A video about bomba music and dancing was the perfect way to show off a community artist-in-residence ethnomusicology program at the University of Washington School of Music. Bomba, taught and demonstrated in this video by Puerto Rican dancer and musician Amarilys Ríos, is visualized as a conversation between the dancer and lead drummer, where the drummer tries to match the movements of the dancer, supported by a chorus of other percussion and vocalists.
From the Judges
An entry that for many of us truly embodied the essence of shoestring production. The video presents and educates the viewer about a musical genre, and the music itself serves as the soundtrack. Shot with a single camera and using natural sounds, the video feels like a small documentary piece that captures the community around the bomba dance form. Rios is both the narrator and the key dancer in the video. Simple, honest, and unpretentious with a solid production quality, this is in many ways the embodiment of what a good shoestring budget project should be.
