In 8 releasing confirmed its only song submission to the 91st Academy Awards for Best Original Song from the motion picture “The Samuel Project” is the soulful, uplifting anthem “Enough,” written by singer-songwriter and one of the world’s top guitarists, Malina Moye. The film centers on a teen Eli (Ryan Ochoa) who gets to know his grandfather Samuel (Hal Linden) through a school art project, discovering his untold story of being rescued from capture as a young boy in WWII. She also makes her feature film debut in the film playing Violet Leroux, a bohemian art director who is Samuel’s favorite customer.
Artist Moye wrote the song from Eli’s point of view; someone who feels the pressure to change in order to fit what others say is best for him. In the story, Eli wants to be an artist and do what he loves, but his father and grandpa have their own baggage and feel getting a steady normal job is better.
Malina states, “We’ve all had the feeling of not being accepted by people around us in order to fit into what society says we should be. The breakthrough in the movie comes when Eli stands his ground to do what fulfills his own soul. You don’t need to change for someone else, but rather stand in your own truth wholeheartedly. It’s one of the hardest things to do and really what the message of this song is.”
Malina describes her musical approach with the song, “I wanted the music itself to take you on a journey with the dynamics and the chord progression—both so important to the feel and swing of the song. The hook is truthful, but simple with raw soul and heart. And as a guitarist, I wanted the lead solo to bleed of pain and acceptance.”
The Song was produced by the award-winning Bjorn “Polarbear” Soderberg.
Clearly, the song has struck a chord with many people the song appears on her first number one Billboard Album “Bad As I Wanna Be”
“I was excited to be in the movie, but then to have director Marc Fusco and producer Steve Weinberger ask me to write a song for a film that tells such a beautiful story with a great message was truly an honor. Finding out that it was submitted to the Academy for Oscar consideration was really just the cherry on the top.”
The song appears as the end credit sequence of the movie. The movie opened in New York and then was released throughout October in select theaters nationwide. For more information on the film go to www.thesamuelprojectmovie.com