Al Jazeera English - Witness: Musical Investments (Clip)
This episode of Al Jazeera English's Witness is an uplifting portrait of how music can be a powerful instrument of transcending boundaries in a country only fifteen years removed from institutionalized racism.
Abel Selaocoe hails from a poor township called Sebokeng near Johannesburg, South Africa. His mother is a domestic worker and many of his family members are unemployed. A few years ago he started playing the violincello, and quickly rose to be one of the country's top young classical musicians, thereby challenging stereotypes in an environment where such music is often still seen as a "Western import" inimical to indigenous black culture.
Musical Investments follows Abel as he travels to Cape Town to take part in the yearly week-long MIAGI (Music Is A Great Investment) youth orchestra event, where he will be performing Boccherini's second cello concerto as soloist on the final night. Students from highly varied social and racial backgrounds come together under the baton of Turkish maestro Cem Mansur in the lead-up to the concert at Cape Town's City Hall.
The film follows Abel's progress, with that of other students, through rehearsals, social encounters, impromptu jazz jams and the excitement before the final performance.
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About Al Jazeera - Witness
Rageh Omaar presents Witness, a half-hour daily documentary series which features short, specially commissioned or acquired films gathered from independent filmmakers.
Each documentary reveals the unknown lives of ordinary people, following their lives, telling their stories and portraying the challenges that confront them. Our witnesses are people in a situation or those who have observed them first hand.
The films cover conflict, belief, the past and the future and as well as bringing new stories to light they showcase the talents of a new breed of multi-skilled, frontline journalist. In the studio, Rageh will further explore the issues raised in the films, with expert guests on the subject matter and the filmmakers themselves.
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