Last month, Prudence and the film were featured on Spotlight Radio. Spotlight Radio is a great source for people who want to learn English. It’s is a daily 15 minute radio program that uses a special English method of broadcasting. They use fewer words, slower speed, and shorter sentences.

People can listen to Spotlight Radio online, on public radio stations, and in school classes.

Listen to the Spotlight broadcast on Music by Prudence right here.

Music by Prudence > Oscar winning documentary by Roger Ross Williams, Spotlight on Prudence

Music by Prudence has been nominated for an Emmy in Outstanding Music and Sound! Congratulations to sound mixer Chris Bertolotti, music producer Ted Mason, and music engineer Joseph Colmenero, and of course to the musical geniuses of the band Liyana, and to their star singer, Prudence Mabhena.

The 32nd Annual News & Documentary Emmy® Awards Ceremony will be held at September 26, 2011.

Click here to see all the nominations.

Music by Prudence > Oscar winning documentary by Roger Ross Williams, Nominated for an Emmy!

The Zimbabwe Times reports about the arrival of Prudence Mabhena, star of Music by Prudence, back in Zimbabwe:

BULAWAYO – Oscar winning disabled musician Prudence Mabhena brought Bulawayo to a standstill when she arrived from the United States on Monday afternoon.

Hundreds of residents, who included politicians from both the MDC and Zanu-PF and the Mayor Patrick Thaba-Moyo, thronged Bulawayo Airport to welcome Mabhena, who landed at 1pm aboard a South Africa Airways flight.

Zimbabwe enjoyed its first taste of Oscar glory two weeks ago when the film ‘Music by Prudence’ won the Best Short Documentary at the 2010 Oscar Academy Awards in US.
Music by Prudence documents Mabhena’s life. She is a 22-year-old from Bulawayo who is crippled by arthrogryposis, a congenital disorder that affected her arms and legs.
She is the lead singer of her band, Liyana.

“I am very proud to win the Oscar Award,” Mabhena told journalists. “The award is not only for me but for my band, Liyana, and for all Zimbabweans. We have proved that disability is not inability.”

Mabhena said she and her band were returning to US in May to feature on the popular Opprah Winfrey show.

“After winning the award I was hosted by Opprah and musician Mariah Carey,” she said. “I am actually going back to the US in May with my band for a show with Opprah.”

From the airport, Mabhena’s car joined a convoy of vehicles stretching almost one kilometre heading to the City Hall where many city residents waited to welcome her.

Her father Herbert Mabhena, who travelled all the way from Jambezi area in Matabeleland North to welcome his daughter, could not hold back his tears when she arrived.
“I am very proud of you my daughter, you have made a great person,” he said.

Mabhena’s group Liyana was formed at Bulawayo’s King George IV School for the disabled and was discovered by Zimbabwe-born Leslie Goldwasser.
Now based in the United States, Goldwasser liked their music and Prudence’s life story while on a visit to Zimbabwe, leading to the group’s first tour of the United States where they performed at the Apollo Theatre in December last year.

Mayor Thaba-Moyo said the city was proud of Mabhena and her group.
“We feel great about what you did,” said Thaba-Moyo. “You have put Bulawayo and Zimbabwe on the world map and we are going to honour you for that.”

Souce: The Zimbabwe Times

Music by Prudence > Oscar winning documentary by Roger Ross Williams, Zimbabwe Times: Hero’s Welcome for Oscar Award Winner

The Oscar win last Sunday has been such a great gift. Not just for me, my crew, and HBO, for having made the film we wanted to make, but most of all for Prudence, her band Liyana, and the King George VI school for Children with Disabilities in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Prudence and her band members are disabled. She was abandoned and seen as a curse by the members of her family, and she has conquered so much and offers the world so much with her beautiful music.

When I started this project, I was very interested in making a film in Africa, yet I didn’t want to make a film about misery, war, or aids. I wanted to tell a story of hope.

My film focuses on a band of disabled kids, and the school they’re in. But I knew even before I went there, that the film had to have a central character, and it was obvious it would be Prudence. It became more obvious when I met her. Oh my God, I thought, she’s charismatic and brilliant, and engaging. She’s a very independent person, and she prides herself in doing what she can. But there are limitations. She gets frustrated by her challenges: going to the bathroom, eating, rolling down roads marked by potholes.

During our first interview Prudence told me things about her childhood that she never told anyone before. She cried, and I cried. In the process of being interviewed: you become self-reflective; it’s like being in therapy. She couldn’t wait to tell her story. Nobody had ever heard her story before, or asked. Afterwards, I went to the place where I was staying. I cried and cried and cried. I was just devastated. I was so moved by her strength, her ability to get beyond the moment when she was at her lowest. I was determined to get her story out there, and tell it to the world.

Being nominated for an Oscar really is a wonderful experience. Getting this huge platform for a film that started out on such a small scale, always having believed in the strong story it could tell, is just so rewarding. It opens doors.

I really hope this Oscar opens doors for Prudence, for her band Liyana, and for all the kids at KG VI, and I will do anything I can to make that happen.

Thanks, everyone, for your incredible support! And thank you Prudence, for showing us your beautiful soul, and sharing your wonderful talent. I love you.

Roger Ross Williams

Music by Prudence > Oscar winning documentary by Roger Ross Williams, Thank you, Prudence!