Above and Beyond –
The Global Rise Of Afro House

Naomi Phillips | Germany | 2021 | 60′ | OV (engl. subtitles)

The starting point of the project is the collaboration between filmmaker Naomi Phillips and Aziz Sarr, booker at RISE, a series of events initiated by the Afro-House collective of the same name from Berlin, which has been organizing parties at Club Watergate since 2014. The collective’s intention is to ensure that more attention is paid to the Afro House genre. In doing so, RISE should not only be available to black people and people of color as a meeting place and safer space, but also enable others to enter into a conscious exchange with the sounds of Afro House and thus experience a more differentiated image of the cultural diversity that makes up the African continent and its populations.

Accordingly, “Above and Beyond – The Global Rise of Afro House” explores the roots of Afro House in South Africa, Kenya and Angola, among others, travels to New York – where no less than Little Louie Vega also breaks a lance for Afro House – and introduces artists* such as Hyenah, Osunlade, Thandi Draai and many, many more. It becomes clear that even in Berlin, the supposed world capital of electronic music (let alone in the rest of Germany), Afro House does not yet have the same status as in southern Africa – but also that dedicated people are working hard to change this.