Film

Ongola Mezik – Yaoundé Sound

Full-HD / 58:04 min/ Stereo / Deutsche Untertitel
Regie und Produktion: Paul M. Ziegler  / 2016

 

Synopsis

Ongola Mezik – Yaoundé Sound tells about the daily life of professional musicians in the capital of Cameroon – about their talents, joys and difficulties. The determination of the musicians to earn a living as passionate artists under challenging circumstances, distinguishes them to be deeply rooted to their own culture in today’s tense field between tradition and modernity. The process from spontaneous song composing and its further development, the first recordings, video clip production, promotion in local media, to finally show to a large live audience, is illustrated by the examples of various musicians in the film.

There’s the sound engineer William Enama who produces best audio with a simple laptop, engaging and instructing studio musicians like the talented percussionist Georges Onguene to turn their inside out. He is recording Marie Noelle Atangana’s first album in her living room – traditional songs that have been told to the young singer by her grandmother. She underlines the importance of passing on the cultural heritage of the ancestors, especially in today’s digital world, where the modernized sound of Bikutsi rhythm seems to be the only musical style being supported by the public media in the centre region of Cameroon. A country that has a treasure of more than 250 different ethnic groups with different languages, customs and – of course – different rhythms to offer. Too much to take advantage of in a whole lifetime, as the internationally recognized singer Kareyce Fotso emphasizes.