Director: Lutz Gregor Producers: Kerstin Meyer-Beetz, Christian Beetz
Description:
The West African country of Mali is considered the birthplace of the blues and jazz, brought later by abducted slaves to America’s cotton fields. For centuries music has strengthened Mali’s cultural identity, musicians are holding strong positions in society. The film tells the stories of four musicians who don’t want to accept radical Islamist tendencies that are bringing hate, distrust and violence—neither in Mali nor in any other place in the world.
Biography: Lutz Gregor established himself in the sphere of experimental documentaries and became particularly interested in the connection between film and dance. Several dance film productions have resulted from his own dance practice, Contact Improvisation. Gregor’s recent works include the documentary series People in the Wind and the FilmDance Installation “Maps of Emotion.” Christian Beetz, executive director of Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion, has realized more than 120 high-quality documentaries for the international market. Some of his most important productions include: the Cinema-for-Peace-awarded documentary Blood in the Mobile, the comprehensive and Grimme-Award-winning cross-media project Farewell Comrades!, and the innovative culture documentary The Wagner Files, which was nominated for the International Emmy Award in 2014. Kerstin Meyer-Beetz studied English and German literature and linguistics in Hamburg and Great Britain. At Gruner + Jahr and Medienkontor she has worked as a producer and director for documentaries. As a head of the editorial department she was responsible for more than one hundred episodes of the arte-series 360° - GEO-Reportage. In 2011, she started to work for Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduction as a senior producer in the field of TV and feature length documentaries as well as international coproductions from all over Europe, China, Canada, USA, South Africa etc. Her productions—among others Before the Last Curtain Falls, Nelson Mandela: the myth and me, The Yes Men Are Revolting—regularly screen at international A-Festivals and have won numerous awards. Her coproduction Open Heart was nominated for an Academy Award.
