Click GALLERY tab above and watch a select 25 minutes of the film!   Thanks!     

Thanks to PALMS DOWN  for allowing us to use their wonderful music  in our trailer from their CD: Urban Drummers: Take My House Back to Africa

                             

WHY THIS FILM?

When filming a “showcase reel” of my Sixties screenplay, “How I Survived the Sixties",  I used drummers for a Love-in scene with one drummer from Burundi, Africa and the other  having studied Afro-Cuban drumming in Cuba. In talking to them, I learned about their backgrounds. It inspired me to find out more about the cultural phenomenon of drum, dance and song, prevalent  for centuries and burgeoning even more over the last few years.    I was also moved by a Tahitian dance number choreographed by Tiana Liufau on "So You Think You Can Dance", along with  my own experience living in Hawaii, witnessing the source of community that arises from the Polynesian cultures joining together in this specific activity, I decided this was something to share with the world.I also want to mention I have the best team of filmmakers working with me too. 

THE STORY

From the beginning of time, humans have gathered in groups to move together in time.  It is the common thread that keeps a culture, community and our earth alive in harmony.  It has been recorded over many centuries through drawings on cave walls, paintings, sculptures, vases, books, photos and film, showing how human beings continue to assemble with one another as a group.   A connection that was squashed in different periods of time for religious, political, and geographical reasons but could never be exorcised completely.  I will tell of the opposing forces intent on abolishing the only activity people needed to sustain their community along with shelter and food.  Many cultures were almost destroyed when these rituals were taken away and little was left but to fall into drinking and despair.  I want to show how people all over the world are now celebrating a resurgence with so many present day drumming, dancing and singing groups.  Or building on their own special heritage of traditions handed down by their ancestors over the centuries. Black Elk spoke of the 7 generations and it's time has come.

THE GIFTS OF CULTURE

With new gatherings created for the masses in the Western World such as Drumming Circles, Earth Dance and Burning Man, more people are becoming aware of the need of this kind of connection with their fellow human beings.   I have filmed American Indians, immersing myself in the love and support that exudes from their Powwows and I have felt the spiritual gift of their thriving community.  I've joined the Brazilian population in Los Angeles which has given me and many others so much joy partaking in the dance, drum and song events.  There is also the Puerto-Rican Bomba , Afro-Cuban groups, though springing from  African roots, are individual in their own creativity, unique and expressive dances.   Adding to all this  are the noble efforts of artists wanting to help the underprivileged with a school like Meninos do Morumbi in Brazil and the American-Senegal project.  Teaching children to express themselves through drumming, dancing and singing.

WHERE THE MONEY WILL GO

Secure an interview with and film the group Marafanyi on the East Coast, interviews with Massamba Diop/Tony Vacca with the Senegal-American project and  ex-hippies including clips of love-ins with the Hippie Sub-culture, and if possible, film the Aborigines in Brisbane Australia.   Funds will cover production and post-production costs, with a large portion of expenses going to my wonderful director of photography/editor, (editing, sound),  an amazing narrator, stipends for interviewees and miscellaneous costs. There  is a small marketing budget and a strategic marketing plan to promote the film.

             THE HOPEFUL OUTCOME

 I see this film screened for everyone and anyone who enjoys moving to a beat but it will also be a great educational tool for schools, sorely missing arts and music in their curriculum.  I would like to enter the film into film festivals in the hopes to acquire a distributor. I also intend to build a website that displays a map of the world and as each individual clicks onto a specific country, they will get a peak into that cultures own unique expression of drum, dance and song.