Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love (2009)

Synopsis: Youssou N’dour: I Bring What I Love is an uplifting, music-driven journey into the power of one man’s voice to inspire global change. The film unfolds an extraordinary moment in the life... Youssou N’dour: I Bring What I Love is an uplifting, music-driven journey into the power of one man’s voice to inspire global change. The film unfolds an extraordinary moment in the life of Youssou N’dour -- the best selling and most influential African pop artist of all time. The Grammy Award-winning cultural ambassador has long been renown for bringing people of diverse nations and backgrounds together through his collaborations with such musical superstars as Bono, Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel -- and for rousing global audiences with his honey-like voice, electrifying rhythms and impossibly catchy melodies. But when he releases his most daringly personal and spiritual album yet, N’dour instead rocks his Muslim fans in Africa. Now, even as he garners accolades in the West, N’dour must brave controversy and rejection at home as he sets out to win his audience back with the sheer transcendent optimism of his music, which moves hips and feet but also hearts and minds.

As director Chai Vasarhelyi tracks N’dour’s emotional journey over two years -- filming his ever-shifting life in Africa, Europe, and America -- she reveals why he has become an inspiration for generations. He initially releases his album Egypt in the hopes of promoting a more tolerant face of Islam. Yet, when his fellow Senegalese reject the album, and denounce it as blasphemous, he takes this as a challenge to go deeper, to reach out to those who would attack him and to work even harder to use the storytelling impact and infectious beats of his songs to unite a divided world. The resulting portrait is not just of an incomparable musician turning his spiritual quest into art, but also that of a brave new world in which pop culture now has equal power to incite fury and invite new connections.

Youssou N’dour: I Bring What I Love is the first feature-length documentary film by Chai Vasarhelyi, who also acts as a producer on the film. A Groovy Griot Film In Association with 57th & Irving Productions, the film is executive produced by Edward Tyler Nahem, Jennifer Millstone, Patrick Morris, Jack Turner, Kathryn Tucker, and Miklos C.Vasarhelyi, and co-produced by Sarah Price, Gwyn Welles, Scott Duncan, and Hugo Berkeley. The film’s cinematographers are Nick Doob (From Mao to Mozart; an Academy Award winner ® for Best Documentary Feature), Jojo Pennebaker (

The War Room), six-time Emmy ® winner Scott Duncan (Olympic Games, Survivor), and Hugo Berkeley. The film’s original score was composed by Emmy® winner Martin Davich (Trinity) and six time Academy Award ® nominee James Newton Howard (Blood Diamond). --© Official Site [More]

Starring: Youssou N'Dour

Starring: Youssou N'Dour

Director: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi

Director: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
Producer: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
Composer: Martin Davich, James Newton Howard
Studio: Shadow Distribution

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