MARTIN Cradick and Su Hart, founder members of global fusion band Baka Beyond, will be presenting a film screening at The Lamb Inn, Sandford on Sunday, March 26.

“Forest Voices Tour”, a film by Davey Poremba, is a documentary about Orchéstre Baka Gbiné, a band of Baka Pygmy musicians from the Cameroon rainforest, travelling far across their forest to perform to displaced Baka communities.

Martin and Su have been working with the Baka musicians for 25 years.

Using money raised from the sale of Baka music they set up the charity Global Music Exchange (GME) in the 1990s.

GME works both to help the Baka adjust to their changing world, and fights for their rights to continue living a traditional lifestyle in their forest.

The Baka are hunter-gatherers living in the forests of South-East Cameroon. Their forest home is a world of natural sounds where to listen is to ensure survival.

Over thousands of years their culture has become extraordinarily musical, song and dance permeate their lives for ritual, for fun, and to unite and create harmony within the group. But their traditional lifestyle is being denied them as they are being forced out of their forest home to live in roadside villages.

Here they face extreme poverty, discrimination and exploitation, and are made ashamed of their forest traditions.

In December 2015 GME took a group of Baka musicians around other Baka villages to collect their voices - The Forest Voices Tour. After playing a concert they showed films in the Baka language that encouraged the Baka villagers to speak to camera.

Now, for the first time, their voices can be heard. With funding and by showing the film in the Cameroon it is hoped that local respect increases for these amazing musical people. Hopefully avoiding further exploitation.

This is the film of this unique tour . . .Watch the trailer at: www.forestvoices.com .

The film starts at 7pm and admission will be £6.

There will also be a Question and Answer session and a live music element to the event.

Alan Quick