With the presence of the director


Like a God When He Plays features the unique and breath-taking music of the oldest island on the planet. In its isolation, plants and animals have evolved on Madagascar that are found nowhere else on earth. Complementing this biodiversity is a complex cultural web of people who have settled on the island through the centuries from Indonesia, India, Persia, Wales as well as Africa. The island’s music reflects these unique fusions of influence and no more so than what is known as the national instrument of Madagascar, the valiha, a zither-type stringed instrument with many variations found throughout the island, including the marovany, made famous by legendary musician Rakotozafy (1933-74), who died in mysterious circumstances. Like a God When He Plays follows Paddy Bush, an Irish musician and instrument maker (brother of famous singer Kate Bush), and his spiritual brother Justin Vali, considered the greatest living player of the valiha, as they cross the island across dramatic landscape to attend the reburial ceremony (famadihana) of their musical hero, Rakotozafy, in his home village near Lake Alaotra. On this emotional journey, they treat astonished local audiences to enchanting valiha duets.

CELIA LOWENSTEIN

Is a director/producer/writer whose films are a hybrid of styles which include narrative fiction, musicals, documentary and films in verse. With a personal interest in music, science, art, poetry and the discourse of ideas, her films have been screened in cinemas, film festivals and shown on the BBC, Channel 4 (UK), Channel 5 (UK), ARTE/ZDF (Germany and France), PBS, Animal Planet, NOVA, National Geographic, HBO, Discovery and Biography channels. In 2019 she was awarded the Best Documentary at the International Women’s Film Festival for her film on the story of the Jewish people through the architecture of the synagogue. Whilst currently working on several film projects she lives between Paris and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

ALBANIA’S FORGOTTEN VOICES

Directed by BJÖRN REINHARDT and ECKEHARD PISTRICK
87”

Film presented by Lucy Durán


Albanian music is often considered the “best kept secret” of the Balkans. In this remarkable, slow-moving, intimate film, we follow two shepherds in a remote community in the Albanian Shpati mountains. Arif, a Muslim, and Anastas, an orthodox Christian, have been friends for years in spite of religious barriers. Their profound friendship is constantly strengthened by joining together in the local tradition of acapella polyphony. In 2005 this choral singing, one of the oldest in Europe, was declared UNESCO-World Heritage. And yet it remains little documented. The film is a portrait of the severe poverty, the harsh fates and the almost magical power of the human voice, which helps people in the Shpati mountains to master their surreal daily routine, during a contradictory stage of post-socialist change where inter­na­tional migration, notably to Greece, Italy, Germany and the UK has touched upon every second family. It shows also that dreaming of a local sustainable cultural tourism is confronting other ideas for building up a winter sport resort - a touristic utopia, given the increasingly warm winter seasons in the Shpati region. On another level, the film is an example of how music – even in the Balkans – can build bridges between people and religions.

ECKEHARD PISTRICK

German ethnomusicologist, currently Assistant Professor at the Institute for European Ethnomusicology at the University of Cologne with a focus on Music in the Balkans. He is the author of the acclaimed book Performing Nostalgia - Migration Culture and Creativity in South Albania (Ashgate, 2015).

BJÖRN REINHARDT

Studied stage design at the Art High School in Berlin. Until 2001 he worked as stage designer and assistant film director in Germany. In 1995 he made his first documentary, After Seven Castles, and from 2002 onwards, he has been based in Maramures, Romania, working as an independent documentary director.

LUCY DURÁN

Professor of Music at SOAS London University, has worked extensively in Albania, researching and presenting BBC Radio3 documentaries about traditional music, and producing two Albanian music albums of urban folk music, from Tirana and Shkodra.

