I have great fun producing all kinds of movie clips, composing music and distrubting them on the web. My father, Emanuel Danstrup, was a keen Super 8 photographer, leaving hours of dull, yet interesting film from his travels as a sailor all over the world. These films are now converted to DVD and I have used them as footage for some of the clips below. Others are documentaries and yet others are excerpts from longer movies I have made about Gnawa.

Woman Cochin is one of several clips with this strange woman, who suddenly appears very briefly on the old films. I have no idea of who she is, but she has fascinated me ever since I recognized her. The original footage was taken in Cochin, India 1959 and I have used the very few seconds with the woman in several other short films. The music is for the most part Fender Bass and Fender Rhodes. Time 1:52.

Il etait also have this strange woman in a central role, this time the sound track is a manipulated french children's song. The music from my childhood is still occupying a lot of space in my mind, and this french song made a great impression on me due to it's fierce lyrics: they run out of food on the ship and ends up eating the youngest sailor on board. The lyrics are translated to Danish in the subtitles. Along with scenes from the sea, you will find cartoonized pictures of predators from the Copenhagen Zoo, running in endless circles in the empty cage. Other animals are camels and parrots - Emanuel surely loved to shoot animals. In the end you see me playing in a symbolic sea of blood. Time 1:33

 Woman - old style is actually the first of the films I made about the unknown woman, but it is also a film that features my father Emanuel Danstrup. He is rarely seen on his movies as he is usually behind the camera himself, but here we see him running on deck in uniform, and on a trip on a motorbike, where he looks really cool. There is also some color manipulated pictures of the Island of Lampedusa. The music is 1970's style. Time 1:52

Camels is the most consistent color and image manipulated film I have made. Basically the same clip is repeated and transformed. The music is bass and synthezisers and with Jacob Andersen on percussion. Time: 1:29

Ships are the main component in my father's films and he apparently loved to shoot them everywhere he went. There is also a glimpse of his stylish handwriting, which I have always tried - unsuccessfully - to copy. The music is orchestral instruments: strings and brass. Time 1:28

Skyline is a panoramic vue over the old Port of Copenhagen with some extra clips added. Again its is color manipulated and recycled. The music is Brazilian influenced, Jacob Andersen has added percussion. Time 1:46

Dreamscapes is an attempt to make a longer sequence with a dreamlike structure. Again based on my fathers shootings from the late 1950's it is mostly footage from India, showing boys who will do anything to catch your attention. There is ocean liners, elephant shows and pepole working in a primitive textile industry. The music is also a mixture of arco bass melody alternating with more electronis beats. Time 4:33

Pil is a kind of documentary, nonfictional story of the cut down of a willow tree in my back garden. The soundtrack combines the natural sounds with the moaning of the poor tree. Time 5:07

Trav is a very short documentary from a trot horse race in Copenhagen. My intention was to make some beautiful horse pictures, but I had to realize, that filming running horses is impossible... Soundtrack is manipulated sounds from the location. Time 1:03

Rikhi Ram is an exciting music store in New Delhi, famous from its relation to the Beatles, because here they bought their Indian instruments when they attended the Maharishi meditation classes in 1968. This clip however is about my friend, guitar player Mikkel Nordsø, who is buying a surbahar, a kind of bass citar. In the end of the movie you will see some interesting musicians dressed in white - also there to buy some instrument. Time 7:46

Damaskus is a short portrait of the capital of Syria. Using both popular and traditional music along with the sounds from the streets and muezzins I have tried to capture the overall impression of a very lively city. Being a gnawa music freak I was excited to learn that their most prominent ancestor, Bilal, was buried here and his grave is a place to visit for many muslims. Time 6:52

Baqbou - white is a short clip from a Lila in Marrakesh featuring the great Mustapha Baqbou, here from the White part of the Lila (=the color white with it's music and spirits). A little longer than the clip you can see at the 'Gnawa' menu of this homepage. Time 3:05

Aisawa Chant is a short clip from a Lila in Marrakesh, where the religious brotherhood Aisawa visits a Gnawa Lila. While they sing their song, a drum is prepared for playing by heating it up. Time 2:17

Gnawa trance - Red is another short clip from the same Lila in Marrakesh. Red is connected to a series of spirits, and the dancers get in contact with these through the trance. Here you can experience both the characteristic accelerando and the shifts in rhythm. Mustapha Baqbou is the sentir master musician. Time 6:02