Watch the trailer.
ABOUT
MY FATHER Sam Cytron: A Life in Music is
a biographical documentary made by his daughter, Sally Cytron Gati, who pieced this personal puzzle
together.
Before
doing this film, she knew very little of his early life except that he started
off as Sammie Levine, a violin prodigy in New York who played with Toscanini
and the New York Philharmonic and then came to Hollywood as Sam Cytron to play
in the movie studios. She interviewed those closest to him - his two wives,
son, grandson, son-in-law, niece, and another violinist; and from these, wove a
narrative about him and his music.
His second wife gave her a real treasure-trove consisting of ten
scrapbooks filled with photographs, concert programs, event articles, letters,
newspaper reviews, recital announcements, job-related papers, check receipts,
work schedules, copyrights, a huge pile of original compositions and song
arrangements, published and hoped-to-be published music, transcriptions,
cadenzas, two cabinets full of sheet music, a bookcase crammed with
memorabilia, desert and mining magazines, cassettes from radio broadcasts,
reel-to-reel tapes, audition recordings, home-made records, hand-written notes,
five TV programs, his passport, a stop watch, a resin packet, conductor’s
batons, violins, bows, and a toupeé.
In
dealing with the twists and turns of Sam Cytron’s life (Aug. 15, 1905 – April
25, 1988), his daughter put together a revealing story of his creativity,
quirkiness, and originality - underscoring it all with his music.
