Educational Media Reviews Online

This documentary about a folk music indigenous to the Karoo region of South Africa raises as many questions in my mind as it answers. Of course, this can be seen as a positive or negative attribute depending on your point of view. In a positive light, the film successfully piqued my interest in an area and its people. Those seeking a complete educational package about the Karoo region, the Karretjie people, and the musical issues presented during the course of the film will be frustrated by the lack of thorough background information. But, this may not be a fair criticism of a documentary film intended to stand alone on its own merits.

The film records a journey made by South African musician David Kramer in search of musicians with knowledge of the folk music of Namaqualand in the Karoo region of the Northern Cape Provinces in South Africa. Kramer has cited the work of American folksong scholar Alan Lomax as an early influence and once the political climate of South Africa allowed, Kramer pursued his interest in preserving what he could of any Afrikaans folk music that had survived the destructive powers of apartheid policies. Kramer’s first effort resulted in a concert of music from the Karoo region held in Cape Town in 2001. The success of that concert led Kramer to explore Namaqualand for more musicians, especially violin players capable of replacing Jacob Jaers, who died after the 2001 concert.

Kramer is joined on his travels by Hannes Coetzee, a guitarist in his seventies who performs slide guitar by holding a spoon in his mouth. Coetzee’s musicality, his wry, muted reactions to the musicians they meet (especially one guitarist whose playing is eccentric at best), his encounter with a singing dentist, and his meeting with his father’s brother after decades have passed without contact provide some of the warmest and most humorous scenes in the film. Touching too is the interview with Coetzee’s wife Sheila, also a musician, who tells of the hardships of their lives, including the murders of two of their children.

Sheila Coetzee mentions in passing that their church frowns upon music performed for secular purposes. This is just one example of a significant issue raised without further discussion. The most central question has to do with the music itself. What is it exactly? Kramer suggests that it is a result of a blending of Western music with indigenous rhythms. Part of that will certainly be clear to the listener who will hear traces of the Scottish dance forms in the music combined with a finger-picking technique on the guitar that is unique. The process of acculturation evidenced in this music makes for a fascinating study but a full explanation would have required more musical details than the filmmakers must have wanted in the film.

In fact there is yet another layer of acculturation that occurs during the film as Kramer shapes the original folk materials into something he feels will work better in concert. Does Kramer end up presenting authentic folk music in concert or his own bowdlerized version? There is really not enough music performed during this film to answer this question but it certainly can serve as an interesting topic for debate. There is a scene in which Kramer is seen notating a guitarist’s tuning in tablature. This suggests a serious musicological approach to Kramer’s project and it would be useful to know whether Kramer has done anything to preserve his documentation of these details. This would also help in weighing the nature of Kramer’s enterprise as either exploiter or benefactor (to put it in simplistic and overly brutal terms).

The footage of the semi-arid landscape of the Karoo region is also an attraction of this film. The viewer can not help but wonder at the fortitude of the indigenous Karretjie (donkey cart people) population. They have survived more than two centuries of discrimination in this harsh landscape. More background about these people would also be a useful component to make the film more suitable for education uses.

The film is shot in a straightforward manner that serves the story well and the captioning is legible. Buyers must be aware that there are two versions of the film being offered for sale: the short version is 54 minutes duration while the full version extends to more than 90 minutes. I found the longer version much more satisfying. It ends predictably, with a good portion of the Cape Town concert with Kramer and the newly located musicians. The shorter version may be more appropriate for audiences with shorter attention spans. No matter which version, Kramer’s journey through a rarely visited part of South Africa is worth watching and the many questions raised can serve as a basis for different educational purposes.