Online debut for epic global symphony

Debuting online today is the feature film capturing the ground-breaking cinematic performance to commemorate World War I created by a Victoria University of Wellington Professor.

NO MAN'S LAND OFFICIAL TRAILER from John Psathas.

Professor John Psathas from Victoria’s Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music (NZSM) travelled the world with director Jasmine Millet and cinematographer Matthew Knight to create No Man’s Land.

No Man’s Land combines intense musical and visual expression, filmed on location at the Western, Eastern and Mediterranean fronts, to communicate the idea that such collaborations would have been unthinkable by the warring nations at the time of the conflict.

“Together these virtual and live performers create an international orchestra performing music that leaps musical genres as it does borders, from folk to hip-hop to rock and classical.”

No Man’s Land premiered at the 2016 New Zealand Festival to a sold-out crowd at Wellington’s Michael Fowler Centre in March. It was also performed at the Auckland Arts Festival and at regional shows in Tauranga, Napier, Whanganui and at WOMAD in New Plymouth.

Professor Psathas is excited to share the feature length film given the intensity of the reaction to the live shows.

“I feel incredibly positive about the impact of the work—it profoundly moves people.”

Professor Psathas says his aim was to tell the story of World War I in a different way. “The idea of commemoration in No Man’s Land is quite different to how WWI is often remembered.

“And now, this project and commemoration will live online forever.”

It was always Professor Psathas’ intention to share the performance with New Zealand and the world.

“More than 300 people contributed generously to this project, so it’s a great opportunity for this big community to share their work with an even larger, and online, community.”

Professor Psathas hopes that by making the No Man’s Land feature film available online, he can continue to share the message behind the project—an expression of hope.

“We should be able to look at any current global conflict and think that peace is possible.

“If you said to those fighting in 1916 that 100 years later representatives from all these countries would be reunited on the same piece of earth and make music together, they wouldn’t have believed you.”

Watch the feature length film online on the No Man's Land website.