Waila! Making the People Happy

MID-LENGTH DOC

Waila!  Making the People Happy

Director: Daniel Golding
Filmmaker in person Waila is the best-kept musical secret of the desert southwest. Also called Chicken Scratch, Waila is the dance music of the Tohono O'odham/ Pima tribe in Southern Arizona and a form of "traditional music" one would not expect, derived as it is from the mazurkas, polkas and schottisches of Central Europe as well as cumbias from Columbia. The evolution of this fun and lively music since the 1870s, as it adopted different styles and instruments, is told through the Joaquin family, four generations of Waila musicians. Through their musical lives we see Waila as a testament to the resilience and adaptive abilities of native communities as they take what is given them and make it their own. Above all, Waila music is about making the people happy. Get happy, people. See this film. (2005, 57 min.)
Showing: May 18, 2pm, MTC