PORGY&BESS is a milestone in the history of opera and music: the only US-american opera that has ever achieved worldwide fame is in fact the only opera ever to make its way into the world of pop music on the detour via Jazz and Blues.

The New York Harlem Theater Company

THE LONG HAUL | The Lasting Journey of PORGY&BESS (WT)
A film by Susanna Boehm
 
Filming has started on 19 November 2007!

A documentary film is again taking us on a bold journey to the centre of a very particular microcosm. Author and director Susanna Boehm portrays the customs and morals of an extraordinary community. Philip Tornau will be behind the camera. The musical documentary film will be shot over 20 days to February 2007 in Germany (North Rhine Westphalia, Bavaria), the south and west of France and in the Italian city of Parma.

DER LANG ATEM / The Lasting Journey of Porgy and Bess portrays the passionate struggle of black artists for recognition, self-realisation and equality.  Against the backdrop of George Gershwin’s opera PORGY&BESS the writer Susanna Boehm tells the story of an exceptional family and its passionate struggle for individual self-realisation – a lifelong endeavour.
 
The heroes of our film are African-American opera singers. Their unique talent is their voice, their potential the devotion with which they sing for the recognition of their audience each evening. The tragedy of their story is that the opera which some have been performing constantly for decades perpetuates an old stereotype – the image, tainted by racism, of the black person in early twentieth century America.  
 
George and Ira Gershwin wrote the opera 72 years ago. Though the language and living conditions of the black society represented have largely changed, the core issue – the dream of self-realisation and equality – continues to permeate the lives of the ensemble of black singers, black America and in many respects the lives of minorities everywhere. With its representation of a black American society marked by drugs, violence and superstitions, the opera touches a raw nerve with many black people today. The protagonists resist being associated with this “black image“ because they fear being judged on the basis of deeply-rooted prejudices. On the other hand, over the course of the film it also becomes apparent to what extent the world represented reflects the actual biographies of many singers and therefore also the experience of the chosen family.
 
The singers have achieved a great deal in their lives; however, they feel that they still have to overcome obstacles on a daily basis on account of their skin colour – in their professional, public and private lives. In each individual there are in fact elements of a specific black history which is no longer thought to exist and which continues to play a significant role in their lives today. These products of traumatic experiences of an environment tainted by racism are manifested, for example, in a tyrannic father, a family with drug-addicted sons who are already in jail as young men or in an all-pervasive resignation to the fate god has decided.  
 
The bitter struggle to break free of the old shackles is the protagonists’ greatest challenge and requires them to renew their faith in themselves each day. Yet at the same time all have complete faith in the American Dream: that anyone is capable of reinventing their life at any time. However, it is always apparent that reality is more challenging than they would care to admit. At the same time the film aims to underline the importance of black tradition, moral support and the strength of the personal bonds between the protagonists. Their African heritage is revealed to be the core of this unity and a source of energy, a framework and a place of retreat – en route to the realisation one day of their dream, a dream in which their faith is unshakeable.
 

THE LONG HAUL | The Lasting Journey of PORGY&BESS
90 Min, HD/ 35 mm, Dolby Digital, 1:1,185/ 16:9

A film by Susanna Boehm
With male and female singers from the New York Harlem Theater Company
Musical director: Bill Barkhymer
Assistant: Julia Gechter
Camera: Philipp Tornau
Sound: Andreas Prescher
Music: George Gershwin
Creative Producer: Philipp Barnett
Production manager: Marc Wächter
Producers: Andrea Thilo, Thomas Grube, Uwe Dierks
In co-operation with NDR/ ARTE
International distribution by BTMI | BOOMTOWNMEDIA INTERNATIONAL