Friday, June 13, 2008

Take Me Away Fast: A feature documentary about a DJ who digs for vintage vinyl in the Mother Land

No Sun Ra content, but this is too good not to pass on...

http://trotroproductions.com/Works-in-Progress.html

“Take Me Away Fast”

A feature documentary about a DJ who digs for vintage vinyl in the Mother Land.

Check out the fundraising trailer on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTzJjsS8-Zw

In 2005, Frank Gossner, a successful German DJ, uproots himself from the party scene of Berlin and moves to Guinea, West Africa. His entire life is now dedicated to digging for vintage Afro-funk and Afro-beat records buried in hot basements and on dusty shelves throughout West Africa. Over the last several years of digging, word has spread about the white man who will pay big money for old records. Recording studio owners and musicians have come forward to offer him a look at their collections, knowing that he will convert the albums into digital format and play them for music lovers at night clubs in New York City and Berlin. This documentary film follows this DJ’s journey to unearth these 30 – 40 year old, virtually unknown rhythms throughout Ghana and Benin in April 2008.

During the course of his record digging trip, Frank will visit fellow music aficionados, Afro-funk and Afro-beat musicians, recording studio owners, and local record shops owners. Musicians will reflect on a time when musicians “had real talent” and talk about the revolutionary time when these tracks were created. We will learn about the urgency of Frank’s work: as vinyl records possess little to no monetary value to locals, these irreplaceable musical gems are being burned by their owners. With the destruction of albums that were never transferred to cassette or CD, a piece of history is destroyed along with it. “Take Me Away Fast” explores this DJ’s musical obsession as well as shed light on the importance of Afro-funk and Afro-beat music, both then and now.

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