A sad story from Australia, the documentary Facing The Music takes a look at what happens when the needs of education and the priorities of government don't find common ground. In the increasingly privatized world of Australian academia, cuts in funding have left teachers and departments to fend for themselves. Sydney University's music school is one such department. Having long operated with a deficit it finds it can no longer afford, it flares with tension when cuts become unavoidable. Passionate about her job, and seemingly about everything, volatile composer Anne Boyd serves as the department's head. Never one to toe the party line, Boyd is first seen opposing a strike for better pay as an undignified gesture. When the same cutbacks begin to affect her classes, however, she takes to turning away delivery trucks and casual visitors alike during a later strike. In Boyd alone, the husband-and-wife team of Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson (who died in March) find a subject capable of grounding a whole movie. Uncompromising in her art, her teaching, and her professional relations, Boyd makes for a classic tough old bird of a character. All of which makes the film's later developments more disheartening, as the brick wall serving as the university's new bottom line refuses to budge. Throughout Facing The Music, Connolly and Anderson offer generous amounts of performance footage, letting the camera linger on students performing at an aptitude that would seem almost unachievable at such a young age. In a way, it's a bit of foreshadowing, letting viewers know how much silence could result if the government's generosity dries up.