Creative Week Cape Town

Sathima’s Windsong

This documentary film is part of the Music City: A Documentary Festival on Cape Music (10 – 15 September 2011)

Sathima’s Windsong is a lyrical portrait of the life of South African jazz singer Sathima Bea Benjamin. Shot in New York and Cape Town, it is a celebration of Benjamin’s work, a meditation on jazz and diaspora. In her Chelsea Hotel apartment, her home for over thirty years, she patches together her journeys: from apartheid South Africa and its ‘pattern of brokenness’; to Europe and a chance meeting and recording with Duke Ellington; and later a fresh start in New York. Her narrative is interwoven with her music and the reflections of others. Much like her haunting song, Windsong, the film is an eloquent meditation on displacement, exile and belonging. DIR: Daniel A Yon / Canada / South Africa / 2009 / 80min

Creative Week Cape Town has partnered with The Encounters Documentary Festival, The Cape Film Commission and Cape MIC to bring you a documentary festival focussed on music. The concept of the festival is centred on the extensive catalogue of documentaries produced in the Cape about the region’s music. Included in the programme are some sell-out productions from previous film festivals. These include Afrikaaps, Fokofpolisiekar’s “Forgive them for they know not what they do”, Mr Devious: My Life and The Black. Each screening is preceded by student works from the Film and Media Department of the University of Cape Town.

Contact: The Labia, Ph: www.labia.co.za

Who: Encounters Documentary Festival is Africa’s premier documentary festival now in its 13th year. Cape Film Commission is the official film industry development and support body. Cape MIC is the official music industry body.