Editor's Note
Traditional Malian music combines with the blues for some striking results, as Marcus James travels to Timbuktu to work with some of the finest West African musicians working today. The local term for a white person, toubab, lends itself to the documentary's name, and the open interaction of cultures and musical styles is what makes TIMBUKTOUBAB uniquely fascinating. Marcus James, the white person in question, brings his blues-based sensibility to collaborations with Hamma Sankare, who played the calabash for Ali farka Toure; Solo Sidibe, who plays the kamele n'goni, or hunter's harp; and Hassi Sare, master of the Njarka, a one-stringed violin strung with the tail hairs of a blessed horse. Following this unlikely combination of musicians as they travel to Timbuktu and surrounding villages, the film captures live performances, impressions of the city, and interviews with Hamma and Hassi held in their native dialect of Sonrai. Upholding a tradition of Timbuktu as a place where different cultures associate freely, this sumptuous documentary is the happy result of just such a commingling.
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