Above the Noise, Straight to the Heart is a film about the transformation and healing power of music. It’s a film about Prophets of Music and their support for young musicians.

Prophets of Music began as one family’s vision to honour the tragic loss of their son, along with the deaths of four other young people at a house party in Calgary. Now, Alberta’s music visionaries come together to support talented young musicians on the cusp of creating exceptional music.

Creative team

Writers/producers: Carla Bridgewater, Paul Mortimer
Director: Carla Bridgewater
Director of photography: Shaun Henning
Editor: Paul Mortimer

Filmmaker’s statement

Even though it would have been easy to focus this film on the tragic loss of five young people, it was important for my vision of the film to focus on the music, the young musicians, the creation of music and its power to heal.

Above the Noise, Straight to the Heart is told through interviews and also through eavesdropping on the process of the creation of the music. With the creation of music being the focus, I wanted to make sure all the music in the film was recorded live.

This created particular challenges during the filming with a major focus on the audio recording. Then, during the post production, our editor Paul Mortimer (also co-writer and producer) was able to seamlessly edit multiple music and audio tracks along with the video to take the viewer right into the heart of the music and the musicians. The total effect of these film techniques is to bring greater understanding to the passion that all musicians feel when they are creating music.

This is the second film project for Prophets of Music, and it was a great honour and privilege to have created this film, to experience the generosity of the mentors and the exceptional talent of the emerging artists – to see how Prophets of Music is growing and rising ‘Above the Noise, Straight to the Heart.’

About Carla Bridgewater

Carla Bridgewater is one of Calgary’s premier producer/directors of broadcast-quality television, web, documentary and live event productions.

As one of Calgary’s most experienced independent producer/directors, Carla brings her extensive television experience to the table when producing projects. Carla has produced, directed and written hundreds of television and video projects, including award-winning television documentaries, commercials and multi-camera live events.

Carla is attracted to socially conscious productions that serve the public interest. The phrase ‘story is everything’ applies to Carla’s work. She firmly believes that every production must contain meaningful content, produced in a way that engages the viewer on an emotional level and goes ‘Above the Noise, Straight to the Heart.’