:rotate(0)/d5ld2ujt6q5i7557u057pw24n0yc)
STRAD STYLE
1 h 45 min | Documentary | by Stefan Avalos | 2017
The film is based on a story as unlikely as it is true. Houck — a Columbus native, former funeral industry business owner and self-taught violin-maker obsessed with the mystique of great Italian violin-makers like Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri, del Gesù — meets Romanian concert violinist Razvan Stoica on Facebook.
With very little professional violin-making experience, Houck offers to make him a copy of Stoica’s dream instrument: the Guarneri violin, which previous owner and legendary violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini called “Il Cannone” (The Canon) for its powerful sound.
Stefan Avalos, a filmmaker working on a documentary about today’s great violin-makers, discovers Houck’s self-taught making through a mutual friend, visits him at his rural Ohio home, learns of his project to make a copy of one of the world’s most famous violins for a rising European concert artist and decides that Houck — not all those other violin-makers — should be the subject of his film.
Strad Style is born, wins the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Prize for Best Documentary Feature at the 2017 Slamdance Film Festival, becomes a hit and thrusts Houck from rural Ohio oblivion onto the international stage.