Directed by SIJI AWOYINKA [NG / UK / USA]
96”

With the presence of the director


From the colourful, celebratory sounds of Juju and Highlife to the politicized urgency of Afrobeat, Nigerian musicians have spearheaded some of Africa’s most prominent musical movements from the mid 20th century onwards. Their work formed the backdrop against which the nation blossomed after independence. So what happened to the pioneering artists who rose to prominence during the country’s halcyon years? Elder’s Corner is a poignant story of return and discovery through memory and music. Director, singer-songwriter-producer Siji Awoyinka spent his formative years in Lagos during the 1970s oil boom when the city was a bustling metropolis, but political turmoil in the 1980s drove him and his family away from their homeland for 23 years. Elder’s Corner follows his return to Nigeria to talk to some of the great veteran musicians from the country’s post-independence era: such as legendary Highlife bandleaders E.C. Arinze, Victor Olaiya, and Victor Uwaifo (“Guitar boy”) - all of whom have since passed away - plus charismatic female vocalists Mary Afi-Usuah and the Lijadu Sisters, and others. They reflect on the impact of Nigeria’s political upheavals on music, set in the country’s vibrant but challenging urban landscapes. Woven throughout this denouement is Siji’s personal search for reconciliation with the past and with his own musical roots. With music, interviews and stunning archival footage, Elder’s Corner is an epic tale of survival, a window onto Africa’s popular culture, and the undeniable power of music to reconnect the past with the present.

SIJI AWOYINKA

Writer, Producer and Director, Siji Awoyinka is a multidisciplinary aural and visual storyteller. Born in the UK to Nigerian parents, he spent much of his early childhood in Lagos and London before coming to the US to further pursue his musical ambitions. His critically acclaimed musical works include God-given (BBE 2004), AdeSIJI (IVY 2008) and Home Grown (IVY 2014); he has also has contributed song writing and production to projects for the likes of Salif Keita, Cesaria Evora, Osunlade and Wunmi. His bold and visually arresting videos; Yearning For Home, Morenike, Ijo, Lagos Lullabye, have appeared on a number of major networks including MTV, BBC, VH1, BET and many others. His award-winning documentary film, ELDER’S CORNER (2020) premiered at Sheffield Docs, UK as well as DOC NYC.

Directed by SYLVAIN PRUDHOMME and PHILIPPE BÉZIAT
58”

Film presented by Lucy Durán


Charismatic singer-songwriter Malan Mané has lived for 30 years in exile in Montreuil, France, as an anonymous immigrant worker. Yet he was once the star of one of West Africa’s finest and most legendary bands, Super Mama Djombo, from Guinea Bissau - a small, beautiful country that has suffered from oppressive colonial rule, and then civil wars and poor governance. Malan suddenly saw his life turn around when he received an invitation to return to his homeland to perform in front of 100,000 people. We follow him on this emotional journey as he reunites with family and old musical colleagues, and ventures deep into the lush backwaters of Bissau’s forest, to learn the story of the band’s name, which is intertwined with animist shrines and was once a symbol of resistance to colonial rule. Back in Europe, inspired by this reconnection, Malan goes into the studio to record the acoustic album he always dreamed of, in an amazing twist of fate. The film is directed by French artist and filmmaker Philippe Béziat, who has made over twenty documentaries for theatres and television, mostly about the classical music world, such as Pelléas and Mélisande, The Song of the Blind, The Wedding, Strawinsky-Ramuz and Becoming Traviata. He has also worked on film-recordings of several operas as well as the video design for dance and opera productions. The film is based on the novel Les Grands (Gallimard, 2014), by author Sylvain Prudhomme, who was born in the South of France but spent his childhood in Africa. He studied literature in Paris and began to write novels focusing on Africa. His books have won many prestigious awards. Les Grands tells the story of ex-members of Super Mama Djombo, a band from Guinea Bissau, famous in the 1970s but now dispersed.

LUCY DURÁN

Professor of Music at SOAS London University, she specialises in West African music and has worked in Guinea Bissau, producing an album by one of its leading musicians, and has also presented BBC Radio 3 documentaries about the country’s distinctive musical traditions.

