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As for Starr, his first encounter with Mahler was love at first listen. 'I first heard Mahler when I was a young teenager, around thirteen or fourteen', recalls Starr. 'And I was swept off my feet with the First Symphony. But it was television that helped me take my experience of loving that music more seriously. On public television, there was a program that I happened to catch of a rehearsal of the slow movement of the First Symphony. Watching the conductor rehearse a piece that I had come to know on my own, but was really too young to really understand the cultural background from which Mahler was coming, broadened my understanding of how big Mahler's music was. I feel strongly that there needs to be programming that addresses what makes art meaningful and compelling.'

In choosing the Third Symphony as his subject matter, Starr was attracted by the fact that it addresses issues that speak to all of us, no matter where we might stand in life. 'The Third is very universal,' explains the director. 'It raises questions that we all ask ourselves. It is perhaps the most programmatic of Mahler's symphonies. His use of the Schopenhauer-scheme of the development of life, from subatomic particles to rocks, to plants, to animals, and finally to man and then the spiritual world, is both timely and compelling. In the end, the music allows us to feel our connection with everything cosmic. I cannot think of a better definition of spiritual than being connected to the universe beyond what we are as individuals.'

When he started filming, Jason Starr had little funding and a great vision. That vision took him around the world, in search of the greatest images of natural beauty and in his quest to trace the steps of Mahler. Filming was done in North American and Europe. 'I was in Steinbach am Attersee (Lake Atter) and stayed at Hotel Föttinger where Mahler composed his Third Symphony. Herr Föttinger, whose family has owned the hotel for many generations, was my guide and took me and my crew on the very paths where Mahler hiked. So some of the footage depicts the exact spots where Mahler spent time after a morning composing.'

It was a pilgrimage for Starr and his crew. 'There is something special about going there. It is a little tricky because one doesn't want to become cultish and yet, when an artist reaches so deeply into so many people, making his music personal and intimate, you want to learn more about that person and about his life. How could a human being create something so perfect, so divine? Going there does make one seem closer, but it is more self-satisfying than insightful. Of course, anything that provides insight into the life of the artist is going to be eye-opening. To be in the composing hut, looking out onto the Attersee from the point of view of his piano bench, certainly gives insight into how deeply committed he was not just to letting nature, but the entire world, into his music. What you see is the lake -- it's quite a big lake -- and then the mountains surrounding the lake, and then the sky. The sky and the mountains are reflected in the lake. So it's more than just a pastoral theme, it is really a cosmic theme where everything seems to be filtering in, almost like a prism, onto the piano.'

In Austria, folks are used to people arriving on a Mahler quest. 'I had a very small crew of just three people and the hotel seemed to be very familiar with people seeking out Mahler. They have a plaque on his composing hut and we were by no means the first people. There is a guest book in the hut and the person right above where I signed in was on a film crew shooting scenes for Bride of the Wind, the film on Alma Mahler, Gustav's wife.'

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