Popular music has its roots in West Africa, and especially in Mali. Inspired by this music, the Berliners travel to Mali to find the heroes of their vinyl-collection. There they research the origins of the songs, marvel at old archive footage and bring back the lost brass sections to play with forgotten Malian stars, leading often to heated arguments over the correct beats, and record an album in Salif Keita’s studio in Bamako.
Germany, 2023, 91 min., German, French, Bambara, English with Bulgarian subtitles
Director: Markus CM Schmidt
DOP: Martin Langner
Music: Martin Langner
Production: Film Five GmbH, GER
Director’s Biography:
Markus CM Schmidt has mainly been working as film editor and sound recordist on documentary cinema and television films since 1994. During his editing studies at the HFF “Konrad Wolf” in Potsdam, he made his first documentary film DIE KINDER VON SACHSENHAUSEN (1994), followed by VOLLES ROHR (1996). In 2003, the year of the Gulf War, Markus founded a filmmakers’ initiative, from which the critical anti-war film FREEDOM2SPEAK emerged and toured at international festivals.