Sometimes, documentaries put so much hyper focus on their subject and the message they want to tell throughout their journey. With this focus, the film ends up feeling more like a dissertation than a documentary that most people can see with a wider lens. Cam Christansen tries to tackle the healing powers and ability music has to a wider audience. This exploration through philosophy, science, and history is explorative and exhaustive. And it loses its focus on the music but more the power of everything behind it. With the documentary being titled Echo of Everything it holds truthful to that title, it is echoing a little bit of everything.
The documentary focuses on some moments in Cam Christansen’s own life. In exploring this, he explores the power of music through various lenses humanity has come to know and understand. While traveling the entire globe to try and piece together the importance of music and what it means on a larger scale audiences are taken on a journey through the top voices of their respective fields, including Einstein. The documentary feels a little too focused on Cam’s own recovery from his crisis that lead to this documentary. Thus, it isn’t as beautiful as some of the music the documentary explores.
Echo of Everything truly echoes everything from science to philosophy all in the name of music. While it certainly brings forth some interesting ideas and theories, its final execution feels a little bit too specific to the director’s own experiences and muddles the overall execution for a wide audience. Stepping away and re-examining the theories and concepts would’ve made this echo past a very niche audience.
- Release Date: 4/29/2023
