Kirstin and I watched The Singing Revolution last night, a film about Estonia's struggle to maintain identity through the long and brutal Soviet occupation from WWII to the early 90s. It is another inspiring story of nonviolent resistance, but unique given the centrality of song in the Estonian struggle. Through their tradition of singing festivals--during which 30,000 people are on stage singing Estonian folk songs together--the Estonians resisted Soviet indoctrination and eventually reasserted their independence. I'd highly recommend the film.
May 29
2009
2009
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This page contains a single entry by Rob Vander Giessen-Reitsma published on May 29, 2009 9:30 AM.
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Wait--there were 30,000 people on stage? Wow. How did they choose the singers?
(PS--My spam-stopping words are "navels also"! Yes!)
I couldn't figure that out. They seem to have quite an extensive training program for kids, but they didn't go into how the whole singing system is organized. There are only about a million people in the country, so 30,000 is a pretty significant percentage of the population. Almost 300,000 people attend the festivals, too!
I saw this film at a special showing in Las Vegas. It truly tugged at my heart, knowing the risks these people went through and the rewards of freedom they earned.