DC Area Premiere

A POWERFUL NOISE is the story of three women on three continents whose quiet strength and innovative solutions make each of them an inspiration in her community.

In Vietnam, Bui My Hanh, who lost both her baby daughter and husband to AIDS, bikes around visiting business and community centers, passing out condoms and providing information and education about HIV in a country where crude stereotypes of the disease still prevail. Nada Markovic, a Serbian refugee, has returned to her village of Kravna, where the only chance of rebuilding the wrecked economy and avoiding more bloodshed is by overcoming ethnic tension and creating a brave new society. In Mali, Madam Urbain leads a group that educates and protects young migrant workers. In the evening, she leads young women, most of them 12-hour-a-day domestic servants, in a song that echoes through the night with the unmistakable essence of hope.

In each story, the director captures a visual beauty and a richness of color and composition, combined with an affecting musical score, that draws us in to the lives of his characters. In a particularly elegant image, the director frames an apt metaphor for their stories:  a staircase rises from the wreckage of a bombed-out Kosovo village. There is no railing, no support, no clear destination—but there is a blue sky of possibility above and verdant fields of opportunity below.

These are worlds where poverty, dislocation, war and disease have left a path of destruction that must be mended at the grassroots level. But as producer Sheila C. Johnson says, “It’s not about the power of one, but activating the combined power of many,” that will create lasting change.

-Patricia Finneran