All the Way Through Evening

Directed by

Rohan Spong

How it feels

The documentary follows pianist Mimi Stern-Wolfe as she organizes a yearly concert featuring music by New York composers who died from HIV/AIDS. It captures her rehearsals and conversations with friends and family of the artists. The film shows how music can keep people connected to those they have lost.

poignantintimatereflectiveinspiringquietgrief-strickenupbeattenderhopeful

What happens

All the Way Through Evening is a 2011 documentary film that chronicles pianist and concert producer Mimi Stern-Wolfe as she prepares for her annual concert of music written by New York City composers lost to HIV/AIDS. Dubbed The Benson AIDS Series (after her friend and longtime collaborator Eric Benson), Stern-Wolfe's concert contains music that recalls the arrival of HIV/AIDS and the devastation left in its wake. Directed and photographed by Australian Rohan Spong, the film follows Stern-Wolfe as she engages various players to rehearse and perform the musical works of late playwright Robert Chesley and posthumously recognized composers Kevin Oldham, and Chris DeBlasio. The film includes the latter's seminal piece 'Walt Whitman in 1989', with a libretto by Perry Brass, which imagines the great American poet Walt Whitman surveying the Lenox Hill Hospital amidst the peak of the HIV/AIDS crisis in New York City. Interspersed amongst Stern-Wolfe's preparations and performances are interviews with the composer's friends, family, lovers, and collaborators. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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