Raving Irish Review

Last night Music by Prudence screened at the Gala opening of the first annual International Disability Film Festival, Abära, organized by Arts & Disability Ireland.

Darren Mooney, winner of “best pop-culture blog” Irish Blog Awards, gave the film a raving review. Here are some highlights:

“Music by Prudence is an absolutely fascinating documentary from director Roger Ross Williams, looking at the band Liyana, fronted by Prudence Mabhena. The thirty-three minute documentary does a wonderfully effective job giving us a snapshot into the Zimbabwean band, composed of faculty and students from the King George VI Centre and School for Children with Physical Disabilities. The runtime is remarkably short, but Williams compensates by giving us a whirlwind introduction to the band’s lead singer, who has enough charm and wit to carry a far longer documentary. The band themselves provide a beautiful soundtrack, and there’s talk of them releasing two albums off the back of the film’s success.”
Read more…

Tags | Abära, Darren Mooney, review

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