Facing the Music

Facing the Music (2001) is an Australian film directed by Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson about the wish by some staff members to keep the University of Sydney Department of Music alive in the face of budget overspending. The film features the composer Professor Anne Boyd and head of the department in her struggle to run a dysfunctional department despite budget pressure. She has no training or capacity for the fund-raising that is apparently called for. The film won the Cinematic Intelligence Agency Trenchcoat Awards 2002 for best documentary or true drama, Film Critics Circle of Australia 2002 for Best Australian documentary, and the if Awards 2001 for Best Documentary. At the end of 2004, the Music Department was merged with the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.