DOC NYC New York Premiere of the Illuminating Documentary “Finding Her Beat” Featuring LIVE Taiko Drumming Performance! Wednesday, November 16th, 2022

Finding Her Beat posterR15

DOC NYC New York Premiere of the Illuminating Documentary “Finding Her Beat” Featuring LIVE Taiko Drumming Performance! Wednesday, November 16th, 2022 at the IFC Center, 323 6th Avenue, New York, NY 10014

DOC NYC Film Page: https://www.docnyc.net/film/finding-her-beat/

NYC Premiere: Wed, November 16th at 7pm at the IFC Center

2nd Screening: Thursday, November 17th at 12pm at the IFC Center

**Also Part of DOC NYC Virtual Cinemas As well Through November 27th**

Filmmaking Team Onsite for the Screening and Q&A: Co-Director, Producer & Editor Dawn Mikkelson (“Risking Light,” “The Red Tail”), Co-Director, Director of Photography & Editor:  Keri Pickett (“First Daughter and the Black Snake,” “The Fabulous Ice Age”), Field Producer & Cinematographer: Caroline Stuckyand Producer & Featured Artist: Jennifer Weir (Executive Director of TAM, Artistic Director of Enso Daiko), and Featured Artist: Megan Chao-Smith , among others.

About “Finding Her Beat”
In the midst of a frozen Minnesota winter, a Japanese drum master and Korean adoptee from North Dakota join forces to assemble the world’s best Taiko drummers in a bold effort to claim a cultural spotlight that has historically been reserved only for men. Their rhythm revolution includes rock stars from the world of Taiko: Tiffany Tamaribuchi, Kaoly Asano, Chieko Kojima, Megan Chao-Smith, and Jennifer Weir. Through grueling rehearsals, Jennifer weaves together their disparate voices and styles. Vulnerability, pain, and joys are shared—and we quickly see the bonds of friendship form as these talented women navigate their way through differences in culture, age, language, and performing styles. As the clock ticks toward their first performance, it becomes clear that their story has become much larger than Taiko.

Focus of the Film: Through the perspective of the five main artists, “Finding Her Beat”  explores the individual themes of cultural and racial identity, the challenges professional marginalized gender artists face, the artist’s passion for a subculture that was designed to keep them on the outside, and the burgeoning hope that this historic event marks the beginning of a new era of taiko - for everyone. Told both verbally and nonverbally, in silence and thundering percussion, the film organically unfolds in the lived moments of these artists. By providing a character-driven format, not only is the subject matter fresh to the majority of audiences, but it creates a challenge and narrative tension for Japanese artists whose traditional culture stresses the importance of the separation between private and public lives. “Finding Her Beat”  artists opened their hearts, followed by a massive public experience - the last before COVID-19 changed the world of performing arts. This is an important story of women paving their own road by banging their own drum.

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