The More We Advance Towards Modernity the More We Distance Ourselves from Nature

THE FILM:

“Footsteps in Africa, A Nomadic Journey” is a cinematic feature length ethnographic film of 67 minutes. It is an exciting visual narrative, art documentary accompanied by a diverse musical score. Shot in January 2006 as a road trip film in the Sahara desert of Mali, Kiahkeya performers and a renegade camera team lived with the nomadic Tuareg/ Kel Tamashek tribes in remote areas of Mali near Mauritania, and visited Tuareg Festivals.

The thematics of “Footsteps in Africa, A Nomadic Journey” are of a universal quality. A universal tale of humans finding their path/freedom in life by living in their truth, represented in this film by pure music, dance and survival from the soul. “Footsteps in Africa, A Nomadic Journey” captures the people in their element, investigating their music, their dance, their survival skills, and the rituals that the Tuareg carry within to keep their culture and heritage alive. The journey of the nomad is a long journey of traversing life and society. It is a chosen path to be lived in austerity and solidarity. This is something all humans have in common, the journey of life. What the modern man forgets in his separation from nature is that all of our material possessions are just a false sense of security, these nomads live in a truth of extremes that is the poetry of the Tuareg way of life, living in the rhythms of nature.

Footsteps Footsteps do not only denote rhythm, dance and music, but they also suggest the lively hood that nomads have chosen to live in accordance with the natural flow of life. Footsteps are a reminder of the harsh realities of resistance that nomadic peoples live in difficult environmental and political climates.

~ In ~ Africa Africa as a continent holds precious information for the rest of the world. Mother of many remote cultures, it has allowed many people to live in relatively undisturbed simplicity in contrast to the industrialized world. Mali being one of the poorest countries in Africa has enabled ancient simplistic cultures to thrive continuously, of which sustainable survival is elemental.

THE TUAREG and “FOOTSTEPS IN AFRICA, A NOMADIC JOURNEY.”

The Tuareg are thousands of years old descended migrants of the Magreb, and stretching further back they descend from the people of Yemen, and even before that from India. In Northern Africa, as in Mali, their nomadic lifestyle has been countered many times by governments and sedentary people, thus leading to numerous rebellions. In 1994 a peace treaty was signed in Mali between the Tuareg and the government, thus truly instating them as an autonomous minority. Nonetheless their status, lifestyle, land and people are still at times threatened.

Shot on the Panasonic 24p video and 16mm, the imagery of “Footsteps in Africa, A Nomadic Journey” is an interlacing of the vivid beauty of the desert life, and also the radical authenticity of existence their within. The 16 mm shot with the Bolex, one-stop frames, from hip height, alternating superimpositions, conjure the distant memory of creative and ancient mystic ways of life. The Video Director of Photography Kika Vliegnethart, recorded the Tuareg in their most ascetic and adorned ways, capturing the beauty of living that is worth maintaining.

The Director Kathi von Koerber believes that the wisdom that nomadic life entails, gives deep insight into humans' relationship to the earth. She calls this the transcendental frequency, a melody at heart at which humans coexist. The Tuareg, being keepers of ancient music and dance, allow the frequency to speak through them, their hearts, their music and melody. "Footsteps in Africa, A Nomadic Journey" is a film allowing the essence of these nomadic people to speak for themselves while embarking on an amazing musical voyage.

Director’s Notes: As I director I want this film to address the youth around the world, especially African- American youth, so that as many people as possible are drawn to see this film about nomadic values, wisdom and sustainable survival skills as a valuable asset to their life.

I would like to see the film serve as a platform for educational purposes, to empower the impoverished and undereducated youth and communities, in order to value the worth of tradition, music and story telling. It is for the viewer to discern the know how of independent survival from the ever more fast advancing modern world.

The film will tour Africa and worldwide, bringing the film back to the Tuareg. Most of all I want to bring the film back to the nomadic population of Africa themselves. Since the Tuareg live spread all across Africa there is a huge audience for this movie, and to support them in their cause to continue to survive. I envision the film traveling in combination with workshops. And a chance to donate proceeds to for medical supplies, digging of waterholes and educational materials.

This Kiahkeya film is itself a blueprint for further exploration in different parts of the world, creating a dialogue between the tribal and the urban. "Footsteps in Africa" is just the beginning of many more films to come. For more information, please go to www.footstepsafrica.com or www.kiahkeya.com.