Mr. Mergler's Gift

Mr. Mergler's Gift

| 30 min

In this short film from Oscar® winner Beverly Shaffer, 9-year-old prodigy Xin Ben takes lessons from Daniel Mergler, a piano teacher at the end of his career. In this remarkable story about a student and her mentor, Xin Ben and Mergler meet 26 times over the course of one year. During this time, Xin Ben illuminates Mergler's final months as an instructor with her youthful talent, and he, in return, lovingly guides her towards a life in music.

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Mr. Mergler's Gift, Beverly Shaffer, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

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Credits
  • director
    Beverly Shaffer
  • producer
    Germaine Ying Gee Wong
  • participant
    Daniel Mergler
    Xin Ben Yu
    Yonghong Yu
    Hongyu Lei
    Alexandre Solopov
    Harold Hoffman
  • editing
    Benjamin Duffield
  • cinematography
    Andrei Khabad
    Thomas Vamos
  • additional cinematography
    Alberto Feio
    Stefan Nitoslawski
  • sound recording
    Richard Lavoie
    Jean-Denis Daoust
    Pierre Fleurant
    Marcel Fraser
    Craig Lapp
  • camera assistant
    Martine Leclerc
  • electrician
    Roger Martin
    Michel Comeau
  • production assistant
    Nick Goso
    Galit Mastai
    Jason Nardella
  • sound editing
    Don Ayer
  • music recording
    Geoffrey Mitchell
  • re-recording
    Serge Boivin
    Geoffrey Mitchell
  • titles
    Louise Overy
    Francine Paquin
  • online editor
    Sylvain Desbiens
    Denis Gathelier
  • post-production coordinator
    Claude Cardinal
  • digital editing technician
    Chaz Oliver
  • production administration assistant
    Sia Koukoulas
  • program administrator
    Marie Tonto-Donati
    Nickie Merulla
  • marketing manager
    Moira Keigher
  • executive producer
    Sally Bochner
 See also
Children and Youth
Education
Health and Medicine
Cultural Diversity and Multiculturalism
Music
All subjects
Short Docs
All channels
Add a new comment
  • howman

    One's life is one's legacy. Mr.Mergler's had the great fortune that at the end of his life to received this gift and ensure it passage to all of us. I hope that Xin Ben continues her studies and understands that she also gave a gift to Mr. Mergler by just being her self. Was this fiat or was it coincident; it doesn't really matter as it's a beautiful story that we could only hope to enjoy in our life time . Excellent work Beverly, you have touch my heart and that doesn't happen very often. Xin Ben, you make Mr. Mergler proud and i am sure that you playing the piano puts a smile on Daniel and Beethoven faces where ever they may be. You are a gift.

    howman, 21 Jan 2010
  • rodandjudy

    Absolutely beautiful - I teared throughout - Stories like this are so lovely to hear and, I like to believe, are constantly being played out throughout the world. Not big news items but so important as we humans try to demonstrate that we are indeed special.

    rodandjudy, 18 Jan 2010

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