Nashville Film Festival To Celebrate Songwriters With Documentary Screening

It All Begins With A Song: The Story of the Nashville Songwriter, a new documentary that takes an in-depth look at Nashville’s songwriting community, will be shown at a special public screening on May 17 during the Nashville Film Festival.

The 82-minute film explores Nashville’s songwriting community — their creative processes, their inspiration, their struggles and the impact their songs can have on everyday life. The screening is at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 17 at Regal Hollywood 27. visitmusiccity.com/itallbeginswithasong

The film has been under production for two years. It involved 80 interviews with songwriters and industry figures and more than 100 hours of footage. Some songwriters featured in the film include Jessi Alexander, Garth Brooks, Mac Davis, Bob DiPiero, Mikky Ekko, John Hiatt, Brett James, Claude Kelly, Shane McAnally, Keb’ Mo’, Brad Paisley and Ray Stevens.

“This kind of film is a complete departure for a destination marketing organization,” said Butch Spyridon, president and CEO of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp. “At the heart of Nashville’s success as a destination is our music and creative community represented best by our songwriters. Through them, we present Nashville as a unique, authentic and creative destination unmatched anywhere in the world.”

Jessi Alexander, one of the singer/songwriters featured in the film, said, “Finally, a movie that captures the day in the life of a Nashville songwriter and the poets that create the soundtrack to our lives. This film gives viewers an inside look into the ups and downs and the highways and heartbreaks that lead writers to pick up their guitars, put pen to paper and pour their hearts out — beginning the journey of a song that goes down in history. Songwriters are the unsung heroes in Nashville, and now we have a movie to tell our story.”

It All Begins With A Song: The Story of the Nashville Songwriter was created by the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp. It was produced by the NCVC, along with John Godsey and VML, a global marketing agency. It was directed by Chusy Jardine of Plan A Films. It is being shopped worldwide to major buyers.

The songwriting documentary is a follow-up to the 2013 film created by the NCVC, For the Love of Music: The Story of Nashville, which chronicles the 130-year evolution of how Nashville became Music City. For the Love of Music was awarded silver and bronze lions at the 2014 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in the category of Branded Content & Entertainment.