Susan Starr

1962, 53 mins

Credits

Robert Drew

Executive Producer

Gregory Shuker

Producer

D.A. Pennebaker

Filmmaker - Photographer

Hope Ryden

Filmmaker - Correspondent

Claude Fournier

Photographer

Peter Eco

Photographer

James Lipscomb

Photographer

Abbot Mills

Photographer

Richard Leacock

Photographer

Patricia Isaacs

Correspondent

James Lencina

Correspondent

Samuel Adams

Correspondent

Dick Jacobs

Editor

Charlotte Zwerin

Editor

Ellen Huxley

Editor

Betsy Taylor

Editor

Nancy Sen

Editor

Joseph Julian

Narrator

Awards

Outstanding Film of the Year, 1962 London Film Festival

Reviews/Media

"It is fascinating to observe how this precursor to reality television manages to convey the emotions of Susan and her rivals in the competition when few individuals understood the great power of the documentary"

Oksana Dykyi, Educational Media Reviews Online

"The true tale of musical defeat and love triumphant"

Sally Hammond, New York Post

Susan Starr is a talented young concert pianist preparing for the biggest competition of her life. She also happens to have a terrible cold that keeps her in bed and an omnipresent mother.

Battling against 34 of the most talented pianists in the world at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, Susan hopes to win not only prize money in the Dimitri Mitropoulos International Piano Competition, but also the recognition that could launch the musical career for which she has been working since she was three years old.

Following Susan through the hectic days leading up to the event and through the competition itself, the film captures the intense reality of an aspiring young artist facing the challenge of her life.

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