‘The story of the most important instrument you’ve never heard of.’

A new feature film by documentary filmmaker Ward Serrill tells the story of the ‘silent servant’ of the music world: the bow. The Bowmakers takes viewers on a journey from the workshops of five master bowmakers in the Pacific Northwest, to the origin of the bow in France, and on to Brazil, ’home of the imperiled tree from which the finest bows are made’.

Among the featured makers is Paul Martin Siefried, one of the world’s foremost bowmakers and a founder member of the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers, who has died aged 69.

Read: Bowmaker Paul Martin Siefried has died

The film premiered on 17 August at Rose Theatre, Port Townsend, as part of the Port Townsend Film Festival.