watch the trailer [ 2 min]

When we met legendary Guinean dancer Sidiki Conde his music, moves, and story compelled us; we felt the world deserved to hear it so we made a documentary.

Due to the recent Ebola outbreak, Sidiki is traveling to Guinea to educate through music (as he does so well). He will use his local fame to raise awareness about Ebola prevention. To help him with his efforts and to give a face to one of the communities affected by this virus, we have decided to share our 60-minute documentary SiDiKi online and give it away for free for perpetuity.

http://vimeo.com/jellyfishsmack/sidiki

Download it. Share it. Watch it. Dance to it.

For those who want to help Sidiki’s Ebola education efforts in Guinea: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/music-and-art-help-spread-the-word-about-ebola#home

title:
SiDiKi

directors/producers:
Ana Paula Habib, Isaac Brown, Kathy Craven

executive producers:
Isaac Brown, Ana Paula Habib

director of photography:
Isaac Brown

editors:
Ana Paula Habib, Isaac Brown

music by:
Sidiki Conde

running time:
60 minutes

year produced:
2014

synopsis:
Running on the dusty roads of Guinea at the age of fourteen, Sidiki's legs stop working. He falls down- mysteriously paralyzed. Polio or bad spirits, nobody cures him. He falls again, but this time into a deep depression. In Guinea, as in most other cultures, there are prejudices and preconceived notions of those who are different; they blind us to the abilities that lie within.

Unwilling to accept this fate, Sidiki literally takes matters into his own hands, and in the village where he was discarded he teaches himself how to dance without legs. Participating in the rite-of-passage ceremony of his village (to dance the traditional steps for continuous hours) Sidiki becomes a man, changing the way his people view those labeled as disabled. A grown man, Sidiki Conde is now revered in his native country as a master of music and dance, and his life's work is to empower people all over the world to accept their own abilities and feel free to dance as they are.

This feature-length documentary SiDiKi takes the audience on a journey from Sidiki's current home in New York City's East Village to the Guinean village of Mancellia that awakened his spirit through dance. The journey is dotted with multiple stops in small towns and villages that welcome Sidiki. Those with disabilities come out of hiding and flock to Sidiki's message of hope. Paralleling this journey is the transformation of students from the Brookville Center for Children's Services who are learning to cope with their own disabilities by finding their inner rhythm through dancing in one of Sidiki's week-long workshops.

They struggle to see beyond their limitations, but over time, they are strengthened by the power of self-acceptance and freedom of movement. SiDiKi is shot with a sensitive cinema vérité lens with music original to Sidiki and his band highlighted throughout. Notably, one of the goals of the film is to raise awareness of the powerful affect dance and the arts have on the human spirit.

At the same time, SiDiKi illuminates the plight of the disabled in Guinea and around the world, it speaks to the universal themes of perseverance and triumph. SiDiKi challenges societies' preconceptions on disabilities and stimulates the audience to find their own courageous rhythm; it confronts our intolerance toward those who are atypical, opening our eyes to the truth that ability is born from within, not from body, and that we each move to a beat of our own.