Slam Video Maputo

The media artist and film-maker Ella Raidel´s work addresses issues of perception and of the strategies of self-analysis in image production. For this she opts for a socio-political approach and an idiom that oscillates between a documentary and a more pictorial rendering. In her new works she takes a glance at what happens off-stage in the world of media production and reminds us of the general conditions. This making-of of music videos in Maputo, Mozambique, highlights the cultural practice of African popular music, which continues to be influenced by gansta rap, hip.hop, poetry slam and traditional music, and its economic and political dimensions. Raidel´s report on the production of music videos is cast in a globally current pictorial language that can span the gap between the glamour of this particular business and the realities of Africa. She succeeds apparently effortlessly in establishing a rapport with the protagonists, who are aware of her camera without letting it show. The viewing direction of the performers on stage is never towards her camera, so in a way they are always "off", i.e. outside the focus of the picture. Scenes that are captured casually during the production of the music videos are assigned the same priority as what goes on on-stage: the protagonists during technical checks, rehearsals of dance acts outside the stage setting, background dancers, who seldom get much attention in the normal course of things, and events altogether outside the production process are all given the same treatment.
Ella raidel, Julia Stoff