A film by Lavinia Currier Based on the memoir by Louis ... - FDb.cz

James executive produced, wrote and directed Comedy Central’s Web series The Handlers starring Emmy
Award Winner, Bryan Cranston. James has directed episodes for such dramatic television series
as Army Wives, Land’s End, Highlander, and The New Adventures of Robin Hood. James has Executive
Produced Reality series such as CBC’s All For One with Debbie Travis, ABC’s Greg Behrendt’s Wake Up
Call, NBC’s The Restaurant, Fox’s The Casino which he co-created, and NBC’s Meet Mister Mom which
he created. James has also senior produced the hit-reality CBS series Survivor and NBC’s Apprentice for
which he received three Emmy nominations. James started his career as Louis Malle's assistant and became
his editor on the documentary God's Country and feature <strong>film</strong> Alamo Bay. James Bruce currently lives in
Santa Monica, California.
CHRIS BERRY – MUSIC
Chris Berry is a California native who discovered his passion for African music in private study
with a Congolese drummer, Tiro Sampa. At 19, he accompanied his teacher home to Brazzaville, Congo.
His fascination with mbira (thumb piano) music soon led him to Zimbabwe where he settled and studied
under mbira master Monderek Muchena for ten years. Berry became one of the first westerners to be
accepted among the elder mbira masters and to earn the title of Gwenyambira or “one whose music calls the
spirits.” Berry has achieved international recognition as a master dancer and musician of the mbira and the
ngoma drum of the Shona people of southern Africa.
Chris married a Zimbabwean woman and together formed the banD Panjea in 1991, which
successfully toured until four members died in Zimbabwe’s AIDS epidemic. Yet the band’s legacy lives
on as Chris continues to work with the surviving members and to promote the Panjea Foundation for
Cultural Education established in 1998 to facilitate music education and cultural exchange. His record
sales have reached platinum album levels in southern Africa.
In composing the score for OKA!, Barry spent over two weeks performing night and day with
various combinations of over one hundred Bayaka pygmies from Yandombe village in the Central African
Republic. His co-musicians ranged in age from three to 90 years old. He then returned home to integrate
over one hundred hours of recordings. With the help of musicologist Louis Sarno who has lived with the
Bayaka for over 25 years, Berry showcased their unique musical genius that integrates powerful human
emotions and intuition into an elaborate 64-beat musical code unique to forest people.
Berry performed as a special guest on Paul Winter’s 2005 Grammy Award winning album, Silver
Solstice, and is currently collaborating with Winter on a new album, Rhythm Quest, that features songs