Mamadou Cissé, a 41 year-old filmmaker from Mali, was awarded a $5,000 grant for his film “Korafola, la joueuse de kora” (Korafola, the kora player)

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

This film is an intimate portrait of Madina, a musician who lost her sight in 2002. Madina is the only Malian woman to play the kora, a traditional harp normally reserved for men of the “griot” caste who constitute the oral historians of ancestral culture. Infused with a passion for this instrument, Madina decides to flaunt tradition and to accompany herself as she sings, mostly about women’s rights.

Madina is single, and plays with a group of men musician friends, surviving between occasional concerts. Madina shares a large courtyard with her nephews and other neighbours. She is not a “griotte” and so does not normally officiate at social functions, as do most other praise singers… That is, until the day her cousin convinces her to change her tune.