TIFF Music docs

I’d been waiting to post about the music docs at September’s Toronto International Film Festival until they were ALL announced, which happened today. (Yes, some docs were posted earlier…but I wanted to be a completist….that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.) There are a couple of cool looking music projects:

Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
Senegal’s Youssou Ndour is one of Africa’s most famous musicians; in the West, he’s known best for singing on Peter Gabriel’s hit “In Your Eyes.” The film documents Ndour the release of his album Egypt and how it relates to his Islamic faith.

It Might Get Loud
David Guggenheim, the Oscar-winning director of “An Inconvenient Truth,” makes a paean to the electric guitar by examining the work of Jimmy Page, The Edge of U2 and Jack White. Each guitarist represents three generations of music and its capped by a group jam at the end.

Soul Power
There was the famous “Rumble in the Jungle” bout between Ali and Foreman in Zaire in 1974..but there was also a concert. This film recounts it with performances by James Brown, B.B. King, Bill Withers, The Spinners, etc.

Sounds Like Teen Spirit: A Popumentary
About the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, don’t have much more information on it at this time

Festival runs from September 4 to the 13th. I’ll be writing more about each of these films but check out the trailer below of the Youssou Ndour flick.

Dance off!

Pamela at the Still in Motion doc blog raves about the DVD release of Inside the Circle. Filmed over a four year period, it features three bboys from rural Texas who become rivals when they join separate dance crews. It’s been compared to Mad Hot Ballroom, but hip hop style. Pamela says “its a high impact story of boyhood friendship, rivalry and transcendence through dance.” She also has an interview with the director. It won an audience award at SXSW in 2007.