The Audacity of the Creole Imagination

Using photographs, television footage and interviews, this documentary looks at the creation of the steel pan and the milestones along the road to the modern instrument. It records the shift from bamboo to steel, the first notes and the years of fighting, the inclusion of the middle class, the invention of the “Spider Web” pan and the Bomb competition. The tale is told to a score of early recordings, including the first iron band recording in 1940 and the first steelband recording of 1947.