Post by Johan R. Nayar

Greetings from Philadelphia, NYC tomorrow! Here's a little update... One of the books that most inspired my younger self was On The Road. I read it not long after my own first road adventure from Mumbai, first south, then north and up to the Himalaya. And from there down to Delhi and over to South East Asia — with similar vibes to the novel. With all of that in mind, it was strangely nostalgic watching 'Kerouac's Road' (doc) on the flight over the Atlantic. For me, my first feature, The Banjo Boys, carries much of that energy. Instead of 1950s jazz, you have the vibrant music of Madalitso Band. Like Kerouac, we did also head out West, to Cali, but our South was not Mexico, but Southern Africa. We spent time filming in Malawi as well as a few moments out East to Tanzania and Zanzibar. And instead of Neal Cassidy, you have Neil Nayar, (perhaps only three quarters as crazy as his predecessor) . Instead of one continuous scroll of paper, we had an iMac and 5TB Western Digital hard drives. One of the things I've most loved about making it is that It's definitely a road movie. The irony in all of this is the band themselves are no fans of being 'on the road'. Perhaps I too would become jaded after tours as long as 80 shows. "The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars..."  - Jack Kerouac. The band themselves too were called mad, for their love of music, but pursued it anyway. Just a few weeks back they were flown out to New York for a single show in the Glasshouse. And in two days, our film will screen in the city too as we continue to follow in the footsteps of Madalitso Band and their manager, Neil. Tim Delhaes Gary Phillips Satesh M. Mukwae Wabei Dilo van Commenée Stuart Marshall #musicdocumentary #adiff #africanmusic #malawi

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