Thanks to Popbitch for alerting me to this documentary. A little bit more about the band.
A few months back we wrote about “Benda Bilili” – a documentary about a band of (mostly) paraplegic musicians from the Democratic Republic Of Congo. Well, the film is due out this month and we can’t wait.
The film-makers Renaud Barret and Florent De La Tullaye faced many challenges shooting the 5-year documentary on the streets of Kinshasa, which are populated by assorted ‘shegues’ (street kids), military dealers, hoods and thugs of all kinds – none more so than when they were thrown in jail for refusing to give in to police blackmail.
The pair were only released when the members of Staff Benda Bilili led a pack of storming paraplegics to charge the police station shouting “Give us back our whites!”.
