Movie: Don’t Stop
Believin’: Everyman’s Journey
This next film I saw at the festival was pretty
amazing. It’s a documentary from
director Ramona S. Diaz about Arnel Pineda, the new Filipino lead singer for
the band Journey. I don’t know if I’ve
been living under a rock or something, but I had absolutely no idea that this
had happened. First of all, I hadn’t
realized that Journey was still touring, but then I also didn’t know that they
snagged themselves a new, youthful front man.
And, to make the story even more interesting, the band found Pineda on
Youtube after he had posted several videos of himself singing with this cover
band in Manila. This is such a
remarkable story. Pineda started life as
a street child, loitering around funerals for handouts of food, and literally
singing for his supper. This led to his
eking out a living once he got a little older by singing for various cover
bands in many of the seedy bars in Manila and Hong Kong. Then to be rocketed to fame and stardom a few
years later because Neal Schon happened to stumble across his Youtube
video! You couldn’t make up a crazier or
more inspirational story. And, this film
really captures all the emotional highs and lows of that kind of roller coaster
ride.
This whole new career was possible because Arnel Pineda has
one of the truly most amazing voices I’ve ever heard. I got a chill every time he’d belt out each
new song in this film. And, it’s amazing
to hear that huge voice come out of such a petite man! The band chose him because he was able to
perfectly mimic the legacy sound of the singing from the band’s heyday in the
70s and 80s. But, Pineda’s true talent
comes from the fact that he can be so consistent, and continue delivering night
after night on a long road tour. That’s
an insanely difficult physical feat, but Pineda is up to the task. And, he’s so humble and professional about
the whole thing! Pineda’s charm really
shines through in all the interviews he gives in the documentary. This is the kind of true story that’ll just
make you really happy. I was grinning throughout
the whole screening. I can’t recommend
this documentary highly enough. You
really have to see this movie for yourself.
You can check out the film’s schedule over at Diaz’s website.
…………………….
Movie: The
Problem of Gravity
The feature film was preceded by a short film about another
little boy with big dreams. Director
Trevor Zhou brings us this largely silent film about a little boy who is
obsessed with Superman and dreams about being able to fly, himself. This is an enterprising little guy, and he’s
got a couple of ideas about how he’s going to put these big plans into
action. It’s a sweet, little story, and
it perfectly punctuated the themes of hopes and dreams that were presented in
the film that followed. An excellent
program.
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