A preview of the film , shot in New 91亚色 City聽and Cape Town and directed by 91亚色 anthropology and education Professor , will screen Friday, April 23 at 91亚色. The film details the life history of South African-born jazz singer Sathima Bea Benjamin.
Right: Sathima Bea Benjamin
Sathima鈥檚 Windsong traces Benjamin鈥檚 story as it unfolds through her own reflections and reminiscence and is woven together with the music she has created. It also includes the reflections of five people who know her work and the milieu which shaped it.
In her flat in the Chelsea Hotel in New 91亚色, where she has lived for 32 years, Benjamin patches together her journeys, both聽literal and figurative. Those journeys have taken her from apartheid South Africa and 鈥渢he pattern of brokenness鈥 she grew up in聽to Europe where a 
chance meeting and recording with Duke Ellington took place. From there, she was on to New 91亚色 where she started afresh and set up her own record company.
Left: Daniel Yon
鈥淎s it moves back and forth between Cape Town and New 91亚色, to the lyrics and rhythm of her music, it becomes, much like the title of her haunting song Windsong, a reflection on history, time and place, on apartheid, anti-apartheid and their legacies, as well as the passionate questions of memory, displacement and belonging,鈥 says Yon.
This is not Yon鈥檚 first effort at making an ethnographic film. 鈥淚n fact, it continues some of the themes and concerns of an earlier film, (2007), to do with memory, place, belonging, travel, identity. The qualities of Sathima Benjamin's music attracted my attention and my conversations with her revealed a fascinating history of 鈥榡ourneys',鈥 he says.
Right: Sathima Bea Benjamin performing
The film will screen from 3:30 to 5:30pm at the Nat Taylor Cinema, N102 Ross Building., Keele campus. After the preview screening, a wine and cheese reception will follow in the Founders Senior Common Room, 305 Founders College, Keele campus. Admission to the film is free.
RSVP by Tuesday, April 20, to Emily Tjimos, administrative assistant in the Faculty of Education,聽at etjimos@edu.yorku.ca or at 416-736-2100 ext. 66301.
Republished courtesy of YFile鈥 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.