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Zemp, Hugo. 1979. 'Are'are Music and Shaping Bamboo. (Number 1).

This title is now available on DVD from Documentary Educational Resources (DER). SEM members are entitled to a 50% discount for Home Use. For information and orders, please see http://www.der.org/films/are-are.html.

The films 'Are'are Music and Shaping Bamboo, by Hugo Zemp, are fascinating portraits of the traditional musical culture of the 'Are'are people of the Solomon Islands. These films detail the performance of traditional and vocal music and the making of musical instruments. French ethnomusicologist and film maker Hugo Zemp spent several years researching and documenting panpipe, slitdrum, and stamping tubes, as well as women's and men's singing in solo and ensemble groups, at a time when the traditional forms of expression were being threatened by the importation of alien music. Commentary is in 'Are'are with English subtitles by Hugo Zemp.

Blacking, John. 2002. Domba 1956-1958: A personal record of Venda initiation rites, songs & dances. Includes study guide. VHS tape. $15.00 for members / $25.00 for all non-members. (Number 2).
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Between 1956 and 1958 John Blacking conducted the fieldwork among the Venda people of the Northern Transvaal, South Africa, on which his later international reputation as an ethnomusicologist was built. The film Domba is one of the products of that engagement with Venda lives, providing a vivid impression of girls' initiation rites as practiced in the 1950s that augments and informs Blacking's other Venda texts. Filmed and edited by John Blacking, with voice-over commentary by John Blacking. Includes a study guide by John Bailey and Andrée Grau.

Pettan, Svanibor. 2015. Kosovo through the Eyes of the Local Romani (Gypsy) Musicians. DVD with Study Guide. (Number 3) Members/non-members: $18.80 ($16.30 + $2.50 shipping)  ORDER NOW

Kosovo through the Eyes of Local Romani (Gypsy) Musicians provides an alternative view of the Balkan region of Kosovo from the usual media coverage that is typically limited to examinations of the mutually conflicting interests of ethnic Albanians and ethnic Serbs. Because Romani musicians are able and willing to perform music of various origins and styles, they enjoyed the status of superior specialists in Kosovo until the 1990s. They successfully adapted to the multiethnic, multireligious, and multilingual reality of Kosovo and served various audiences in both rural and urban settings. The documentary film that this study guide accompanies presents five characteristic types of Romani ensembles in Kosovo, four sources of the musical repertoire of a single semi-nomadic Romani community, creative localization of a selected tune of foreign origin ("Lambada”) by various Kosovo Romani ensembles, and the response of Romani musicians to the challenge of increasing political tensions in Kosovo in the early 1990s. The footage was filmed by Svanibor Pettan, Ph.D. in the course of his fieldwork in the period between 1984 to1991. Professor and Chair of the ethnomusicology program at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, Dr. Pettan is the author of many contributions dedicated to the legacy of Romani musicians in Kosovo, including books, articles, a CD-ROM, and a picture exhibition.