“What we love about music is not that it sounds good – what we love about music is that it sounds inevitable”

Music has always been a part of Jon Batiste’s personal and professional life, and few contemporary artists seem to have their entire existence revolve around the art of creation quite as much as him. An extraordinary musician who has transcended genre and touched listeners with his unique style, he is a true renaissance man of contemporary music and someone who has consistently raised the bar for the industry. However, a lot of his life has been kept private, as he has chosen to focus on the work more than anything else, which means that many of us may not have been aware of what an extraordinary person he is beyond his artistry. Behind the music there is a fascinating individual who has been drawn to perform for numerous reasons – the urge to create and experiment and the need to engage in a perpetual form of self-expression, which is a common tendency for many who are artistically inclined. His story has been captured beautifully in American Symphony, in which director Matthew Heineman (with whom Batiste has worked in the past in the capacity of a composer for some of his previous work) focuses on the musician as he prepares for his most ambitious performance yet: writing and performing a full symphony at Carnegie Hall, the most hallowed ground for just about any performer, and an opportunity that Batiste refuses to pass up, especially since a recent outpouring of accolades made it clear that he was an artist of note. Occurring concurrently with these exciting events were more melancholy events, since Batiste’s wife, author Suleika Jaouad, has a recurrence of leukaemia, which she previously overcame years before, only to have it return. This leads to an intimate examination of their domestic life, which is shown in tandem with their professional pursuits, which in turn form an engaging and incredibly powerful depiction of love overcoming seemingly impossible challenges.

American Symphony is a film composed out of dualities – the entire premise of the film was based around shedding a light on Batiste’s personal and professional life, showing how one informs the other – he would not have been capable of producing such incredibly beautiful work had he not been given the insights gleaned from various challenges he encountered, which in turn he only managed to overcome through having an outlet for his existential quandaries and emotional challenges. The film is a masterful demonstration of his tenacity, and the director makes sure to pay attention to every detail, since these are the moments that help paint the vibrant portrait of the subject, particularly in the quieter moments where we are given unfurnished insights into his life, which prove to be quite remarkable and deeply captivating, even though they’re extraordinarily simple. Batiste strikes us as someone who is very much focused on the smallest aspects of art as a way of communicating much bigger ideas, especially when it comes to the process of comparing and contrasting different elements in the creation of something much more profound. It’s quite simple but extremely effective, and the direction is concise and carries an abundance of meaning, which is exactly what we would expect from such a documentary. The deeper themes are explored with such incredible, insightful beauty, and we get a glimpse into the daily routine of a truly original artist, whose perspective on the world is shown in detail throughout this film, which makes it its mission to show not only his creative process but also his domestic situation, showing how this influences and impacts his artistry in sometimes unexpectedly moving ways.

As a documentary, American Symphony may not seem particularly notable – it is essentially just the director following Batiste on his day-to-day routine, filming him going about his usual process of balancing his art with his home life, interspersed with archival footage and other elements that aid in showing his indelible mark on the industry. Yet, it still feels extraordinarily compelling, and never once do we find our attention wavering. This is primarily because Heineman aimed to create a film that was not discursive, but rather observational – there was nothing about this subject that needed to be revealed through immensely dramatic moments, nor was there any requirement for the film to follow any preconceived structure. The best way to view this is as a stream-of-consciousness documentary, whereby the director captures candid moments in the lives of the two main characters, and weaves them together to create a tapestry of their journey together, which not only gives us insights into their marriage but helps the audience understand the various challenges they face. The observations we glean from such a simple approach to capturing their lives are more valuable than anything that could have come from a more traditional version of such a subject. When it comes to non-fiction filmmaking, we ebb and flow between periods of popularity for documentaries that adhere closely to the principles of cinéma vérité and its major conventions, but as we see throughout this film, there’s certainly still a place for such stories, they just require time and patience, and a lot of dedication on the part of the director, since a large part of the process of telling such a story is finding the most meaningful moments in the abundance of footage filmed, and reworking it to be reflective of the main themes and the discussions that are situated right at the heart of the film.

Considering the very heavy subject matter, it would have been understandable for American Symphony to be slightly more heavy-handed when it came to the emotions – after all, as much as this is a portrait of Batiste as an artist, it is still a film about how he processes his wife’s diagnosis, especially about his existential quandaries. There is a lot of time spent in quiet meditation throughout the film, with the most impactful moments often being those that are entirely wordless, where the message is conveyed through the most simple means. However, to its credit and despite having permission to do so, the American Symphony is rarely overwrought. The emotions are kept straightforward, and it never feels like we are being manipulated to feel one sensation more than the other. It presents an objective portrait of these two people as they navigate some extremely big changes in their day-to-day lives, and it draws its meaning from the smaller, more intimate portrayal of their relationship and how they weather these seemingly impossible storms together. It’s a very tender exploration of their lives, and it manages to be extremely poetic, drawing out so much meaning from the most simple, intimate aspects of the story. The tone itself is quite striking – it is subtle but genuinely very moving, and some of the directorial choices create a fascinating contrast, such as the scene in which the main character reveals her cancer diagnosis, which is not done in the form of grand, dramatic revelation, but almost as a throwaway comment in a more lighthearted scene shared between the central couple as they engage in a snowball fight. American Symphony is filled with many similar scenes, and the ability to present such complex material in such a simple, honest way is one of the several reasons this film feels like such a major achievement.

Everything that can be said about the power of music has already found its way into the cultural consciousness, so there was very little a film like American Symphony could do to add to the discussion. For some, music is just a way to pass the time, while for others it is their entire reason to be alive, their lifeblood and their outlet for emotional and psychological challenges that they choose to express through creating art. Batiste is one such artist, and this film shows a few months in his life, where he not only experiences a rapid rise to fame in which he wins several awards and becomes a much bigger name than he was before but the joy that would come from this experience is contradicted by personal challenges he faces in his domestic life, which this film reveals very intimate details about their lives, particularly how they navigate these obstacles, as well as their methods of staying optimistic. It is a deeply moving film, and the emotions contained within it are potent but always authentic, it never comes across as a half-hearted attempt to stir discourse, but rather to create an ambitious and moving examination of overcoming something as terrifying as a life-threatening illness. Beautiful and simple, and driven by the most authentic approach to looking at massively important themes, American Symphony is an incredible work, the rare kind of film that is both a harrowing depiction of the harsh nature of reality and a wholehearted celebration of the simple act of being alive. It’s a beautiful, heartfelt film that shines a light on Batiste and showcases his incredible skill, but also highlights his life behind the scenes, which is truly extraordinary, especially for viewers who need the motivation to overcome certain challenges, since his story is one of resilience, honesty and incredible complexity, which is all captured exceptionally well in this striking, enthralling documentary about tenacity and how the right mindset can change our entire perception – positivity can help us overcome anything, and help guide us through this unpredictable but beautiful experience that is everyday life.