Bajando por la Montaña: Ecology of Colombian Gaita Music
The Arts in Focus
•
54m
Gaita is played with two flutes and three percussions in a group. The music combines both indigenous Native American and traditional African elements. The filmmakers follow Latin Grammy-award-winning gaitero Fredys Arrieta both into the Colombian mountains Montes de Maria and in the metropolis Bogota. The mountains are both where the origin of this music lie and where Fredys sources, in an ecological way, the raw materials for his instrument making. In Bogota, a much younger generation has found an interest in this traditional music from the coastal region of Colombia and has made it “trendy” in the city’s clubs.
Directed by Michael Brims and Jaime Bofill
Michael Brims is a documentary filmmaker & video artist from Germany living in Houston, Texas. He is also an associate professor for Art, Communication & Digital Media Studies at the University of Houston Clear Lake. His documentary work focuses on Latin American musical traditions and as aspects of sustainability.
Jaime Bofill is a musicologist and an assistant professor at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico. His research focuses on Latin American music and the relationship between sound, music and environment.
Up Next in The Arts in Focus
-
Violin Whisperer
David Ludwik Rapkievian is a master instrument maker, musician, and folk dancer, who works in the Russian, Polish and Armenian traditions. As an instrument maker, David crafts violins in his Washington Grove, MD workshop. While growing up in Detroit, David discovered a love of music through his P...
-
Hommage: l’art de guerre de Pascal Bo...
Pascal Boillet et un artiste peintre illustrateur, dont l'art tourne autour des deux grandes guerres et le monde merveilleux peuplé de dragons, elfes, nains et créatures fantastiques
-
Four Keeps Dakáake
This short essay film is based on Crow/Apsaalooke tribal cosmology in which wind characterizes one of the four cardinal points and when called upon represents for the tribe a powerful blessing in endurance and return. In this film dakaake (Apsaalooke for bird) signifies both wind and child. A non...