Come to the IMA for a pairing of great documentaries about people driven to make music. Shown as part of Disabilities Awareness Month. Presented with promotional support from Indiana School for the Blind and ArtsWORK Indiana.

Genghis Blues (dir. Roko Belik, 1999, 88 mins.)

A blind San Francisco blues singer's journey to becoming a master of Tuvan throat singing is the subject of Roko and Adrian Belic's Oscar-nominated documentary. Paul Pena became fascinated with the Tuvan art form after hearing it on a Russian radio broadcast; he then met the Mongolian masters on a U.S. tour. The Tuvans were so impressed with Pena that they invited him to Tuva's annual singing competition; his adventures there form the heart of Genghis Blues. The film is about the extraordinary power of music as a communication tool and connector or people.

Heavy Load

Heavy Load (dir. Jerry Rothwell, 2008, 89 mins.)

The band Heavy Load is a punk outfit subject to the combustible flux of ego, ambition, fantasy, expectation and desire that fuels any emerging band. But Heavy Load is also, uniquely, made up of musicians with and without learning disabilities, which makes the bands' survival a precarious negotiation between two different worlds: on the one hand the institutional timetable of day centers, work placements and social workers; on the other the chaotic slacker life of rehearsal rooms, studios and gigs. With gripping narration, director Rothwell shows how the unlikely band overcomes various trials and proves that punk culture, social activism, and learning disabilities have one thing in common: they demand an attitude of being true to oneself.

This program is closed captioned and ASL interpreted.