In the footsteps of several Austrian musicians, who have for years been fascinated by the mbira, film maker Michael Pilz travelled to Zimbabwe, looking for Simon Mashoko, an old mbira master. The mbira is an unusual African musical instrument that belongs in the traditions of the Shona people and has to be played in a very specific way. Pilz visits Mashoko in his village and becomes enchanted by this unusual man. The film incorporates several older recordings of previous encounters with Mashoko, but is primarily made up of the long contemplatives recordings of Mashoko and his surroundings that Pilz made during his third visit. Mashoko (85) is part of a very old line of Shona musicians. Mbira music has never broken through in the West, but in his home country, Mashoko was very popular for a while. That era is now behind him, and these days he lives a fairly forgotten life in a distant corner of the country with, according to the Harare Sunday Herald, a large family that lives off him.
Film details
- Country of production
- Austria
- Year
- 2002
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2003
- Length
- 210"
- Medium/Format
- DV cam PAL
You may also like this
-
Circling Zero: Part One, We See Absence
Veteran experimental film maker looks round his wounded neighbourhood after 9/11 with the stunned sincerity of an amateur.
-
Frammenti Elettrici Nº 3: Corpi
Document of an obsession. 8mm material from the 1950s from a collection of female bodies filmed in secret.
-
Lei
Tapestry of women’s lives, in which the life of the first female taxi driver in Turin is interwoven with classical myths.