Kuduro NYC (2013)

S part of a global activation produced by Jeff Oppenheim (American) and Coreon Du (African) centered around the contemporary African music and dance known as Kuduro (short for "hard ass" in Portuguese), students from Brooklyn, Queens and Luanda (Angola, Africa) push past geographical boundaries to explore and learn of each other's culture. The short documentary was envisioned by the Producers as a peer-on-peer documentary. It chronicles the cross-cultural exchange between the three high schools. It starts with the initial vision of the American music teacher, Ian Foster Jones (of Young Voices) visiting Angola and learning of this new beat. Through working with students in the high school in Luanda, Mr. Jones is able to bring the basics home to his high school in Brooklyn where he engages the students in a beat making program. It is here that the students learn the rhythms and eventually even must create lyrics for the songs. The student creative work is then shared with a visiting crew of dancers and beat makers who help bring it to life in concert at the two NYC schools. Together they share music, dance, laughter and in the process learn all about each other's cultures.