Radio Interview: the Jefferson Exchange

While at the Ashland Independent Film Festival in Oregon last April, director Roger Ross Williams was a guest at the Jefferson Exchange,on Jefferson Public Radio.

Listen to the very interesting interview right here:

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Tags | Ashland, Jefferson Exchange, public radio, Radio interview

Huffington Post: voices to be heard, in harmony

Shantha Rau Barriga, a researcher and advocate for disability rights for Human Rights Watch, wrote this interesting piece on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), for the Huffington Post:

The documentary film, Music by Prudence, tells the story of a young Zimbabwean woman born with a congenital disease that twisted her body and led to the amputation of her legs. Prudence Mabhena was abandoned by her family and shunned by her community, yet through music, she found a way to share her story and advocate for change. In February, the film won an Oscar and Prudence became a national hero.

It would be nice to say that Prudence’s story provides a human face for persons with disabilities, a majority of whom – over 80 percent of the world’s 680 million or more persons with disabilities – live in developing nations. Certainly, the challenges faced by Prudence — stigma and discrimination, abandonment, barriers to education and health care – are often faced by persons with disabilities worldwide and are made even more difficult in impoverished countries that lack infrastructure and many services. Unfortunately her triumph is uncommon. Read more…

Tags | Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, CRPD, Human Rights Watch, Shantha Rau Barriga

Interview: upstaged during his big moment with Oscar

The Philadelphia Inquirer published a recent interview with director and producer Roger Ross Williams, on his film, Prudence, and on getting Kanyed:

As Roger Ross Williams says, laughing about it in hindsight, he holds two records in the annals of the Academy Awards. One – and this is the important one – is that he’s the first African American to win a directing Oscar, for his documentary short, “Music by Prudence.”

And two, he is the first Oscar winner to be Kanyed when he stepped up to accept his award.

Sure, there have been random Oscar-speech hijackings over the academy’s 82 years – but they were before the verb to Kanye entered the lexicon, inspired by Kanye West’s obnoxious interruption of Taylor Swift’s Video Music Awards acceptance spiel last fall. Read more…

Tags | getting Kanyed, interview, Philadelphia Inquirer, Prudence Mabhena, Roger Ross Williams

Review: Like Artie from ‘Glee’, ‘Music by Prudence’ star won’t bow to limitations when it comes to music

A glowing review for Music by Prudence appeared in New York’s Daily News:

“Music by Prudence,” which on the surface looks to be the story of a plucky African girl who loves to sing, turns out to be all that and a lot more.

If you love “Glee” and you especially love Kevin McHale’s Artie Abrams character, the one in the wheelchair, Prudence Mabhena is in several ways a real-life Artie.

She shares his exuberance, his love of music and his dedication to performing it well without bowing to physical limitations.

It’s only in all the other areas that Prudence’s real life differs from Artie’s life. Prudence has climbed mountains to get where she is today, and she will have to climb even higher mountains to get where she wants to go. Read more…

Tags | daily news, review

Prudence and Roger on NPR’s Morning Edition

A week after the Oscar event in LA, Prudence went back to Zimbabwe. But as the HBO premiere of the documentary is nearing Prudence is back in the US! She’s already been in Bethlehem, PA; Baltimore, MD; Washington, DC; and New York City. And this morning she could have been in your car, on your way to work, anywhere in the US. Prudence Mabhena and director and producer Roger Ross Williams were guests at NPR’s Morning Edition. You can listen to Renee Montagne’s interview with them right here:

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Tags | interview, Morning Edition, NPR, Prudence Mabhena, Roger Ross Williams