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starring: Roberta Guasparidirected by: Allan Miller (II)
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786304383803
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
ISBN: 6304383800
Label: Walt Disney Video
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Walt Disney Video
Release Date: August 25, 1998
Running Time: 80 minutes
Sales Rank: 7364
Studio: Walt Disney Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1995
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
Arguably superior to the 1999 Miramax drama Music of the Heart starring Meryl Streep as violin teacher Roberta Guaspari, this Oscar-nominated documentary by Allan Miller has a focus and spirit the former lacks. Miller introduced audiences to Guaspari (who actually goes by Guaspari-Tzavaras) in 1995, drawing attention to the inspiring story of her youth music program in East Harlem. A divorced mother and dedicated instructor, Guaspari-Tzavaras offered instruction on the violin to the community's public schools before her position was eliminated from the budget in 1990. She responded by creating a nonprofit learning project so popular that kids of all ages could only get in via a lottery system. Small Wonders captures Guaspari-Tzavaras's extraordinary commitment to the program as she drags piles of violins from school to school, offers private lessons, gets tough with indifferent parents, and conducts class after class of children who could make your ears bleed with their squawking fiddles. The results of her efforts have long been noted for boosting students' self-esteem and a sense of the possible, all the more so when Guaspari-Tzavaras brings her violin army to play the national anthem at a Knicks game and, even more improbably, organizes a benefit in which her charges jam with Isaac Stern and Itzhak Perlman. Miller captures the joys and agonies of learning, from the tyke who weeps at the thought of hard work to the adolescent who finds practicing the violin has helped her organize her life. All in all, this is a remarkable story and Guaspari-Tzavaras is an exciting subject. --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - If You Are An Educator, You Must See This Video!
Any educator with the hope and zest for teaching the impossible to any group of less-than-perfect students, PLEASE SEE THIS MOVIE! I first saw this movie as part of a graduate course in the process of getting my MS.Ed. in Education with a group of 40 other teachers. We all wept, applauded, and then brought this same determination to our classrooms in the form of a never-give-up attitude. This video makes it quite clear that with determination, students and adults alike, can accomplish anything ... Read More
Rating: - From Grade School Band to Carnagy Hall, MUST SEE!
This movie is about a group of children (ages 6-8) growing up in New York that start to take lesson from a violinist. These children start out at a school band and then move to a Knicks Game and finally end up in Carnagaiy hall. A definte must see for all musicians
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