Fiddlefest

Can learning the rigorous beauty of violin-playing save a wayward kid from East Harlem? If you ask Roberta Guaspari-Tzavaras, she'll say yes. Guaspari-Tzavaras and the students in her East Harlem Violin Program are the subject of this vibrant, wonderfully noisy documentary that begins as a profile in tenacity but ends by raising questions about the medicinal nature of art and our ideas of what it means to be gifted. The camera follows Guaspari-Tzavaras's work for an extended period; we watch little Jose Rijos from the first time he lays hands on a violin to his opening concert, complete with beaming parents. But in between that beginning and end, there is much footage of Guaspari-Tzavaras yelling over the top of less than perfect violin-playing, chastising kids for forgetting their instruments, and permanently dismissing a girl who would rather attend soccer than violin practice. We are made to admire Guaspari-Tzavaras's assumption that the violin is as crucial as life itself. When the group plays the National Anthem at a Knicks game and shares the creamy splendor of Carnegie Hall with Issac Stern and other greats, you feel you have witnessed transcendence. Though probably a half-hour longer than necessary, Fiddlefest adores its subject. Highly recommended for strong music and music education collections. (A. Laker)