Griot. 2012. Directed by Volker Goetze, video, colour, 82 minutes. Distributed by Volker Goetze on www.volkergoetze.com - The Voice of the Kora. 2010. Directed by Claudine Pommier, video, colour, 45 minutes. Distributed by Claudine Pommier, steinpom@shaw.ca

treatment. For this reason, these films make excellent supplementary teaching aids. As stand-alone materials for the lay audience, on the other and, they are somewhat less suitable in that the authors opted for taking background information for granted. Their archival value, finally, could have been more substantial if subjects were given the opportunity to narrate their own stories and expand on to the dialectics that underpin their role as torch-bearers of old traditions in a fast-changing environment.