I HEAR AMERICA SINGING
I Hear America Singing is an Aria412 and Burning Sled Media presentation of a New Mercury Collective production conceived, written, and directed by Daron Hagen starring Robert Frankenberry, Desirée Soteres, and Christopher Scott. The Director of Photography is Talal Jabari; the Assistant Director is Tevi Eber; the lighting designs were by Eve Bandi. The project was filmed in May 2024 in Pittsburgh, PA. One component was a live production at the Richard E Rauh Studio Theater on May 9, 10, and 11, 2024. Production consisted of four days of documentary and filmic shooting in different locations. The film was released on September 15, 2025.
Photography by Doug Estock
Photography by Doug Estock
Synopsis
Three middle-aged Juilliard grads rehearse numbers from the revival of a musical revue called I Hear America Singing prior to a backers’ audition. Is it a dream, a mid-life crisis, a reunion, or an intervention? Love, the unreliability of memory, and personal reinvention intertwine as they swap old and new songs — from pop song to art song, Victorian parlor tune to operatic aria, agitprop to jingle — compulsively recontextualized by Robbie, a becalmed middle aged commercial composer striving to regain his self-confidence and sense of identity by obsessively revising the show that launched his career on Broadway twenty years earlier.
Film Updates
Official Trailer
The film was released on September 15, 2025 and had it's North American Premiere on February 10. 2026 at The Oaks Theater in Pittsburgh, PA. More information on the production can be found here.
Laurels:
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Paris Film Awards - June 2025 Winner - Best Feature Film; Winner - Best Screenplay; Silver Award Winner - Best Actress (Desiree Soteres); Silver Award Winner - Orogonal Score (Daron Hagen); Winner - Gold Award - Best Cinematography (Talal Jabari); Gold Award - Best Editing (Daron Hagen)
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WILDSound Film and Screenplay Festival — Winner — Best Feature Film
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AltFF Alternative Film Festival — Winner — Best Experimental Feature Film (45 minutes and over)
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Los Angeles Film Awards - Winner - Best Musical / Dance Film
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Los Angeles Motion Picture Festival - Winner - ORSON WELLES PLATINUM AWARD Best Director, Best Writer, and Best Music Score; ORSON WELLES SILVER AWARD for Best Picture
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Edinburgh Film Awards — Winner — Best Original Score
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Swedish International Film Festival - Winner — Best Documentary (Feature Length); Best Cinematographer (Talal Jabari)
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Pageant Film Festival - Winner - Best Actor (Robert Frankenberry)
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Florence Film Awards - Winner - Best Feature Documentary
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New York Movie Awards - Winner - Best Indie Feature Film (low budget)
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Mindfield Film Festival • Albuquerque - Winner - Best Actor (Robert Frankenberry); Finalist - Best Documentary Feature
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4th Dimension Independent Film Festival - Nominee - Best Experimental Film
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New York Independent Cinema Awards - Nominee - Best Composer
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Montreal Independent Film Festival - Nominee - Best Composer of the season
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International Sound & Film Music Festival (ISFMF), Varaždin, Croatia - Nominee - Original Score for a Documentary Feature
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Vancouver Independent MovieMaker Awards - Semi-Finalist - Best Documentary Film
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Cannes World Film Festival - Finalist - Best Ensemble Cast; Best American Film
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Lonely Wolf International Film Festival - Semi-Finalist - Best Comedy or Musical (Feature)
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Kyoto Independent Film Festival - Semi-Finalist - Best Feature Music Film or Documentary
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Malibu Film Festival - Official Selection - US Documentary Feature
Daron Hagen
Book/Lyrics/Director
Daron Hagen is an American composer, writer, and filmmaker. He has received commissions from the Seattle Opera: Amelia (2010); the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, the National Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, Kings Singers, and the Curtis Institute of Music among numerous others. After composing eleven staged operas (four in collaboration with poet Paul Muldoon), Hagen has turned to a new genre: operafilm-his first two, Orson Rehearsed (2021) and 9/10: Love Before the Fall (2022), are self-directed and edited auteur projects based on his own libretti/shooting scripts.
Hagen is an avid collaborator, having composed concertos for Gary Graffman, Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, and Jeffrey Khaner, operatic roles for Kate Lindsey, Nathan Gunn, and Robert Orth; collaborated with directors Stephen Wadsworth, Ken Cazan, and Chas Rader-Shieber; and conductors Leonard Bernstein, JoAnn Falletta, Leon Botstein, and Gerard Schwartz, among others. A Lifetime member of the Corporation of Yaddo, he has served as artist in residence at dozens of major universities and cultural institutions across the US, and currently serves as a member of the artist faculty of the Chicago College of Performing Arts and Wintergreen Music Festival. He is also a prolific essayist and director, and has published a critically-acclaimed memoir Duet with the Past (McFarland, 2019). Among the many labels that have released recordings of his works (including over a hundred art songs) are Sony Classical, Naxos, Bridge, and Albany. He lives in Upstate New York with his wife and two sons.
Cast
