Afrika Film Festival: Mali Blues

Director: Lutz Gregor, Germany, 2016, 93 min.

African hip hop meets the spirit of Jimmy Hendrix, desert blues meets danceable Afro rock. A film about the unifying power of music that paints a positive picture of Africa and its people in times of horror stories. The West African country of Mali is regarded as the cradle of the blues, which abducted slaves brought with them to the cotton fields of America. Traditional music has held Mali's society together for centuries. But Mali's music is in danger. Radical Islamists are banning dance and secular music, destroying instruments and threatening musicians.