Seymour : an Introduction

Actor Ethan Hawke (Before Sunrise) met the pianist Seymour Bernstein by chance at a time he was subjecting himself and his career to some soul-searching. Hawke was touched by the encouraging insights the musician shared with him. Months later, this intimate film portrait arose, the result of an organic collaboration.

Bernstein is given the time to reflect on a variety of topics that engage him: training young pianists, his performances at Carnegie Hall and American base camps abroad, his lonely personal life in a one-room apartment in Manhattan and his theories about mentorship, which he feels should comprise all of life. Hawke himself can be heard occasionally as the invisible interviewer who hopes to get closer to Bernstein by keeping a low profile and listening carefully.