SERIES
I
Nitin
Sawhney - Redressing the
Balance
Nitin Sawhney is one of the most interesting musicians working
in Britain today. Drawing on the music of his South Asian roots,
flamenco and the London club scene, he says his most important
musical influence was having a racist music teacher at
school.
Centred around his Prophesy concert at the Albert Hall, this is a
powerful portrait of music in multicultural Britain and includes
Jayanta Bose, Jhelisa Anderson, Aref Durvesh, Jeff Beck and
Courtney Pine alongside Nitin Sawhney.
Director
Francesca Kemp (BBC)
Download here (.pdf)
Caption and End Boards / Music Cue Sheet / Script / Transmission info
Photos (.zip)
Redressing the balance
Appenzell - Sounds of the
Mountains
In a mixture of stylish black and white performance footage and
colour documentary shooting, this film portrays the music and
musicians in the spectacular mountain region of Appenzell. Ranging
from the traditional to the avant-garde, Noldi Alder has had music
in the family for generations and percussionist Ernst Brunner uses
stone blocks hewn from the mountains themselves to make his
compositions.
Director
Thomas Gloor and Magdalena Kauz (SFDRS)
Download here (.pdf)
Caption / Subtitles / Music Cue Sheet
JPP - The incredible Finn
Band
A portrait of one of Finland's
longest-established and most important folk bands. Centred in the
Kaustinen region and the town's annual festival, music is a family
activity and we see how it fits, or doesn't, into contemporary
life. A gentle, humourous and haunting film.
Director
Mirja Metsola (YLE)
Download here (.pdf)
Caption and subtitles / Commentary / Music
Cue Sheet
Photos (.zip)
The incredible Finn Band
Moravian
Carnival
A picture of the Moravian village Strani
through its Shrovetide carnival (Fasank). "Fasank is the greatest
feast of the year", says one of the veteran participants,
"Christmas is great, but that's just from church to church. Fasank
goes from pub to pub". With the most musical pig killing you'll
ever see, fuelled by plum brandy, this is an intimate and revealing
picture of rural life in central Europe, strikingly shot in the
best Czech documentary tradition.
Director
Petr Hejn (CT)
Download here (.pdf)
Original script / English script / Music Cue Sheet
Photos (.zip)
Moravian Carnival
The Nyckelharpa
strikes back
The Nyckelharpa, or keyed fiddle, is an
extraordinary-looking instrument from Sweden with a rock n'roll
attitude. Too rock n'roll, many felt, when it got caught up in
Sweden's Neo-Nazi Viking Rock movement. The film tells the
Nyckelharpa's extraordinary story from its medieval beginnings,
through Eric Sahlström and its revival in the 1970s to its dynamic
new exponents like Väsen today.
Director
Christian Catomeris (SVT)
Download here (.pdf)
Caption / Commentary / Original script / English script / Music Cue
Sheet
SERIES II 
Building
Bridges - Bosnian Sevdah
Born out of the Bosnian war, the multi-ethnic band
Mostar Sevdah Reunion are a metafor for the rebuilding of a
country riven by ethnic conflict. The Sevdah music they play,
typical of Mostar, is based on old Turkish forms and can be seen as
a musical equivalent of the famous 16th century Mostar bridge,
destroyed by shelling in 1993. The film tells the extraordinary
(and often harrowing) personal stories of the members of the band
and follows what they are doing in revivifying a tradition
alongside the rebuilding of the bridge. It ends with a performance
to celebrate the re-opening of the reconstructed bridge.
Director
Mira Erdovicki (BBC / Bosnian TV)
Download here (.pdf)
Script / Music Cue Sheet
Photos (.zip)
Building Bridges
Volendam - World
famous in Holland
A tourist brochure fishing port that's lost its
sea. And it's musical powerhouse. Why? The old fishing songs? The
church? It's a catholic enclave in the midst of protestants.
The Cats, BZN, Jan Smit - music you love to hate and world famous
in holland. An extraordinary portrait of town that many will have
visited, but few will know.
Director
Jan Kelder (NPS)
Download here (.pdf)
Script
/ Commentary / Music
Cue Sheet
Photos (.zip)
Volendam
Parno
Graszt - Hungarian
Gypsies
Parno Graszt are a fantastic Gypsy band from a
small town on the Tisza river in northeast Hungary. We see the way
they live in poor, simple houses and play mainly outdoors to
provide the musical lifeblood of the village. With 80% unemployment
and strong anti-Gypsy sentiments across the country, this is a rare
and intimate portrait of Romany life in Hungary that only a series
like European Roots with insider access could bring. Hungary joins
the EU this year.
Director
Sàndlor Sillò (MTV)
Download here (.pdf)
Script / Commentary / Music Cue Sheet
Photos (.zip)
Parno
Graszt
The Hardanger
Fiddle - Norway's magic
strings (or Norway's Tennessee sound)
Norway's national instrument, the Hardanger Fiddle, is heard
in music ranging from traditional folk to Norwegian avant-garde.
The oldest instrument survives from 1651 and the fiddles are
beautifully decorated with a distinctive ringing sound from
sympathetic strings. This film explores the history, the legends,
and the great Hardanger sporting moments at the Winter Olympics.
The enduring popularity of the instrument though various
contemporary performers.
Director
Torstein Vegheim (NRK)
Download here (.pdf)
Script / Music Cue Sheet
Photos (.zip)
The
Hardanger Fiddle
Domna's
Grandchildren - A musical
history in Greece
Domna Samiou is a national figure in Greece - the
grandmother of Greek folk music. In 1960s archive film with Yehudi
Menuhin she is surrounded by elderly folk musicians playing music
that was disappearing. Today, thanks to a revival she's fuelled,
she has dozens of young disciples. This film intertwines Domna's
personal story with that of the nation and its music.
Director
Daphne Djaferis (ERT)
Download here (.pdf)
Script
/ Music
Cue Sheet
Photos (.zip)
Domna's
Grandchildren
