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"It's a very lonely place... if we didn't have the music, I don't know how we'd cope." Central City Media has revealed an official trailer for a music documentary film titled The Job of Songs, made by filmmaker Lila Schmitz. The film won the Best International Documentary at last year's Galway Film Festival. In Doolin (see Google Maps), an isolated village teetering on the western edge of Ireland, a community of musicians seek joy and connection through music as they face a modernizing world. An intimate doc conversing with may Irish people who want to keep the music playing. "Music is a way for us to unleash our feelings so that we may express the unspoken," the director explains. Music has the power to bring people together. In this community of musicians, artists explore what it means to exist in the old music, the long-standing tradition, and find community through the strumming of a guitar,...

Musicians Eoin O’Neill, Kieran O’Connell, Adam Shapiro Christy Mc Namara and Beth Tipton at Fitzpatrick’s Bar in Lila Schmitz’s The Job Of Songs Photo: Anika Kan Grevstad

In my discussion with Lila Schmitz, following the World Premiere of her debut feature The Job Of Songs in the Doc NYC Sonic Cinema programme (a highlight of the 12th edition), she mentions first seeing the Cliffs of Moher in Harry Potter films. The Doolin, County Clare community of storytellers/musicians, Ireland and Sam Shepard, grace in Bruno Dumont and France, and the shot of cows walking in time to Yvonne Casey’s Kieran Jig played over Clare FM by radio host Eoin O'Neill all came up.

Lila Schmitz with Anne-Katrin Titze on stepping into a session: “Being allowed to witness the community that the musicians are creating for each other and for anybody who cares to listen.”

Director/writer/editor and her producing partners,...