Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
Scott Hicks
Australia
2007
The moment of shooting him hearing the symphony for the first time was a highlight. Imagine if you could buy a DVD of Mozart hearing The Marriage of Figaro for the first time.
122", DigiBeta PAL
Color, English
about the film
Philip Glass’s achievements in music –film scores, operas, symphonies– make him one of the most important composers of our era, crossing divides between elitist concert halls and popular venues. His minimalist compositions are so iconic that he has been featured as a character on The Simpsons. Director Scott Hicks demonstrated his own knack for popularizing classical music in his 1996 film, Shine, about the pianist David Helfgott. In Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts, Hicks gains access to confidants and situations that the average documentarian would never obtain. The film traces an eventful year in Glass’s life, as he stages the opera Waiting for the Barbarians, writes his eighth symphony, scores several films, travels the world and maintains a family with his fourth wife, Holly. Along with observing Glass in the present day, Hicks ventures into the past through incisive interviews.
about the director
Scott Hicks was born in Uganda and studied cinema at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. His fiction features and documentaries include Freedom (1981), Call Me Mr. Brown (96), the Peabody Award-winning The Great Wall of Iron (1989), Shine (1996), which won the People’s Choice Award at the Festival in 1996 and was nominated for seven Academy Awards, Snow Falling on Cedars (1999), Hearts in Atlantis (2001) and No Reservations (2007).
awards
2007 Toronto Film Festival: Official Selection


