Filming African Music

 Event 

Filming African music - an interdisciplinary study day

Bath Spa University (in partnership with the African Musics Study Group (AMSG-UK), the International Council for Traditional Music, the Afrika Eye Film Festival and the British Forum for Ethnomusicology) will be hosting this interdisciplinary study day of music, film and conversation.

Professional and amateur filmmakers and videographers play a significant role in shaping and changing perceptions of music and dance across Africa, undertaking a political and selective act rather than a mere documentation of events.

The day explores questions concerning Western and African concepts of performance and education, and critiques various filming approaches, ranging from indigenous and traditional settings to contemporary popular musical forms.

The programme (available here) includes:

• Angela Impey and Andrew Botelle: Filming the Damara King's Festival in west Namibia: cultural documentation and socio-political redress
• Screening: "They will have to kill us first", followed by a question and answer session with Andy Morgan and Simon Bright
• Jasper Chalcraft and Rose Satiko G. Hikiji: Filming as musicking: collaborations with African artists in São Paulo and beyond
• Luke Fowlie: Capturing conviviality: the filming of traditional music and dance among Cameroonian Grassfields communities of Montreal.

The event has commissioned Onyeka Igwe to create a new piece for Bath Spa Commons MediaWall (digital gallery space) involving dance improvisation.

The day ends with a cross-cultural performance collaboration, Afrika Grooves and Moves, that celebrates the distinctive musical traditions from Zimbabwe and The Gambia, featuring Chartwell Dutiro (mbira), Sura Susso (kora), Suntou Susso (kora) and Pete Bernard (piano), combined with Jamaican-influenced dance improvisation by Ripton Lindsay.