6:00 p.m.	The Reach of Resonance Steve Elkins (U.S., 2010)

In its purest form, music is not about sonic distraction or instrumental mastery, but about an eloquent relationship to the world. Through divergent practices, composers and musicians redefine their sense of this place of things, natural and human-built. Director Steve Elkins takes this as his guide for the selection of four notable artists who pursue unusual musical investigations. Koto player Miya Masaoka performs music for insects and plants, divining their kinship to aural input. Bob Ostertag, on the other hand, delves into the upheaval of man and machine, building musical environments that express this tension. Violin virtuoso Jon Rose plies another tension, that of barbed-wire fences strung across Australia’s outback. He has played these man-made demarcations (and others) as sonic symbols of delineated power. A former environmental activist, John Luther Adams, a longtime Alaska resident, seeks an “ecology of music.” His unique compositions respond to the landscape like a sonic topography. “Music is not what I do,” Adams admits, “but how I understand the world.” The lushly rendered Reach of Resonance takes us along the path toward this resounding revelation. 

—Steve Seid

• Photographed by Elkins. With Kronos Quartet, Pierre Hébert, Fred Frith, Joan Jeanrenaud. (101 mins, Color, DigiBeta, From the artist)