Tuesday, Feb 20, 2018: THE GROOVE IS NOT TRIVIAL

 7:30 pm/ St. John School of the Arts  /  $5 donation

St John Film Society and  St John Arts Festival presents:

The Groove Is Not Trivial

62-minute documentary
Producer / Director:  TOMMIE SMITH

The Groove is Not Trivial follows master fiddler Alasdair Fraser’s personal journey in search of self expression, a quest that has led him to dig deep into his Scottish musical roots. There he finds a universal pulse —a  groove — that runs through his virtuosic performances with cellist Natalie Haas and his dynamic teaching at his wildly popular, freewheeling fiddle camps in California, Scotland, and Spain. At his gatherings around the world for musicians of all ages and abilities, ‘the groove’ is a through-line from the past that sparks hopeful possibilities for the future.

Fraser is at the epicenter of a movement in which people are finding their own voices and a deep sense of community through the shared love and joy of music. A subversive empowerment is happening as people reclaim cultural roots in jeopardy of being lost.

The irrepressible Fraser proves that the groove in traditional music transcends toe-tapping fun – it can be a source of personal and political liberation.

“A GOOD TUNE IS HARD TO KEEP DOWN…”
–Alasdair Fraser

FILMMAKER TOMMIE SMITH

Tommie Dell Smith was Associate Producer on the production of Broken Rainbow, which an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Her own award-winning documentaries include Breaking Silence: The Story of the Sisters at DeSales Heights. She also is producer of a series of Oral History projects. She has been a member/owner of New Day Films since 1994, where she has served on the Executive Committee several times.