Film Celebrates Composer Gustavo Dudamel

Greenwich Entertainment today debuted the trailer for ¡Viva Maestro!, an uplifting and timely documentary from Ted Braun (Darfur Now) celebrating the genius of world-famous conductor Gustavo Dudamel (Music & Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic). When Dudamel’s international tours are disrupted by deadly protests across his native Venezuela, one of the world’s greatest and most beloved musicians faces the challenge of a lifetime — one that will deepen his commitment to the mentor who changed his life, upend relationships with friends and musicians he has led since his teens, and test his belief in art’s transformative capacity. ¡Viva Maestro! opens in select theaters on April 8.
¡Viva Maestro! begins in February 2017 in Caracas as a celebration of the conductor’s art but takes an unexpected turn one month later when protests erupt across Venezuela. Separated from the Venezuelan orchestras and renowned musical education program he leads, Dudamel faces an unexpected and daunting series of challenges — to his duty to his mentor, the great Maestro José Antonio Abreu; to the friends he grew up performing with and the hundreds of thousands of young musicians he’s now responsible for; and to the aesthetic and moral values that have guided his life. But Dudamel fights for his belief that music unites people and ultimately channels his relentless passion and creative energy to devise a concert that brings musicians from around the world to celebrate the unstoppable joy of art and the transformative power of music.

¡Viva Maestro! is directed and written by Braun. The film is produced by Steve Tisch (Forrest Gump, “Why We Hate”), Dean Schramm (Darfur Now, “Secrets of Eden”), Howard Bragman (“Michael Sam,” Becoming Chaz), Nicolas Paine, and Braun. Executive producers are Jeff Skoll (American Factory, Roma) and Diane Weyermann (American Factory, An Inconvenient Truth) on behalf of Participant which co-financed the film. Cinematography is by Buddy Squires, ASC (“The Civil War,” The Central Park Five) with Richard Pearce (Woodstock, Food, Inc.). The editor is Kate Amend, ACE (Into the Arms of Strangers, The Long Way Home). Re-recording mixer is Ron Bartlett (Dune, Life of Pi, Blade Runner 2049). The film features the music of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Shostakovich and Mexico’s greatest living composer, Arturo Márquez, with performances by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela.