Keep the Timbila Playing
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Frank Diamand
Piet Brinkman
Lin Friedman
Venancio Mbande
Piotr Van Dijk
Melle Van Essen
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
66-year-old musician Venancio Mbande is a composer, poet, instrument builder, performer and leader of orchestras of timbila, a family of huge African xylophones, played almost exclusively in Chopiland, a province of southern Mozambique. This very complex music has a tradition dating back centuries. Venancio lived and worked in the gold and platinum mines of South Africa for 45 years. In the eighties, when the civil war in Mozambique made timbila performances impossible, because they are so large and attract a lot of people, Venancio and his mine-orchestra kept timbila music alive in exile, in South Africa. In 1991 'The Hague Percussion Group' invited Venancio to come to Holland to teach them and record a CD with them. He came for three months and left behind the only timbila orchestra outside Africa.
Director
Frank Diamand
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Miscellaneous Notes
Shown at Rotterdam International Film Festival (Main Programme Features) January 24 - February 4, 2001.
