Chai Vasarhelyi on Youssou N’Dour: What I Bring Is Love
Filmed over a period of five years, Youssou N’Dour: What I Bring Is Love is a fascinating documentary brimming with life and powerful music. Chronicling the life and work of Senegalese musician and world music icon Youssou N’Dour as he weathers storms of professional and artistic controversy over his 2004 album Egypt. A departure from his typically ebullient, rhythmic style, the collection of Muslim devotionals caused quite a stir in his home country while proving to be a massive hit abroad, eventually landing a Grammy Award. Filmmaker Chai Vasarhelyi set out to create a portrait of this towering figure in African culture and was able to capture on film the triumphs and battles N’Dour faced during this time. What results is an intriguing personal portrait and record of some of the finest musical performances captured on film yet. I had the pleasure of speaking with Chai about this project and what follows is much of that conversation.
IFQ: How did you first come into contact with Youssou’s music and what were your impressions of him both as an artist as well as a human being?
Chai Vasarhelyi: Well, I have to admit regrettably that I only discovered his music later in the music-discovery period of my life; I came to it only about six months before I made the film. I grew up with world music though, my father is Hungarian and Brazilian but I grew up more with the Brazilian music. Basically, I was interested in making an uplifting film about Africa and I thought that music was one of the ways through which to do that. So from that point, I started looking at some prominent African artists and Youssou was on the top of that list. When I first saw Youssou live at Carnegie Hall, it was kind of like a spiritual experience to watch him perform live no matter what he’s singing ; just the sound of his voice is explosive, even if you don’t understand the words there’s something life-affirming if not ecstatic about it.
IFQ: How was the process of putting together the actual production, i.e. raising the funding, crew, equipment, etc.? Was there any particular struggle that you were faced with and if so what were they?
CV: (laughs) More like are there any particular struggles you didn’t face, I mean the film took five years to make. I think, physically, shooting overseas in Africa was very challenging, and taking on a subject of such stature and breadth as Youssou is a very ambitious thing for an independent documentary period. There were the technical demands of doing justice to this music in these big concert scenes that on a modest independent film budget are essentially impossible to cover. As well as shooting in these environments, like Africa, where you couldn’t really control the situation; it’s not like we could set up shots when he was writing. We never did.
With the financing we were very lucky in the beginning. Someone stopped me at a concert at Joe’s Pub and said “who’s making this film? I’d love to finance it.” That was a miracle, I don’t think that would happen today given the economy but five years ago it did happen and that’s how we got our initial financing. The budget started at one number and then tripled though over five years. In the beginning, it started out where I would record the audio and then worked with some excellent cinematographers. I never went to film school, but I knew that and I always look for people whose work I really respect and ask them to work with me. So on the cinematographer side there was Nick Doob, Jojo Pennebaker, and Scott Duncan who are three world class cinematographers. Nick had shot with DA Pennebaker for most of his life and is one of the finest music cinematographers I know as well as one of the best cinema verite cinematographers. He just has an ease in these sometimes rather tense environments, like being these Americans amongst these religious pilgrimages or even the crowds which were quite intimidating often with this African rock star; we were able to negotiate this stuff even if we were a small crew.
And we were sponsored by a lot of people like over at Aaton, which is more famous for their film cameras. They have this great digital recorder and because they’re a French company they definitely knew of Youssou’s work and that it was really important to record it properly. So I had one of their engineers literally train me in France and then they sponsored us our recording equipment, which meant we could have great recordings even in the middle of the desert. In terms of our camera, we always shot with a big camera and there were just two of us. So it was always very challenging because of the financial situation.
IFQ: The film has a very intimate quality to it, a real cinema verite, fly on the wall feel and I know that for a period of time you lived in Senegal with his family, how was that particular experience and in what way do you feel that it may have either helped or possibly hurt the production if at all?
CV: I don’t think I would have made it honestly without them (laughs). Youssou could only speak for himself, in terms of the inclusion of his family in the actual film it was something he really wanted them each to agree to. So it was through that I really got to know them, and his family is so important to Youssou that it was just a turning point in the production when they welcomed me and agreed that this something they wanted to participate in. They embraced us and really the whole production by looking out for us. He works with a lot of his family and is always with them, so it was one of the reasons we were able to survive as two people was because everyone else was helping out like looking out for us , i.e. to make sure we had our passes to get into the holy city, in terms of the customs where his sisters really helped me figure it out, and taught me a lot about the traditions and the context of their lives. I think it was a way I could identify with him personally as well; I think with family there’s certain universal things that no matter where you live in the world you connect with, family and faith are two of them and there’s also love. And since the film’s been done, he’s come to have Thanksgiving dinner at my home in New York.
IFQ: One of the more breathtaking sequences I found is the Grand Magal journey, which is essentially equivalent to the Hajj pilgrimage in terms of importance religiously to Senegalese Muslims. I’m curious to know how you were able to get so much in-depth footage in an environment that I’m sure probably wasn’t conducive to outsiders, much less outsiders filming everything?
CV: Well, we filmed that pilgrimage three times; the first time when Youssou was still in the middle of the controversy and it was very important to appear that we weren’t associated with him. And so, he said “go film this pilgrimage and discover it for yourself.” At the time I was frustrated by that because all I thought was “how are we going to get in here? We need someone.” But he wasn’t the right person at the time. So we kind of then just got in a car, having no idea of what would happen, and again it was the kindness of others where we were welcomed and people were very curious. It got to the point where I was interviewed by the Touba newspaper, where I kept on saying that we were there because it was important to show these images to the rest of the world and here you are going on this pilgrimage to celebrate essentially a pacifist leader.
