Ali Farka Toure

Ali Farka Toure "Le Miel N'est Jamais bon dans une saule Bouche" A Visit too.Marc Huraux (2002)

The legendary african singer and guitarist Ali Farka Toure now declines most offers of international tours and recording sessions. Feeling he was weakening the link between music and its source in deepest Mali, Ali instead invest alot of his time, energy and resources into improving conditions in his homeland, whilst never diminishing his passion for music. This film visists the charismatic Ali in the Niafunke region on the banks of the river Niger where he goes about his daily business checking his crops and water pumps. Music is an integral part o fthis encounter, deep mysterious and utterly compeling his playing lights up the striking documentary.

This film is an ethno music documnetary and though its content has little to do with what my film wil encompass, hopefully i will learn much about conventions of the ethnographic  genre regardless from which direction it comes from. Just from reading the itinary on the back i get the impression already that a convention of narrative may be the day to day struggle in a poverty sticken country that is unlike anything anyonein the western world will ever expeirence. The director mentions in his letter to Ali that he would like to not so much focus on just Ali but his wider surrounding and "habitat".

Analysing Cinematography

·         Use of hand held camera emphasises intimacy and to the enviroment portrays the singer on a more personal level.

·         Scenic shots of the areas set the enviroment. Baren, desolate sub saharan Mali, a common convention for documentaries.

·         Shots of everyday life with narrative

·         Camera Shots in Interview focusing on a medium close up, often in Ali Farka's car. I believe This is to focus on th emeotion of his topic of conversation.

·         Also similarly, when we see Ali playing hi smsuic he will be centred with his musicians, again quite a close up of his face for a better display of his emotions.

·         The lighting is intervariable, as it is all handheld camera which makes the film very perosnal rough and organic.Sometimes this feels like a disadvantage as continuity can feel a bit weak. Lighting i belive will be one of the main problems, i will have in my film as much of it will be outdoors and one will have to rely on rather natural lightingrather then a studio set up.I will have to give lighting serious consideration as i have noticed in pervious projects thi shas let me down.

·         As stated on the dvd the themes deal more with the background of the musician rather then on the man himself. He talks about the hardship faced in th epoverty stricken area inhabited bu the songhai ethnic group (of the Songhai empire fame) and how being self sufficient is essential.

·         What is striking and is a recurring theme in anthropological studies i sthe encroachment of western culture on the traditions of the songhai. We see men wearing jeans but wiht Traditional Malian shirts. This trait will crop up in all my studies on ethnographic film, and can be very detrimental to tribal life

Themes:

·         Farka talks about his childhood in colonial times

·         how he made his first guitar by watching musicians play and copying their instruments play and copying their instruments though his first was a single stirng montone guitar, a sure example of self sufficientcy

·         He talks about superstitions surrounding the mighty Niger RIver.

·         His philathropy in the community. The money he earns from his  multi platinum selling albums he invests in growing millet and planting orchards for the community

·         Though a catholic community he talks about how th eguitar invokes the spirirts which are still very important even after a century of colonisation and missionarys throughout the land. He doesn't refer to christian spirit, moreover the spirits of the land the river the trees, which is similar to voodoo beliefs in the carribean which stem from African animism.

·         He talks about the day a spirit came into his body, very significantly as he says it was an emotional moment, and doesn't want to talk about it.

·         I really notice again how much the film concentrates on the emotions the music stirs within the people in the film.