| Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 24, 2011

One of the most inspirational and powerful documentaries I've ever seen.

| Mar 28, 2009

a film that joyfully celebrates the power of the human spirit in all its glory.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 23, 2009

| Original Score: B | Oct 18, 2008

| Original Score: B+ | Oct 18, 2008

Fortunately, the interview subjects (who include festival performers and current and former Estonian leaders) are very intelligent and well-spoken. Their stories are what really holds out interest here.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 8, 2008

If The Singing Revolution were a fictional film it would be dismissed as a pie-in-the-sky fantasy. But it's all true.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 1, 2008

Folk songs can be plenty inspirational, but like this movie, they just aren't all that exciting.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 17, 2008

Although filmmakers James and Maureen Castle Tusty haven't figured out how to make historic tidbits come alive, they do know how to make them sing.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 11, 2008

Effectively chronicles in a thumbnail sketch the blustery recent political 20th-century history of Estonia.

| Original Score: B | Jul 7, 2008

Full of the kind of collective passion and struggle and yearning for freedom that makes viewers well up with pride at their shared humanity.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 3, 2008

Booster-ish, with only former participants in the struggle and activists interviewed. There's a you-must-feel-good thrust (and an incessant score). Warbles a familiar tune to Estonians, presumably, and doesn't offer enough rich notes for an outsider.

Full Review | Jul 1, 2008

This fine and surprising documentary asks an even more challenging question: Can music promote nonviolence, prevent bloodshed and successfully overthrow an oppressive regime? Again -- astonishingly -- the answer is 'yes.'

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 20, 2008

The thrill of this documentary is in the remarkable story of the Little Country That Could.

| May 30, 2008

As far as the plot goes, widespread lack of familiarity with Estonia's recent history actually works in the film's favor: Suspense born of ignorance lends the unfolding drama the urgency of a political thriller.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 22, 2008

The Singing Revolution is the sort of film that should be shown to North American school children or anyone else who takes his freedom for granted.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 25, 2008

Patience may not the most exciting movie subject, but The Singing Revolution is, in its deceptively mild way, inspiring.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 25, 2008

An intriguing, highly recommended film.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 24, 2008

It's a powerful story of a nation that, almost literally, sang its way to freedom.

| Apr 17, 2008

What makes the film unique is its intermittent focus on one of the country's cultural touchstones: a song festival called Laulupidu, and its role in bringing freedom to a repressed but restless people after a half-century.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 4, 2008