Senegalese musician and storyteller Ablaye Cissoko works to preserve his people's oral traditions.

It is an ordinary afternoon for young Mabo Keïta, at home, in Burkina Faso (West Africa). While his parents are taking a nap, he reads a schoolbook on the front porch when a stranger - an elderly man carrying his own hammock - appears for an unexpected visit. It turns out that the old man is a griot, a West African musician/entertainer whose performances include tribal histories and genealogies. The position of a griot is a time-honored one and passed down from father to son for many generations.

Daouda is a father from Senegal living in France. Malik, his son, wants to marry Mariama. A meeting beetween the families is organized around a meal. Daouda discovers that the families are from two different social castes: his is griot, and the other family’s is noble.

Through testimonies by Peter Brook, Jean-Claude Carriere, Jean-Pierre Guigane, and Sotigui Kouyate himself, SOTIGUI KOUYATE: A MODERN GRIOT dresses the portrait of one of Africa's greatest actor now based in Paris. From Africa to Europe, the film unveils the multiple facets of Sotigui Kouyate, actor, musician and modern griot.

A series of precipitous events force the ensemble cast into a fateful intersection with justice and violence. Griot and the community struggle against the errors of terror so many make when it seems all is lost.

What is a griot? Historically, they are wandering African musicians considered to be a repository of the oral tradition. This film focuses on a master drummer, Adame Drama of Burkina Faso, a descendant of a long line of griots. He is a contemporary griot whose mission in life is to preserve his heritage and pass it on to the next generation. Resisting the lure of monetary rewards of an artistic career in Europe, Adame has elected to remain in his country and for forty years has pursued his music there. This colorful film is filled with music and dance as we see him perform on stage with other musicians and in celebrations on the streets and in courtyards. He reveals the secrets of his instrument and of his style of playing. Above all, he is a proud African who had rejected cultural colonialism in favor of maintaining his identity and that of his art.

A shy but skilled storyteller comes to blows with his best friend who tries to take credit for his tales and win the heart of the woman they both love.

An ordinary day in an African village like any other. Until a song resounds. It reminds the Griot, an old tailor, of an old story about a drought. Passers-by stop to listen as he brings the story to life. Life in the village comes to a halt for a moment.

Barbara McCullough‘s newest film, Horace Tapscott: Musical Griot, is a profound meditation on the importance of the black tradition to the music, art, history, and activism of Los Angeles and beyond. Horace Tapscott was an underappreciated musical genius and community activist deeply involved in one the most exciting periods of Los Angeles jazz history. Black-listed in the 1960s and ‘70s because of his political affiliations (his “Arkestra” was the band of choice to perform at political rallies), during the Watts Rebellion of 1965, police actually shut down his performances, accusing him of inciting people to riot with his music. Horace Tapscott: Musical Griot tells his story in the manner of a griot, or story-teller, who in West African societies maintain the legacy, knowledge, and history of their group traditions in oral form.

A Nigerian traditionalist who draws his inspiration from bird warbling to compose music to accompany his verse chronicles.