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.

FULL LENGTH STREAMABLE HERE:

TUBI: https://tubitv.com/movies/507341/strad_style?

• Trimpin: The Sound of Invention: A deep dive into the life, career, and creative process of German sound sculptor, Trimpin.
• The Singing Revolution: A fascinating look into the participatory singing culture of Estonia. This film shows how feelings become songs, how songs became a national voice, and how a national voice became action. (Amazon Prime streaming)
• Throw down your heart: World-renowned banjo player Béla Fleck travels to Africa to discover the history of the banjo and to jam with various traditional African stringed instruments.
• Soundtracker: This film documents the career of Gordon Hempton, an acoustic ecologist fighting to preserve silence in the natural world. 
• Lomax the Songhunter: The story of Alan Lomax, a famous figure who went across America recording folk songs from all fields. 
• Strad Style:  A rural Ohio hillbilly with an obsession for 'Stradivari', through the magic of social-media, convinces a famous European concert violinist that he can make a copy of one of the most famous and valuable violins in the world. (FreeTubi streaming here)

Here's a list of podcast series and episodes that feature interesting topics and thinkers in the field of sound studies:

• On Being: Krista Tippett hosts a spacious conversation featuring contemplatives from all fields (poets, writers, physicists, musicians, artists, activists). Recommend episodes:
  • Gordon Hempton: An acoustic ecologist who believes silence is "an endangered species." 
  • Alice Parker: A 90-year old song-leader who believes "singing is the most companionable of arts"
  • Katy Payne: A student of whales and elephants, Katy and her husband Roger Payne discovered whale song!
• Twenty Thousand Hertz: An excellent podcast about all things sound-related. I highly encourage you explore this one. Some great episodes include:
  • Vroom Vroom: An episode all about the sounds of cars (and sports cars).
  • Hear Here: An episode about the history of acoustics + architecture.
• 99% Invisible: A podcast about all things design+architecture. The episodes below center on sound design:
  • Sound and Cities: This episode touches on sonic branding, and the health impacts of noise in cities -- featuring Erica Walker, a professor at Boston University!
  • Sound and Health: Hospitals
  • The Laugh Track
  • All Rings Considered
  • Sounds Natural -- But it was made artificially...
  • Reverb: the Evolution of Architectural Acoustics

Chapter 2 of Turino's book "Music as Social Life: The politics of participation"