Genre
Synopsis
SOMEBODY TO LEAN ON is a short film about a prison choir in rural Ohio, and the power of music to build community. Started by a local choir director who runs the ‘Harmony Project,’ a community choir whose only requirement to commit to hours of volunteer service each year, the pilot program into the Pickaway men’s prison is a step toward breaking down walls between those on the inside and out, and between those inside among themselves and within themselves. Always with a very long waitlist, the Harmony Project choir is about connecting people who would elsewhere not interact – crossing racial, political, religious, and social lines that otherwise divide us. SOMEBODY TO LEAN ON captures how the group worked together to sing “Lean On Me” in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Bill Withers song, as a message of unity and strength of community as we all move forward through challenges we face, including the pandemic, the opioid crisis, race tensions, poverty, and the incarceration system as a growth industry. This is an inspiring story of individuals building community through music, and how that impact is rippling out to create profound positive prison reform. Presenting only the voices of those in the prison choir project, SOMEBODY TO LEAN ON explores how we might face daunting challenges, but by coming together through the power of music, we can get to know each other as humans, and in the process, effect empowering change as a community together.
Bio
Gabrielle Burton helms the indie film production company FIVE SISTERS PRODUCTIONS with her five real-life sisters (www.fivesisters.com). A writer and filmmaker, Burton won the Ohio Arts Council's Individual Excellence Award in both writing and film. After Harvard/Radcliffe and Berklee, she won a Rotary to study film in France. Working as a sound mixer and screenwriter, she moved into directing, being selected to the director’s training program on LAW & ORDER. She directed MANNA FROM HEAVEN (MGM) with her sister Maria, followed by Ford commercials, work with Victoria’s Secret, and documentary-based work characterized by strong human-focused storytelling. Burton’s interest in social responsibility and in complexity reflects in her filmic style of weaving stories to reveal deeper truths about human nature and social change. Her latest film, KINGS, QUEENS, & IN-BETWEENS (a doc on drag and gender) received a national theatrical release, is now on amazon, itunes, etc. (http://bit.ly/KQIBFilm), and is being used as an engagement and education tool in communities and universities across the US. It will open in two cities in France, spring 2018, where Burton has been invited to give another TEDx talk on being an artist and acknowledging diversities in perspectives. She has won a Wexner Center for the Arts artist's residency for her next film which will be based on her TEDxTalk on gender and parenting that was selected by TEDx for their national playlist (http://youtu.be/YOkyc91eY90).
