The Politics of Art & Authenticity

I loved this movie. From a broad perspective, this documentary falls under the same category as any movie that portrays a horrific, unbelievable atmosphere. It made me think of the movie Slumdog Millionaire, another movie that I love. It made me think of other films I have seen where the characters are faced with abominable situations, but somehow find the strength to go on – a story of hope. In his film, Kinshasa Kids, Marc-Henri Wajnberg, uses music as a critical theme in setting the tone for the movie. The music, whether it is background music or live music, follows the story from beginning to end. Music plays an important part of the movie. Whether it is happy or sad, hopeful or full of despair, the music is always there, adding to the tone, making the viewer empathize with the kids’ struggle for survival. If this documentary is supposed to portray Kinshasa, make you feel like you’re a part of it, living and partaking in adventures with those kids, Wajnberg succeeded. I felt like I was really there.

The basis of the movie is a few poor, starving, ostracized kids in Kinshasa that have a dream to create a band. This dream is their hope, their reason to get up in the morning. The film chronicles the kids’ adventures, struggles, and formation of the band. Background music constantly enhances the movie and, along with the footage, helps the movie come alive. When the kids are sleeping and making sure no one is stealing from them, trying to find food, or having fun and getting the band together, the music emphasizes the extremity of the situation. Wajnberg edits the movie in a specifically stylish way. The movie feels very real, as he doesn’t employ big, fancy cameras with staged actor, but rather the real life Kinshasans on the real streets of Kinshasa. Sometimes he will zoom up close if he is running after someone, with shaky, real-life footsteps, and other times he will zoom out and film in color. He interviews real people, who speak in their own language, with subtitles. We see real Kinshasa houses, streets, people and their families. The film keeps this theme, of interviews, going back and forth between the kids’ adventures and other people living in Kinshasa.

Music does not reverse the kids’ situations. It does not try to fake the viewer into thinking the kids’ situation is really not that bad. That the kids are used it to their lives by now, and they have given up trying to deal with the reality of the situation, and now music is their only escape. Music does not detract from the severity, the reality, the point of the movie. The music shows that kids will always have a goal, no matter what. Their lives, their situations, their atmosphere will not stop that. When the kids want to make a band, they take advantage of the resources they have, and use everyday items to make their make-shift instruments.

Kids will be kids. Even when faced with abject poverty, disease, and a dim future, they will have fun, laugh, cry, play, and dream.

They will always dream.