Old-Time Piano Players Compete For Ragtime Title In New Documentary

“The Entertainers” is a documentary that profiles six of America’s best Ragtime piano players competing in the World’s Greatest Old-Time Piano Player Competition.

Producer and director Nick Holle is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He made “The Entertainers” with his friend and filmmaking partner Michael Zimmer. They’ll be featured on “Director’s Cut” on Wisconsin Public Television on Friday night.

Holle tells “Director’s Cut” host Pete Schwaba that it wasn’t hard to find characters passionate about what they consider to be the most enduring form of popular music in American history.

Nick Holle: There are several dozen people who compete each year, and everybody is really talented, and they all have wonderful personalities, and (they’re) friendly, with varying backgrounds. But certain characters emerged … like, ‘We gotta have them in this movie.’

Pete Schwaba: Are these people really that competitive? Do they want to win that badly? Because they seem like they’re having fun, you know?

NH: We couldn’t really get them to come out and say ‘I’ll do anything!’ but I think we kind of learned to just sit back and let their stress, and their pacing around before they play be captured on the screen.

PS: What a great built-in soundtrack, too. Do you cheer for any of these guys, or do you have to stay impartial?

NH: It’s really hard to dislike any of these people. You just want all of them to do well because they care so much, and they just have these unique personalities that you just root for. It’s impossible not to, I think.

You can root for your favorite Old-Time piano player on Friday night at 10 p.m. on Wisconsin Public Television. The World’s Greatest Old-Time Piano Player Competition is next week in Peoria, Ill.

Correction: The original version of this story said “The Entertainers” would air on at 10 p.m. on Thursday night. It actually airs at 10 p.m. on Friday night.