The story of the making of Paul Simon’s ‘Graceland’ and the controversy
created when Simon
went to South Africa to record with local artists, is told in ‘Under African
Skies’, the new fulllength documentary from two-time Emmy and Peabody Award
winning filmmarker Joe
Berlinger. ‘Under African Skies’ travels with Paul Simon back to South
Africa 25 years after his
first visit. Simon revisits the making of the record, surveying from the vantage
of history the
turbulence and controversy surrounding the album’s genesis. His artistic
decision to
collaborate with African musicians created a new world musicial fusion,
combining American
and African musical idioms while igniting and intense political crossfire with
Paul Simon
accused of breaking the UN cultural boycott of South Africa designed to end the
Apartheid
regime.
