Inspired by the discovery of home footage from the 1930s, filmmaker Stacey Stone and composer Larry Tuttle join forces to create what they describe as “a living symphony of sound and imagery.”
Concerto for Humanity is almost entirely devoid of plot, the only narrative being that which exists in reality and that which the music and imagery imply to the human mind. It’s a much more subjective short piece than I typically review, so I will focus on the artistic elements of the film.
This is very much an art piece, something I’ve seen many times in museums, an audiovisual experience more than it is a film to watch with popcorn. In this way, the grainy 1930s footage catches the eye and mesmerizes. I can almost imagine this one projected on a white gallery wall in a darkened room. The way modern footage was integrated, however, felt jarring at many points and counterintuitive to the stated concept that one videographer was simply recording what they saw. Even if it had just been a filter, it might have been nice to have the idea that this person was using the same camera.
What really ripped me out of the experience was the screen being filled with an AI dog talking about its million followers or footage from news reports. These could have been easily included and felt more like found footage or amateur recordings if someone had simply recorded the same stock rolls on someone’s phone. This would have really helped this film keep thematic and tonal consistency.
What Concerto for Humanity does really well is highlight parts of human society that have remained eerily similar or regressed since the 1930s. Videos of breadlines appear next to homeless folks from Santa Barbara eating from garbage cans; 1930s swing music swells into thoughtful modern soundtracks that allude to feelings that tint the images.
This is a short film for those looking to feel a connection to history and humanity in ways you might not expect. While there are a few aspects that have clumsy implementation, for the most part, Concerto for Humanity does what it sets out to do: it creates a thought-provoking audiovisual experience for the modern viewer.
