Mrs Carey's Concert

Through the experiences of two of the girls in particular, Mrs Carey’s Concert charts the huge task of shaping 1200 schoolgirls into a single musical entity capable of holding their own in Australia’s premier cultural venue. Bob Connolly and Sophie Raymond’s feature documentary is, however, much more than a familiar against-all-odds feel-good story. It is also a moving insight into the power of music, the passion of the teachers, the youthfulness of the girls and, ultimately, the human spirit at its best.

Although Connolly and Raymond are clearly skilled filmmakers (Connolly who was co-director of 1996’s Rats in the Ranks, was also principal cinematographer and Raymond his sound recordist), Mrs Carey’s Concert is also one of those documentaries in which everything happens to click. Central to this serendipity are two year 11 students, Emily and Iris. Emily is a gifted musician with a poignant back story who shyly shuns the limelight and her teachers’ constant exhortations to verbally express herself. Iris is a disruptive minx who brattishly regards Mrs Carey’s carryings-on as, at best, a total bore and is not afraid to say so. The coaxing, cajoling and chastising of these two, and their responses and ruminations on their experiences provide the main narrative threads of the film as we alternatively cut to behind-the-scenes segments of Mrs Carey and her staff discussing the probability of winning over their adolescent charges and scenes of the various rehearsals leading up to the big day.

Often these kinds of relatively mundane subjects are boosted by dramatic contrivances but Mrs Carey’s Concert is tellingly restrained. It is in this respect superbly edited, the raw material shaped to create a strong, economical but emotionally-affecting narrative, balancing private candour with public proceedings and peppered with incidentals that give us a sense of being there and (recalling 2010’s The Concert) topped off with Emily’s magnificent violin solo, a massed choir thundering out Verdi, and a final shot of Iris that she should treasure for the rest of her days. Whether you’re a devotee of classical music or not, Mrs Carey’s Concert is stimulating viewing.

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