I think that was compelling for people but then on just a fundamental level, when we went back three times, the second time which was the next year, the people there basically said “oh? You’re back.” So there was a trust there and then by the third time we were all best friends (laughs). I mean the caretaker of the mosque knows us well, I was always dressed in traditional clothing and we got to know people. I think that that’s how you get that access to these places. And it’s not just a Muslim matter; I don’t think that you could walk into a Vatican high service and decide to film all over the place and hang off the church tower. It was a trust that was built over time, building relationships with this common understanding that there is an importance in sharing this story. But Youssou, when he saw the film at the end and saw the quality of the footage we shot, was shocked. He always knew we had access and filmed in Touba itself, but when everyone there saw it they just thought that it was breathtaking.
IFQ: The first half of the film present Youssou’s earlier more boisterous, popular pop songs full of exuberance and then as he creates the Egypt album with its resultantly more devout lyrics and arrangements the tone changes decidedly. What were your impressions of the Egypt album as he was fashioning it as you were able to compare it to what he was doing up to that time?
CV: Well, it was a completely different musical style and that’s jarring for anyone familiar with his other his Mbalax music. In term of my own personal response, I knew it was very personal to Youssou, his most personal album. And there’s something in the space that it gives his voice that seemed very liberating for him. I think too that Don’t Look Back was one of my inspirations for the film where you watched an artist go through a real turning point in his career and artistic style. As a filmmaker, it’s very rare to see someone actually evolve in front of your camera. Watching Youssou begin this Egypt project allowed me to observe these Senegalese and Egyptian musicians and Youssou discover and figure out how to communicate and make this music. I think what I saw in Youssou was that there was so much more space for his voice and a certain freedom, because I think this is something he always wanted to do and that was very fulfilling. He really sings from the heart in those songs because they’re devotionals. But I think what is deceiving about the recorded album is that it’s very different from what they actually performed, where you would see a lot of percussion and more of a relationship to the Mbalax music he plays. It’s a beautiful live show, very lively and as you can see in the film everyone is dancing along.
IFQ: I personally found it ironic that while Western audiences embraced the Egypt album’s music and message seemingly, it wasn’t until Youssou won the Grammy that his own people finally changed their minds and began to listen. How do you account for the sudden change? A certain bestowing of legitimacy that suddenly made it fine to listen to? And if so, what does that say about people who beforehand accepted Youssou seemingly without anyone’s permission to do so?
CV: No one really knew what a Grammy award was so we’ll just start there. It was kind of like winning an Olympic gold medal, it was the first time this international honor was bestowed upon the Senegalese and that was such big news that it forced the recontextualization of the album where people had to now say “ok what’s the big deal here? Let’s listen to it.” There’s a scene in the film where the journalists there say “What’s the big deal here? It’s obviously not your best or most successful album.” I remember filming that and being like “how could they actually ask him that question?” (laughs) It was amazing to me. But there was a real questioning there; the Senegalese are not ignorant people.
I think that that idea of fear around the politics of religion is something we’re all experiencing and negotiating with no matter where you live right now. So I understand what happened, I don’t think it was right though. There was a lot of miscommunication, but I do think that what happened with the Grammy was that it was such a big deal that people said “what’s going on?” and finally listened to that. And when you listen to the album you understand what he was trying to do. And also you can’t underestimate the importance of when Mustapha M’Baye, the religious singer, lent his support to Youssou and decided to sing with him because he’s such a respected, religious griot and it was the first time he’d ever recorded a song on an album. So he decided to do that with Youssou and in doing so it was another key step of approval that allowed people to reconsider the album.
IFQ: As you point out in the film, when he is not out on tour, Youssou has his own nightclub and performs in it frequently. What is the general atmosphere of those performances which seem somewhat non-formal and looser versus his more formal stage productions? Is there a noticeable difference of energy between the two? Is it a place where he works out new material?
CV: Actually, Youssou releases different mixes in Senegal as opposed to abroad, there’s a different sound. It’s much more rhythmic, it’s like a Senegalese taste. And in the time five albums are released there, there’s one released abroad. And at his club, he’s been playing there forever and it’s like them (Youssou and his band) coming home. He’ll literally just walk in there, get on stage, and sing. I think that’s the real experience of Youssou N’Dour; you see him at his best and most relaxed. It is kind of like Fela Kuti’s Shrine (the famous club owned and operated by Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti), this is his home so they do work out new arrangements and they also just play to play, to enjoy themselves.
IFQ: Finally, Youssou comes from a strong Griot tradition; understanding the importance of this musical storyteller in the past, what importance would you say this traditional role has in our modern society with all the changes we face or at the very least, what would you say Youssou’s opinion on this matter would be?
CV: I think that Youssou, as his life demonstrates, would think that it’s critically important. Like the title of the film, there’s no separating these issues from the life we live. He sees his role as an artist as the same as that of an oral historian or a conscience. He lives successfully by his convictions and stands up constantly stands up for what he believes in and I think he also challenges others to do so too.
*To learn more about the film, go to www.ibringwhatilove.com
*Photos courtesy of Groovy Griot Films