On Nov. 2, ETSU’s Mary B. Martin School of the Arts screened its third independent film of the semester from the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers titled “Fandango at the Wall”.
The film follows Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra founder and conductor Arturo O’Farrill and Kabir Sehgal, where they meet and make music with the world’s top son jarocho musicians, ending in a performance at the border wall between Mexico and the United States.
“Our film shows how the border can become a place of friendship and amity by harnessing the power of Afro-Mexican music known as son jarocho,” said Sehgal. “I’ve been making music for decades, and I’ve never experienced a more enveloping and transformative art form.”
In the film, O’Farrill and Sehgal travel around Mexico learning about the history and culture traditions behind son jarocho. During their culminating performance at the boarder wall, they record a live album with the band they built along their journey.
This film was screened as part of the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers, which is a program from South Arts, a regional arts organization with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Each semester the Mary B. Martin School of the Arts screens three of the independent films from the tour, which are then followed by a short Q&A session with the filmmaker or the subject of the film, offering a unique look into the process and thoughts behind the film.
“It was wonderful to have a glimpse into families that pass the tradition of son jarocho down through generations—not all that different from the way music traditions of Appalachia are often shared,” said Anita DeAngelis, director of the Mary B. Martin School of the Arts. “I could almost taste the food that was served during gatherings, smell the odors of the arid landscape and feel the texture of the different, colorful clothes people were wearing or the instruments some crafted in their workshops.”
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