Twenty-three-year-old insrumentalist composer Rachel Flowers has spent the entirety of her life developing an ear for music. Born 15 weeks premature, Flowers lost her eyesight at birth. Lorenzo Destefano’s new film ‘Hearing is Believing’ takes us into Rachel Flowers’ world.
“We shot for 52 days over almost a two-year period. It got bigger than we expected. It’s about a little girl, in a little town, in a little house, but we found a big story there we feel,” said Destefano. “We call her hyper abled, as opposed to disabled.”
Like lots of people familiar with Rachel Flowers, one of Destefano’s first impressions of her musical talent came through a series of YOUTUBE videos.
“YOUTUBE came out of mom just posting it’s been twelve or thirteen years now since she started doing that. First thing I heard were her variations on the National Anthem by Francis Scott Key. She would do it as Mozart would do it. Then as Chopin would do it. It was incredibly dexterous and imaginative,” said Destefano.
Lorenzo Destefano the filmmaker draws inspiration from Rachel Flowers the person, and that’s what he hopes people get out of his film.
“The theme that kind of guided me along was the great that exists in the small. There is something small that is already great and when you discover it you realize that,” said Destefano. “I think of Rachel a lot even now that the film is done. In my work, if I falter or energy lags, or I’ve lost my way, I always know Rachel is there in her studio pumping it out eighteen hours a day if not more.”
‘Hearing is Believing’ a new film about instrumentalist composer Rachel Flowers is screening at Cinema Villiage in New York City until Thursday.