 What is the plot of Music of the Heart?
Machines in the Garden In the animated ecological epic Princess Mononoke , the camera travels over landscapes with a clear, steady gaze, like a Zen hang glider. A view of nature that some would call "tree-hugging" doesn't feel softheaded when the trees are rendered in such brilliant and robust detail. He's both inside and outside the action: He knows when to rock your world and when to induce a state of sorrowful detachment. The movie has a scope that makes Hollywood's homiletic, follow-your-dream fables look even more solipsistic. It's the beginning of what Bill McKibben called "the end of nature"--that is, when nature became no longer an autonomous, self-regulating force but one touched (and, in Miyazaki's view, poisoned) by human industry. On one hand, she's a benevolent industrialist who presides over a warmly matriarchal society; on the other, she wants to destroy the forest, harness its resources, and exterminate its animal deities--chiefly the Spirit of the Forest, a magnificent deer god whose touch brings instant life or death, and who transforms at dusk into the towering Night Walker. It's Miyazaki's use of sound--and silence--that takes your breath away: the determined tap of the wolf princess's shoes as she scuttles over the fortress's rooftops; the silence of Eboshi and her army as they stare at this tiny yet formidable tomboy against the black sky.
 After a budget cut, a violin teacher in East Harlem arranges a fundraiser at Carnegie Hall.
 After a budget cut, a violin teacher in East Harlem arranges a fundraiser at Carnegie Hall.  A white lady teaches violin in East Harlem.  A violin teacher in East Harlem takes her students to Carnegie Hall.  East Harlem students hate their perfectionist violin teacher.