Author and researcher MICHEL GIACOMETTI
Directed by ALFREDO TROPA [PT]
60”

Film presented by LUÍSA TIAGO DE OLIVEIRA (ISCTE)


Series by the ethnomusicologist Michel Giacometti, shown between 1971 and 1974. A journey through deepest Portugal, in search of the images and voices with which one of the most important anthological collections of Portuguese regional music ever was produced. Screening of the clips O S. João na Tradição Musical Popular 1972, Cantos e Ritmos de Trabalho 1962 e Cantos do Trabalho 1972. Alentejo, the beautiful province of central and southern Portugal where Evora is located, boasts a rich musical tradition, connected with the agricultural cycle and with religious festivities (for example for Sao Joao). Many of these remarkable musical styles, featuring songs by men and women to coordinate tough manual labour of farming and fishing, are disappearing along with the old ways of life, as the land itself becomes transformed by industrialised farming. Drawn from the RTP [Radio Television Portugal] archive, we present a selection of Povo Que Canta, with old black and white ethnographic footage filmed in the Portuguese countryside and coast between 1962-72. Fortunately, Portugal’s acapella choral groups like Cantares de Evora and Cantadores de Desassossego, who are performing in the Imaterial Festival programme, keep some of these centuries-old traditions alive. These films are a rare and fascinating window onto a bygone era of the Iberian peninsula.

MICHEL GIACOMETTI

Was a French ethnomusicologist, born in Corsica, who moved to Portugal in 1959 in order to research and document the folk music of the country. Between 1970-74 he travelled around the countryside with an audio and film team from RTP (Portuguese Radio Television), creating the remarkable series “Povo Que Canta” (People who sing), a unique documentary record of Portugal’s intangible musical heritage but also of the inequalities and exploitative working conditions of the time.

LUÍSA TIAGO DE OLIVEIRA

PhD in Modern and Contempo­rary History in 2000 at ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa. Assistant Professor at ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa and a full researcher at CIES - Centro de Investigação e Estudos de Sociologia (Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology).

Directed by JAVIER CORCUERA
1’57”

With the presence of Sara Van, Peruvian artist featured in the film


Sigo Siendo [Kachkaniraqmi] derives its title from a Quechua phrase – meaning, “despite all life’s challenges, I still exist”. (Quoted from Peru’s celebrated writer and ethnographer José María Arguedas). This sets the tone for this extraordinary film documenting the remarkable diversity, beauty and fragility of Peru’s musical culture in the hands of some of its most marginalised populations who manage to keep their traditions alive as a proud expression of identity. With a few exceptions, such as Afrope­ruvian singer Susana Baca and Magaly Solier from Ayacucho, the music and artists featured in this documentary are hardly known outside their native regions. The film portrays the lives of artists who are rooted in old ways of life that have evolved through history and across Peru’s varied landscapes: in the Amazon, through to the high Andes with their harps and charangos, and down to Lima and the coast, with its strong Afroperuvian heritage. But we also see some unexpected interactions across generations and regions. Everywhere we see the direct connection that musicians make between land, water, mountainous terrain, animals and the spirit world, where song, dance and instrumental music have the power to express joy and alleviate pain. With moving performances filmed in remote and rugged places from around the country, the film showcases some of the world’s least known, most expressive and perhaps most endangered musical traditions.

Director JAVIER CORCUERA

Is one of Peru’s most eloquent and socially committed documentary filmmakers. Born and raised in Lima Peru, he studied cinema first in Peru and later in Madrid, where he now lives. His award-winning films, spanning over two decades, focus on topics of humanitarian concern from around the globe. His first feature-length documentary, La Espalda del Mundo (2000), portrays case studies of human rights’ abuse from Peru, Turkey and the USA. Other films include La Guerrilla de la Memoria (2002) about the hidden resistance to Franco after the Spanish Civil War, and Winter in Baghdad (2005) about the USA occupation of Iraq.

SARA VAN

Is a singer, one of the outstanding Peruvian artists featured in Sigo Siendo. She is a language teacher and multiskilled artist based in Madrid. As a composer and performer, her repertoire is eclectic, essentially inspired by Peruvian popular music, combined with sounds ranging from tango to rock, folk, copla or chanson.