Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love is a 2008 documentary film directed by filmmaker Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi

Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi

Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi is an award-winning film director and producer. Her first film won Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2003...

that chronicles Senegalese icon Youssou N'Dour

Youssou N'Dour

Youssou N'Dour is a Senegalese singer, percussionist and occasional actor. In 2004, Rolling Stone described him as, in Senegal and much of Africa, "perhaps the most famous singer alive." He helped develop a style of popular music in Senegal, known in the Serer language as mbalax, a type of music...

as he releases his Grammy Award

Grammy Award

A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

-winning album Egypt
Egypt (album)
Egypt is a Grammy Award-winning album by Senegalese musician Youssou N'Dour, on which he is accompanied by the Egyptian Fathy Salama Orchestra. In the original Senegalese release, it was named Sant Allah ....

and works to promote a more tolerant view of Islam. The film features musical superstar/activists Bono

Bono

Paul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...

and Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel

Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...

. The documentary screened at festivals internationally including the Telluride Film Festival

Telluride Film Festival

The Telluride Film Festival was started in 1974 by Bill and Stella Pence, Tom Luddy and Jim Card in the town of Telluride, Colorado, United States. It is operated by the National Film Preserve....

and Toronto International Film Festival

Toronto International Film Festival

The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...

in 2008, winning numerous audience awards as well the Special Jury Prize at the Middle East International Film Festival

Middle East International Film Festival

Abu Dhabi Film Festival is an international film festival. Created in 2007, the ceremony is held annually in October in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage , under the patronage of Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, Chairman of the ADACH...

in 2008 and a nomination for the Pare Lorentz Award at the International Documentary Association

International Documentary Association

International Documentary Association , founded in 1982, is a non-profit organization promoting documentary film, video and new media, to support the efforts of documentary filmmaking and video production makers around the world and to increase public appreciation and demand for the art of the...

Awards in 2009. The film premiered in New York City as the opening night of Brooklyn Academy of Music

Brooklyn Academy of Music

Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....

's Muslim Voices: Arts & Ideas Festival in 2009, and opened in theaters in the US and internationally to much acclaim. The film's soundtrack was released by Nonesuch Records

Nonesuch Records

Nonesuch Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:Nonesuch was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman to produce "fine records at the same price as a trade paperback", which would be half the price of a normal LP...

in 2010.

Synopsis

Youssou N’Dour: I Bring What I Love is a music-driven film that reveals one man's power to inspire global change. The film unfolds at a pivotal moment in the life of Youssou N’Dour—the best-selling African pop artist of all time. N'Dour has long been renowned for bringing people of diverse nations and backgrounds together through his collaborations with such musical superstars as Bono, Paul Simon

Paul Simon

Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...

, and Peter Gabriel. But when he releases his most personal and spiritual album yet, he instead alienates his Muslim fans in Africa. Although he garners accolades in the West, N’Dour must brave controversy and rejection at home as he sets out to win his audience back.

Director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi tracks N'Dour’s journey over two years – filming his life in Africa, Europe, and America. He initially releases his album Egypt in the hopes of promoting a more tolerant face of Islam. Yet, when his fellow Senegalese reject the album, and denounce it as blasphemous, he takes this as a challenge to go deeper, to reach out to those who would attack him, and to work even harder to use his songs to unite a divided world. The resulting portrait is not just of a musician, but also that of a world in which pop culture now has equal power to incite fury and invite new connections.

Production

Youssou N’dour: I Bring What I Love was the first feature-length documentary film by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, who also acted as producer on the film. A Groovy Griot Film In Association with 57th & Irving

57th & Irving

57th & Irving Productions is a New York City-based production company specializing in independent motion pictures. The company was founded in September 2005 by the Morris Family...

Productions, the film was executive produced by Edward Tyler Nahem, Jennifer Millstone, Patrick Morris, Jack Turner, Kathryn Tucker, and Miklos C.Vasarhelyi, and co-produced by Sarah Price

Sarah Price

This article is about the swimmer. For the filmmaker see Sarah Price Sarah Price is a former backstroke swimmer from the United Kingdom. She began her swimming career at the Potters Bar club, and turned professional aged fifteen. She set her first British record in 1997 in the 50 m backstroke...

, Gwyn Welles, Scott Duncan, and Hugo Berkeley. The film’s cinematographers are Nick Doob (From Mao to Mozart; an Academy Award winner for Best Documentary Feature), Jojo Pennebaker (The War Room), six-time Emmy winner Scott Duncan (Olympic Games, Survivor), and Hugo Berkeley. The film’s original score was composed by Emmy winner Martin Davich (Trinity) and six time Academy Award nominee James Newton Howard

James Newton Howard

James Newton Howard is an American composer best known for his scores to motion pictures. He is one of the most popular and respected composers for cinema, and has scored over 100 films...

(Blood Diamond).

Awards

Special Jury Prize, 2008 Middle East International Film Festival

Audience Award, 2009 DC International Film Festival

Audience Award, 2008 São Paulo International Film Festival

Impact of Music Award, 2009 Nashville Film Festival

Audience Award, 2008 Bahamas International Film Festival

Spirit of Freedom Award, 2008 Bahamas International Film Festival

Special Presentation, 2008 Toronto International Film Festival

Finalist, 2009 International Documentary Association Pare Lorentz Award

Press

External links

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