SwiftBlog

Neville won an Oscar for shining a spotlight on notable back-up singers whose essential though mostly anonymous voices are heard on countless pop, rock and R&B classics in his 2013 documentary “20 Feet From Stardom.” Now he turns his attention to the artists who joined Ma, and once again proves to be adept in bringing forth the intimate stories behind the music.

Where his account stumbles a bit is when it takes broader strokes at its subject. It often turns into a kind of rah-rah, “It’s a Small World” travelogue, filled with glossy “National Geographic” views of exotic landmarks and a relentless dancing camera that spins, rushes forward and pulls back as if engaged in an elaborate waltz. The performances themselves range from tentative rehearsals early on in archival footage to semi-polished, high-energy concerts.

But much like “20 Feet from Stardom,” the doc becomes a grabber whenever it focuses on the immensely skilled and unique individuals who form this melodic melting pot. The sounds they produce might be as diverse as their backgrounds. But they share the common goal of both promoting and preserving their heritage while employing art as a buffer against the discordant upheavals that have befallen their homelands—a worthy message repeated so often that it unfortunately becomes as overbearing as an anvil chorus version of ”Kumbaya.”

The idea behind the project started with the wryly bemused Ma, who felt a growing need to define his purpose in life after being a onetime child prodigy who simply fell into becoming a cellist at age four because he was exceptional at it. As his adult son Nicholas says, “Being great at something doesn’t require a lot of introspection.” Which explains Ma’s ultimate goal in attempting to create what Leonard Bernstein once declared a universal musical language: “To find out who I am and how I fit in the world that I share with seven billion people.”

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