Robert Shaw: Man of Many Voices

Largely self-taught, with only scant formal musical training, the remarkable Robert Shaw defied expectations by emerging from the world of pop music to achieve near-godlike status as a maker of choral music and to establish himself as a major conductor with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Shaw won 14 Grammy Awards and an endless number of other honors, and his admiring mentors and colleagues included such formidable conductors as Arturo Toscanini and George Szell. But if the film generously enumerates Shaw's accomplishments, it is unafraid to frankly address his faults: A heavy drinker and carouser in his youth, he was a shameless philanderer who largely ignored his first family. Offsetting those personal vices, however, were considerable public virtues. Shaw was a committed pacifist - a conscientious objector during World War II and critic of Vietnam - and a champion of civil rights, integrating his chorales in the 1940s and refusing to back down when challenged in the South in the '50s and '60s. He also was a passionate believer in the power of the arts to bridge nationalist divides. Praising the documentary as "poignant and compelling," the New York Times calls it "admirably clear-eyed in its warts-and-all perspective." (St. Louis International Film Festival)