Help Fundraise "Fortissimo" - A Music Education Documentary

Hi Everyone!

I'm Zoey Franklin, a documentary film senior at Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. I, along with my co-director and co-producer Angel Mendoza, are in the middle of production for our senior thesis film, tentatively titled Fortissimo.

Fortissimo follows high school senior Jimena in her hometown of Phoenix, Arizona, a young musician navigating entering the world of higher education. As she continues playing music during her senior year, she reflects how music has changed her life, something she would not have access to without free music education.

We recently returned from our first production weekend in Arizona, and are returning to film later this December.

Logline: A high school senior prepares to enter the world of higher

education using lessons taught from free music education access provided by Harmony Project Phoenix, an extracurricular program that serves students throughout a variety of schools in Phoenix, Arizona as a means to accomplish their goals in spite of socioeconomic background.

The Story: Music, like many forms of art, has several different forms of education and spreading information. However, for traditional, classical types of music, such as orchestra, the upfront financial costs, such as joining an musical organization, buying an instrument, buying proper supplies, and hidden, long term financial commitments, such as private lessons, travel, instrument repair and maintenance, are not accessible for all students of different backgrounds. In order to combat this, Harmony Project Phoenix, a non profit organization in Phoenix, Arizona that aims to level the playing field for young musicians of all backgrounds by providing free lessons and instruments for underprivileged students in the area.

Raised by a single mother, Jimena didn't always value the viola, her instrument. Despite the access to music education for low income families, she wanted to quit. It was her mother's insistence that kept her in music lessons. Now a senior in high school, she's been both the student and the mentor, remembering the lessons that go beyond the music room. None of that however, would have been possible, if music was kept behind a financial barrier. Fortissimo explores why access to music education is essential for all students, for the lessons they learn in the music room and beyond.

YOUR DONATION!

By donating to this film, you're helping with:

Travel Costs:

Color Grading

Music Licensing

Film Festival Costs

Anything helps, and if you are unable to donate, just sharing is a huge help to us!

The Filmmakers:

Zoey Franklin: Zoey is the co-director and co-producer. She's been involved in the performing arts her whole life, and continues to study music, minoring in music: vocal emphasis in classical and musical theater. Her passion for music education comes from her ability to perform it at a young age, something she believes everyone should access to. Her non-fiction works portrait artists and their art. She previously produced, co-directed and co-edited the documentary Wild Clay, a portrait of a ceramicist who forages her own wild clay, and was the lead editor of Small Things, a short featuring a bonsai apprentice and master filmed in Osaka, Japan.

Angel Mendoza: Angel is the co-director and co-producer. Having been involved in a variety of music ensembles since elementary school, Angel is passionate about music and music education access for all. Angel continues to stay involved in music at Chapman University as a film music minor and as a guitarrón player of Chapman’s Mariachi Panteras, the first collegiate mariachi ensemble in Orange County, CA. Angel also recently co-produced and co-edited The Catalina Deer Divide, winning the Excellence Award at the Catalina Island Film Festival.

Thank you all so much!