THE EARTH SINGS (ZEM SPIEVA) Preservation Spotlight

The charmingly bucolic Venice Film Festival Prize winner, THE EARTH
SINGS is a delightful musical portrait of rural life as it once was in the
high Tatras Mountain area of Slovakia. Karel Plicka and Alexander
Hackenschmied, strongly influenced by Eisenstein, show the high quality of
peasant song and dance and the skill of craftspeople at weaving, painting,
making flax and pressing grapes. The various types of Slovakian
music are performed by the Prague State Opera Orchestra, singing
ensembles and folk musicians of the region.
Editor Hackenschmied was the husband of avant-garde filmmaker Maya
Deren with whom he made the classic MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON.
This print was preserved in 2003 by AFI at the Library of Congress
Motion Picture Conservation Center with funding provided by the AFI
1999 Challenge Grant. Special thanks to donor John Burkowski of
Chicago.
– Ken Wlaschin