Not Dead Yet

2018, 180 minutes

Late in life four forgotten giants of South African jazz are re-discovered and re-introduced to each other and to the contemporary music scene. Their wry relationship to fame, death and dying is brutal but strangely heartwarming.

Tete Mbambisa, Louis Moholo-Moholo, Gilbert Matthews and Duze Mahlobo are all long in the tooth, grizzled veterans of the South African jazz scene. Legends within the music their names mean nothing to anybody who is not a devotee of South African jazz. The film discovers where they are today, where they live, where they play (if at all) and through a gradually unfolding set of meetings between them, begins to weave a story of resilience and wry humour in the face of lives that have involved little recognition for their immense talents. Close to death all four of these remarkable musicians are nonetheless, Not Dead Yet.

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