Nugget Theatre: Colorado Premiere, “Imba Means Sing”

10 Jul Nugget Theatre: Colorado Premiere, “Imba Means Sing”

“I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult,” E.B. White

Colorado premiere of indie documentary “Imba Means Sing” takes place Thursday, July 16, 5:30 p.m., Nugget Theatre. Tickets here.

In 2009, filmmakers Alejandra Amarilla and Juliana Penaranda-Loftus set out to make a movie about the plight of impoverished children in Paraguay. They discovered a children’s orchestra in the slum of Cateura, located on a floodplain adjacent to the Asuncion city landfill, one of the largest junkyards in South America. The resulting documentary, “Landfill Harmonic,” follows the young people of Recycled Orchestra, whose story goes viral, catapulting everyone involved into the glare of the global spotlight. When natural disaster devastates their community, the orchestra provides a source of hope for the little town.

“Landfill Harmonics,” is a testament to the transformative power of music and the resilience of the human spirit. The film was an audience favorite at Telluride Mountainfilm 2015 and won a Moving Mountains prize in support of the improbable orchestra.

And now here comes “Imba Means Sing,” a sweet refrain.

“Imba Means Sing” is another heartwarming, uplifting documentary about the transformative power of music and the impact of a good education. It is also about the triumph of hope over despair.

The Colorado premiere of “Imba Means Sing”  takes place Thursday, July 16, 5:30 p.m., at the Nugget Theatre.

“Imba Means Sing” is an intimate character portrait. The film tells the story of a poor boy who dreamed an impossible dream of one day becoming a pilot, but Moses and his friends Angel and Nina lived in the slums of Kampala, Uganda, where Moses’s family was too poor for him to even enter the first grade. Then the clouds parted. Overnight Moses became a star, the celebrity drummer in the Grammy-nominated African Children’s Choir.

The goal of “Imba’s” filmmakers is to raise awareness about the need and importance of music education locally and the idea of equal access to education as a basic human right globally: 100% of the profits from “Imba Means Sing” will go to support the Choir’s work of educating thousands of children across Africa.

To realize that ambitious goal, the “Imba” team has partnered with some of the most effective poverty alleviation and youth organization in the world, including The United Nations and Creative Visions Foundation.

Creative Visions is run by part-time Telluride local and longtime Mountainfilm supporter Trevor Hall.

“Creative Visions Foundation is our 501c3 fiscal sponsor and have been our biggest advocates in making this film dream of mine a reality. Trevor Hall, along with Kathy Eldon and Pat Chandler are all co-producers and Joey Borgogna, an associate producer of our film,” explained ‘Imba” producer Erin Bernhardt.

For a preview of the film, watch the trailer.