VIA PRESS RELEASE | This November, festival attendees across the US will have another opportunity to see the documentary Harper’s Bazaar is calling “masterful…a rousing ode to the healing power of music”: The Sound of Us.
Captured amidst a deeply divided and uncertain moment in time, the film chronicles a series of wide-ranging, diverse stories that exemplify music’s universal ability to unite and inspire. Over the coming weeks, The Sound of Us will screen at Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, Weyauwega International Film Festival, Louisville’s International Festival of Film, Fayetteville Film Fest, River’s Edge International Film Festival and Maui Film Festival.
The stacked slate of November screenings follows an already busy season for The Sound of Us, and its 12x Emmy-Winning, Grammy-nominated director, producer and composer Chris Gero. After winning the Movie That Matters Award during Cannes, and earning the Accolade Global Film Competition’s Best of Show, the urgent new documentary has continued to garner acclaim.
In October, it made its West Coast Premiere at Newport Beach Film Fest, in addition to appearing at Indianapolis’ Heartland Film Festival, the Gary International Black Film Festival, and Peachtree Village International Film Festival, as well as the BZN International Film Festival, Calgary International Film Festival, Breckenridge and Vail Film Festivals, and more in September. The film also took home Best Feature Documentary and Best Director awards at the Albuquerque Film & Music Experience.
Filmed in five countries, over the course of two months during the height of COVID-19, The Sound of Us unfolds as a series of nine vignettes, illustrating the endless ways in which music gives voice to hope and courage, allows us to grieve and be honest, and provides the great, universal language for our most difficult conversations.
In a recent interview with LA Times Today, Chris Gero says, “I came to a place personally for me that I just felt like I needed to present a message of unity, unification. My 11-year-old son and I were talking, and in the end, he said I seemed angry, caught up in all of this. He suggested I make a film and say what I needed to say. So, I’m a lifelong musician, and the one entity that I understand fully is the deep level of connectivity we all have through music.”
About Chris Gero | Chris Gero is a 12-time Emmy Award winner and Grammy Award-nominated record producer, well-known for his visionary style in the music industry. An accomplished composer and director, The Sound of Us is Gero’s second documentary feature film. Gero previously directed the 2014 award-winning feature length documentary, Nathan East: For the Record.
Prior to his documentary directorial debut, Gero produced and directed Elton John’s full length concert film The Million Dollar Piano, which screened worldwide. As founder of Yamaha Entertainment Group and Chief Artist Relations Executive for Yamaha Artist Relations Group, Gero oversees the management and branding of Yamaha’s global roster, having signed more than 5,000 artists to date.
Also known for his large-scale concert productions, Gero has produced live concert events for some of the biggest names in the music industry, including Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Tony Bennett, Michael McDonald, Norah Jones, Sheryl Crow, and John Legend. Gero resides outside of Franklin, Tennessee with his wife and four children.
