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Films

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now streaming worldwide until November 16 at
https://sanssoucifestival.org

Close to the coast with the pirogues fishing canoes in Senegal, we are invited to a women’s sabar circle, a joyful exchange of teasing and pleasing audience with liberating moves to the rhythms of the drums. We see a drum lesson with children, drum making and market mingling with the renowned Senegalese Teranga, generosity in action. On washday, Babacar the choreographer and his dancers arrive to lead the girls through a Bara Mbaye, a song everybody knows. The well in another town brings up muddy water, but the dance goes on, it is a stabilizing force.

Director's Statement

When I saw sabar for the first time, I had an awakening experience which compelled me, many decades later, to return as a guest of a well known drummer family. Sabar takes us into the world of the griots, the storytellers, dance, rhythm and the body, and awakens Eros, the great connector. In our divisive times, the reality of the body’s magnetism can act as a joyful community builder. 

Producer Senegal Laye Diedhiou

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Abdoulaye Diedhiou lives in M’Bour, Senegal. Producer of audiovisual projects and director of www.itourismetv.com, television programs focused on tourism. He is also the manager of the group “Xalaas”, traditional sabar dancers and drummers, based in Senegal.

Photo: Laye in front of a historic canon used during the slave trade on the Island of Goré near Dakar, now the site of the House of Slaves

Featuring Mané Ndiaye, Pape Ndiaye, Babacar Top. 

Editor Bill Flicker.

Music by Seckou Keita and Omar Sosa.

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Falling For The Mountain

This is the intimate and urgent story of a family that must come together to steward their ancestral home in the majestic Swiss Alps in the face of urbanization and climate change. The film follows owners, farmers and neighbors, all with deep ties to this open wild that asks for protection.

Watch Falling for the Mountain:
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Director Interview:

peace is possible

In 2001 Leon Berg and myself were sent to Israel by Bernie Glassman, Zen priest and founder of the now called Zen Peacemakers International (ZPI) to give introductory Council trainings all over the country. It was after the second Intifada. I was called to lead a council with Palestinian and Israeli women and filmed this clip at the end of it. The practice of listening deeply / spontaneous speaking is now integral to ZPI.

My father, a country doctor in Switzerland, reflects on his relationships with dying patients, his mother and life after death. He tells the story of his identification with Isaac and the death of my sister.

A Legacy

Screenings

drumming bodies dancing

Current:

streaming worldwide until November 16

Sans Souci Festival

Online

http://sanssoucifest.org

October 12th - October 26

Inspired Dance Film Festival

Online (Doco Trio)

https://inspireddance.com.au/idff-2025

Past:

October 12th, 7pm

Inspired Dance Film Festival

Reservoir Cinema

Level 3/28 Albion St

Surry Hills NSW 2010

Australia

 

February 22nd, 1:30pm

Dance on Camera Film Festival

Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre

Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway

New York, NY 10025

November 6th

Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance with Q&A 

October 18th, 1pm PST

Topanga Film Festival

​Froggy's - 1105 N Topanga Canyon Blvd

Topanga, CA 90290

Screening in MBour, Senegal, the principal filming location

June 18th, 8pm GMT, preceded by a sabar starting at 6:30pm​​​

Past, continued:

June 6th, 12pm EST

Piton International Film Festival

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

May 31st to June 2nd

R.E.D. International Dance, Art & Film Festival (RIFF)

Einavegen 1771

2843 Eina

Norway

May 3rd to May 26th

The International Black & Diversity Film Festival Toronto

Canada

May 17th, 6pm PST

UC Riverside Doundounba Festival 2024 with Q&A

900 University Ave

Riverside, CA 92521

January 28th, 5pm PST

KAOS Network
4343 Leimert Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA 90008

November 10th 2023, 5pm PST

Ethos Film Festival

The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage

1310 11th St

Santa Monica, CA 90401

September 2nd 2023, 11am PST

Vidiots

4884 Eagle Rock Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90041

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