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In this documentary short, songwriter and composer Diane Warren, jazz bassist John Clayton, and pianists Susie Cheng, and Starr Parodi share the stories of their beloved instruments lost in the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. Through interviews, photos and animation, their instruments are brought back to life. In the process we discover healing through memory, music, and community.

Synopsis

Every musical instrument has a soul. To a musician, their instrument is a dream machine, a medium, a friend that carries with it the DNA of every human who has touched it. In this hybrid live action/animated documentary short directed by Oscar-nominated composer Laura Karpman, four celebrated musicians—songwriter and composer Diane Warren, legendary jazz bassist John Clayton, classical pianist Susie Cheng, and composer Starr Parodi—share stories about the beloved instruments they lost in the devastating 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. Through photos, films and imaginative animations, the instruments are brought back to life: John Clayton’s bass from the Black Forest—an “animated grail” once played by Ray Brown alongside Duke Ellington and Count Basie; Diane Warren’s shiny white Yamaha that lived in her Malibu beach house, a place of healing that connected her to her late father; Susie Cheng’s “movie star piano,” a sexy brown Steinway B that shared the stage with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper at the 2019 Academy Awards for “Shallow” and Starr Parodi’s 1928 Steinway B, the original MGM piano used during the recording of THE WIZARD OF OZ, will be given a proper and dignified send off by the musicians who loved them. This documentary is a meditation on how we process grief, preserve memories, and ultimately find healing through music, community and shared experience.
 

Meet the Filmmakers

Laura Karpman — DIRECTOR
Laura Karpman is an Oscar-nominated, five-time Emmy Award-winning composer who has created imaginative scores that push the boundaries of storytelling. Her bold works span film, television, theater, interactive media, and live performance, reflecting an audaciously creative spirit that challenges convention and elevates narrative. Laura has collaborated with some of the most renowned filmmakers of our time, including Eleanor Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola, Sofia Coppola, Cord Jefferson, Nia DaCosta, Alex Gibney, Misha Green, Rory Kennedy, Kasi Lemmons, Laura Nix, Sam Pollard, and Steven Spielberg. In 2024, her score for the Academy Award-winning film AMERICAN FICTION earned her an Oscar nomination, further cementing her status as one of the industry’s most innovative voices in film composition. COSMIC SYMPHONY: MUSIC FROM THE ASHES marks Laura’s directorial debut—a natural evolution for an artist whose entire career has been devoted to finding the soul within sound and bringing stories to life through music.

Lorenza Muñoz — PRODUCER
Lorenza Muñoz is the founder of Artemis Muse Productions, a creative consulting firm focused on entertainment industry clients and projects. Prior to starting Artemis Muse, Lorenza was a senior executive at Amazon MGM Studios where she worked on awards campaigns including the Oscar winning AMERICAN FICTION, and Oscar nominated ARGENTINA, 1985. Prior she was EVP of Global Member Relations and Awards at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where she oversaw worldwide activities and initiatives for the organization’s 12,000+ filmmakers and artists. Before pivoting to Hollywood, Lorenza was a journalist with the Los Angeles Times where she wrote more than 3,000 articles covering entertainment, business and government. Lorenza has lived in Los Angeles for more than three decades and calls it home. In addition to producing, she continues to write and is now working on her memoir about her experiences as an internationally ranked swimmer.

Christina Kounelias — PRODUCER
Christina Kounelias is the Founder and CEO of Delphi Media, which provides strategic marketing and communications consulting for entertainment and corporate clients. Christina is a veteran marketing and communications executive with leadership roles at Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, and Participant Media, among others. Her award-winning campaigns have transcended genres and driven cultural moments, from the unprecedented LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, ELF, and AUSTIN POWERS to GREEN BOOK, ROMA, and RBG. Christina serves on The Academy’s Board of Governors representing the Marketing and Public Relations branch. She also holds the distinction of being the organization’s first-ever Chief Marketing Officer. She is currently working on HAMNET and SONG SUNG BLUE (both from Focus Features), two eagerly anticipated titles for this upcoming awards season. Christina and her family live in Pacific Palisades. Though their home survived the fires, the devastation suffered by her community has been profoundly felt, deepening her personal connection to this project and its themes of loss, resilience, and healing.

Cristina Dunlap — DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Cristina Dunlap has worked as a Director of Photography on numerous award-winning projects including AMERICAN FICTION, which won an Oscar in 2024. feature films, television series, music videos and commercials. Her recent credits include Cooper Raiff’s CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH, which won the Sundance Audience Award and is currently streaming on Apple TV+, as well as AM I OK?, the directorial debut of Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne, starring Dakota Johnson and Sonoya Mizuno. In 2020, Dunlap shot EMBRACE directed by Jessica Sanders, which won the Grand Jury Award at SXSW. And in 2016, Dunlap lensed HER STORY, directed by Sydney Freeland, which was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Short Form Series. Cristina was born and raised in Los Angeles, where she currently resides.

Kate Amend — EDITOR
Kate Amend is an American documentary film editor whose career spans more than thirty years. She is known for being a dedicated editor who finds the emotional center of each scene she works with. A member of American Cinema Editors, Amend is the recipient of an Eddie Award for INTO THE ARMS OF STRANGERS: STORIES OF THE KINDERTRANSPORT she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for THE CASE AGAINST 8. She was the editor on two Academy Award-winning films: INTO THE ARMS OF STRANGERS and THE LONG WAY HOME. Kate served as a Governor of the Film Editors branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Tempe Hale — ANIMATOR
Tempe Hale is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker, visual artist, and Sundance Film Institute Filmmaker Fellow. Her work weaves hand-drawn animations with archival footage and collage. She graduated from the California Institute of the Arts with an MFA in Experimental Animation. Hale’s multimedia films have been exhibited at The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, The Autry Museum, The Pacific Symphony, Grand Performances and film festivals internationally. In 2015, Hale began collaborating with Laura Karpman. She creates multimedia films using puppetry, collage, and footage to accompany Karpman’s symphonic pieces, including “Siren Songs” which premiered at Pacific Symphony and Karpman’s Grammy-winning multimedia project “Ask Your Mama,” featuring The Roots and Jessye Norman. Tempe and her husband lost their home in the Altadena fires. They plan to rebuild.

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Contact

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