Mark Johnson is the co-director of a remarkable documentary about the simple but transformative power of music: Playing for Change: Peace Through Music. “Music is the one thing that opens the door to bringing people to a place where they are all connected,” Johnson told Bill Moyers on the Moyers Journal this month. “Religion, politics, a lot of those things they seem to divide everybody, but it is easy to connect to the world through music.”
Johnson and his film crew traveled the world recording musicians from places as diverse as Israel, South Africa, Venezuela and New Orleans, all playing the same songs together, listening through headphones. The result is a beautiful montage of spirit and music that has led to the building of schools for music in some of the poorest villages on Earth.
Here are two videos from YouTube, an inspiring rendition of Stand By Me, and the interview with Bill Moyers that ends with another musical clip from the DVD, Playing for Change, Bob Marley’s One Love.
Visit the website, www.playingforchange.com
The website says the DVD will be launched in 2009 (I couldn’t find the DVD currently available for sale).
Thanks to Tosho Bailey for sending the link!