His song is rough, but it’s music to the ears of Sonia Ferreira, the “mother” of more than 50 orphaned and abandoned children in the war-decimated town of Huambo, Angola. In Angola, a burgeoning heavy metal scene is pushing its way to the public consciousness, with screamed and growled lyrics of pain helping to ease the past horrors of the country’s nearly 30-year civil strife. Ferreira is the ringleader, battling technical and cultural obstacles to bring bands across Angola together for the first national rock concert in 2011 and every year since. By day, she cares for her children in a bombed-out milk factory that hosts her orphanage, Okutiuka. When the sun sets, she listens to her boyfriend, Wilker Flores, rock out on his guitar; encourages young musicians to sing their stories; and dreams of the rise of heavy metal in Angola’s music scene.
A new documentary called Death Metal Angola follows the two orphanage caretakers and their vision of bringing rock and heavy metal to the stage in Angola with a festival of bands from all across the country. The film is the first feature-length documentary for director Jeremy Xido, and will open this Saturday at the DOC NYC film festival.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/15/death-metal...
This looks cool. I know the Vice magazine is generally held in low regard as far as reportage goes (among other reasons) but I remember seeing a few clips of their coverage of an Iraqi metal band called Acrassicauda, which looked promising. Apparently the full length documentary is available on their website.
In a war-torn impoverished country, my guess is that a nice amp/guitar is an extremely valuable thing. Seems like it could be a really cool doc. -A window in to a scene I would otherwise know nothing about.