Music by Prudence
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Music by Prudence |
| Country of production | USA , Zimbabwe |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2010 |
| length | 33 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Roger Ross Williams |
| production |
Roger Ross Williams , Patrick Wright, Sheila Nevins, Sara Bernstein |
| music | Ted Mason |
| camera | Derek Wiesehahn, Osato Dixon |
| cut | Geeta Gandbhir |
| occupation | |
| |
Music by Prudence is an American documentary film directed by Roger Ross Williams from 2010. The short film tells the story of the 21-year-old singer Prudence Mabhena from Zimbabwe and won an Oscar for Best Documentary Short Film .
action
The film portrays the band Liyana from Zimbabwe around the young singer Prudence Mabhena. The band was formed a few years before the film was shot from a project at a school in Bulawayo . Both Mabhena and her seven bandmates are physically disabled. In the society in which the band grew up and lives, disabilities are still considered a work of evil magic. The resulting seemingly insurmountable difficulties and the way to overcome these problems are shown in the film.
Characters
The band Liyana consists of the following band members:
- Singer Prudence Mabhena, who suffers from congenital joint stiffness ( arthrogryposis multiplex congenita ).
- Keyboard player and background singer Tapiwa Nyengera, who has a neural tube malformation ( spina bifida ).
- Marimba player Energy Maburutse has what is known as glass bone disease ( osteogenesis imperfecta ).
- Marimba player Honest Mupatse is hemophiliacs .
- Background singer Marvelous Mbulo suffers from muscular dystrophy .
- The deaf Vusani Vuma plays bass marimba.
- Drummer Goodwell Nzou lost a leg to an amputation .
- Keyboardist Farai Mabhande suffers from AMC like singer Mabhena .
Production and creation
The African American Roger Ross Williams has worked as a producer and director for various television programs and films. He really wanted to make a film that should be set in Africa if possible. Williams hired his neighbor, journalist and producer Elinor Burkett , to come up with an idea for his film. Burkett proposed the story of the band Liyana to him and Williams enthusiastically accepted, so that filming in Zimbabwe could soon begin. Williams and Burkett got along very well when they began working on the project, but differences arose when it came to the narrative of the film. Williams wanted to focus on singer Prudence Mabhena, while Burkett wanted to focus on the entire band. Burkett was then released from her duties about a year before the film was released and does not appear in the credits in the later film . Burkett sued the expulsion, and both parties finally reached an out-of-court settlement.
At the 2010 Academy Awards , there was a bit of a scandal when Burkett, who was also awarded an Oscar due to her previous work , stepped onto the stage during Williams' acceptance speech and interrupted him. Williams later commented on this as follows: I was the director, she was banned from the project almost a year ago. I own the rights to the film, she doesn't have any. She has nothing to do with the film and attacked me from behind. I was quite shocked. The anecdote receives an amusing note with the statement by Burquet that Williams' 87-year-old mother is said to have blocked her way to the stage with a crutch, which is why she reached it too late.
premiere
The film premiered on May 12, 2010 on the pay-TV channel HBO .
Awards
Music by Prudence won an Oscar in the Best Documentary Short Film category at the 2010 Academy Awards . The award went to director and producer Roger Ross Williams and former producer Elinor Burkett .
The film received further awards as best short film at the Africa World Documentary Film Festival and the DocuWest Film Festival . Music by Prudence also won an audience award at the Florida Film Festival .
Web links
- Official website
- Music by Prudence in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Website of the band Liyana
Individual evidence
- ↑ Oscar nomination for 'Music by Prudence' about disabled Zimbabwean singer Prudence Mabhena Article on the pages of the San Francisco Bay View from March 5, 2010 (English)
- ↑ Roger Ross Williams: a case study in choosing your collaborators wisely article on walletpop.com of March 8, 2010 (English)
- ↑ Small Oscar scandal about the short film "Music By Prudence" Report on wunschliste.de from March 9, 2010
- ↑ Offended Roger Ross Williams Explains Elinor Burkett's Oscar Interruption! ( Memento from December 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Article on gossip.whyfame.com from March 9, 2010 (English)