You are invited to a movie night

Monday September 30th (the start of the school break!)

as Music Education Canterbury (MEC) celebrates 50 years 1974-2024

5:15pm mix and mingle

6pm “The Secret Song” (brought back to show in NZ by popular request)

Tickets available from lumierecinemas.co.nz/movie/the-secret-song

$10 tickets (MEC/MENZA price)

$20 full price

About the movie

For over four decades, Doug Goodkin nurtured the innate musicality in children as a pre-k through 8th grade music teacher in San Francisco. Dropping in on what would turn out to be a tumultuous final year of teaching, “The Secret Song” gives an intimate view into Goodkin’s teaching approach, the vibrant impact it has on students and alumni, and the value of musical improvisation in navigating real-world challenges.

A lifelong musician, Goodkin “loved learning, but hated school.” He seeks to teach children differently than the traditional lessons he was raised with. After a chance exposure with an alternative approach to music education in college, Goodkin would devote his life to teaching music in an accessible and enjoyable way. Goodkin’s time-tested methods are thrown into disarray as the COVID-19 pandemic forces the school into remote learning three months before Goodkin’s planned retirement. A program which once prioritized group-learning, movement, dance, and instilling music “through the ear, not through the eye” has to adapt to an online format. Goodkin’s close colleagues and friends, James Harding and Sofia Lopez-Ibor, who will take over the music program in his wake, share his heartbreak at the possibility he will not get a proper send off.