vaughn in music class, so they are aware of the instrument's limitations. We were all AMAZED at what Mr. Shimabukuro can do with this seemingly simple instrument! If you are not familiar with his work (I know I wasn't before the film screening), check out his website to learn more: http://jakeshimabukuro.com/home/
Mrs. Gottschalk and I are hoping to check him out in concert on June 8 in Durham. I thought I might pass that information along (the upcoming tour dates are listed on the website).
Again, this was a FANTASTIC experience. I am so grateful to Mrs. Vaughn and Mrs. McKim with the Riverrun festival for offering us this FREE film screening. I am also very proud of our kids - they were such a mature and mannerly audience. It was a pleasure to attend this film with them!
Kids, what was your favorite part of the documentary?
Jaelyn reporting,
ReplyDeletemy favorite part of the documentary was when they showed his early childhood life.
My favorite part of the documentary is when he came to Japan and went to the schools and played the ukulele for the kids.
ReplyDeletemy favorite part of the movie as the begining where he said our name
ReplyDeletethis is really Abby'
ReplyDeleteHi my favorite part about the film was how awesome Jake could play and how fast he could play. I also liked how the film was put togeather.
Caleb here, my favorite part was whenever he played rock music.
ReplyDeletehey this is allie,
ReplyDeletemy favorite part was when jake talked about us at the beginning of the film. It was AWESOME!
is our blog commenting on the ukulele post??
ReplyDeleteHi this is Raquel,
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part was seeing Jake play
my fairote part was when jake played very,very fast the film was very awesome!!!!!!!!!!:-
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part was when Jake played really fast. The was the best of river ridge film festival.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part of the documentary was the part when jake was playing in his teenage days.
ReplyDeleteMy Favorite part was when he played fast
ReplyDelete