Downtown musicians Tobie Milford and Henri Bernard provide the soundtrack to “The Immigration Paradox,” a movie with an eclectic music selection to match its all-encompassing take on immigration that will premiere at Phoenix’s Orpheum Theatre on Thursday.
Lourdes Lee Vasquez, director of “The Immigration Paradox,” wanted to reveal the tricky contradictions within the contentious issue of immigration. Her interview subjects range from undocumented immigrants to “tea party” activists, and the film touches on Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070 and the DREAM Act.
“We hope this will change the conversation of immigration to a more constructive form to build solutions as a community and a nation,” Vasquez said.
Vasquez approached Milford and Bernard to work on the film’s score in April, after seeing both musicians play in concerts around the downtown area. They began with the film’s trailer and then worked on scoring the entire film, recording in their downtown home studios.
It was both musicians’ first time taking on a film project. The two had previously collaborated in the band The Whisperlights, and both work as instructors at the Phoenix Conservatory of Music.
“The emphasis is on individual people’s stories, not just on one side of the political spectrum but really reaching across the aisle,” Milford said. “Everyone’s totally exhausted with our culture of politics. It’s nice to get these individual narratives from the left wing, right wing, a neutral guy, think-tank guy, professor, immigrant. That’s what all of us are hungry for, that human element.”
Milford’s composed music for the film underscores the reflective and melancholy moments of the film, and Bernard’s recorded beats echo higher-energy scenes, Vasquez said.
Milford called score writing “the art of making a huge impression without being noticed.”
“The thing that is most important when writing a film score is getting yourself in the moment of the film,” Bernard said. “Finding that place and feeling that place inside. If you’re not feeling that place inside, you’re not able to exude that outside. You have to get into the moment, the story, the people, the feel, the colors, the imagery, all of it.”
Milford plays the violin with loop pedals in his solo work, creating layers of melodies to accompany himself as he plays. But he chose not to write within this setup for the film, and worked with synthesizers as well as strings.
“Loops are super constraining because you have something that has to repeat and carry for the whole song,” Milford said. “It’s not just about me, it’s about this project, this movie. It has its own story and its own needs, and I can try to meet that.”
The film’s soundtrack, coordinated by Bernard and Vasquez, also includes There Is Danger, Some Say Leland, Dry River Yacht Club, Michelle Blades, Underground Cities and The Whisperlights. All of the bands featured in the film, with the exception of Austin’s Some Say Leland, are from the Phoenix metro area.
The movie trailer can be viewed at TIPMovie.com and tickets can be purchased at the Phoenix Convention Center by phone at 602-262-7272 or online at TicketMaster.com.
Contact the reporter at bkutzler@asu.edu
