Art by Bob Giles

Pierre Bensusan is recognized as one of the most richly talented and diverse

world musicians of our time. At just 17, the self-taught guitarist won the Grand

Prix du Disque at Switzerland’s Montreaux Jazz Festival. The teenager had

already been touring for a year with Bill Keith, the innovative banjo player and

member of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys.

“I grew up singing Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, playing a lot of traditional French music, Irish music, music from Brittany, from Scotland. Everything, it turns out, had a bluegrass form. For me they were all the same— different angles of the same room.”

Bensusan was born Jewish in French Algeria in 1957. His playmates were Muslims, Arabs and Europeans; his childhood was shaped by the turmoil of the Algerian War of Independence. In 1962, his family fled to Paris, where Pierre began to play piano, then guitar and mandolin. He tells viewers that his firsthand experience in a diverse world is at the heart of his music. Bensusan uses the power of music to cross borders, promote tolerance and inspire respect. Many of his compositions focus on social and political issues: Hymn 11, is dedicated to the tragedy of 9/11; Altiplanos, the title track of his 2005 CD, pays tribute to Ingrid Bettancourt, the kidnapped Columbian presidential candidate.

Strings Without Borders, the film, will explore Bensusan’s boundary-shattering musicality:

“Listening to music from all the cultures of the world is really a sign of recognition that I’m not alone. I’m not the center. France is not the center. I belong to a human chain of people. I want to see how people think, how they vote, how they perceive politics in their environment.”

VOTED: Best World Music Guitar Player Guitar Player Readers Choice Award 2008

To those who know Bensusan, he is a living legend who plays all over the world — the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia. The filmmakers will follow him on some of his journey — recording concerts, exploring the streets of Paris and New York. We travel with him to Aspen where he plays a series of concerts at the Wheeler Opera House, on top of Ajax, at Maroon Bells. Special guests are slated to include Ry Cooder and Leo Kotke.

Strings Without Borders lets viewers witness Bensusan’s creative process. We go behind the scenes with the masters as they discuss set lists, work out solos and harmonies, and trade licks. ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

In a new and intimate style of concert filming, developed by director Roger Sherman for the band Little Feat, multiple miniature cameras positioned up close to the musicians—even on the guitar necks—will capture the genius of Pierre Bensusan and his friends in High Definition. ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

Strings Without Borders explores the world of Pierre Bensusan through interviews with the well-known friends previously mentioned, plus legendary guitarist Steve Vai, and Bobby Thomas Jr. from Weather Report. We’ll see rare footage including Pierre playing a mind-blowing duet with the late finger-style great Michael Hedges. Bensusan’s active and committed life will be filmed in cinema verité, with scenes shot on city streets, backstage in concert and on the hiking trails.

“There’s a level of soul there as much as any blues or R&B singer. Maybe more. It’s what everybody who plays music is searching for.”

Virtuoso pianist George Winston Strings Without Borders allows viewers an intimate window on the life of this dedicated and prolific musician. They’ll experience performances and demonstrations of the intricate Celtic and Renaissance songs that characterize his early musical development; they’ll experience Bensusan’s original balladry and rhythmic pieces—works he infuses with percussion, false harmonics, and sustained vibratos. And they will travel with Pierre to Ireland, to meet master luthier George Lowden and learn how a “signature” guitar is born.

We witness composition in action, getting inside Bensusan’s creative process. On the road, day after day in hotel rooms, airport terminals, in cars, backstage, viewers watch a song come to life. It began as an image in his head, he tells us. “It wasn’t music first.” As the Aspen world premiere of his composition approaches, he demonstrates a problematic passage on the guitar and confesses his nervousness to the camera: “I’m not sure it will be ready. This one section is being tough on me. Making nice music is easy. Creating beautiful and important music — that’s what haunts me.”

“The strings of my guitar are the last conduit, the ultimate medium. My fingers touch them and they share that intimate, vibrating and sensual experience that resonates into the world where time has stopped. No more judgment, no more preconceptions, no more inhibitions: Just poetry and a simple reminder of why I am here.”

Our cameras follow Bensusan home, to the school in Chateau-Thierry that he established in France’s Champagne region. A small group has come from around the globe to the master class. We watch Pierre share his knowledge, insights and skills. It’s clear that as experienced as they are, each has a lot to learn.

Strings Without Borders also gets inside the technique of Pierre Bensusan, how he came to be the master of DADGAD tuning — a haunting and resonant “open” guitar tuning, as opposed to the standard EADGBE. Since 1974 when he began his solo career, two master luthiers have created signature Pierre Bensusan guitars: for Greenfield Guitars, a 17” archtop and a Nightingale made by Kevin Ryan. Bensusan has recorded nine albums, six with Rounder Records, three with Favored Nations and an anthology album. In 2002 his Intuite was named Best Acoustic Instrumental Album, and Guitar Album of the Year by AFIM. The soundtrack of Strings Without Borders will be released as a CD as well.

“Bensusan’s remarkable technical ability has never been in question, but it’s the sheer musicality and lyricism of his body of work that has cemented his position as one of the most accomplished acoustic guitarists on the planet.” John Kelman for All About Jazz

Please join us in making this creative musical journey project come to life.

Contact: Martha Ferguson Devi Productions

970 372-2770 deviproductions@sopris.net

Filmmaker/ Roger Sherman: Roger Sherman’s documentaries have been honored with a Peabody Award, an Emmy Award,

two Academy Award nominations, and many other prizes. He specia l izes in music and artist

portraits. The Rhythm of My Soul features ta lented Kentucky musicians who live the music –

country, bluegrass, mountain and gospel. Richard Rodgers: The Sweetest Sounds is a portrait of

the most prolif ic Broadway composer ever. An American Masters PBS production, the fi lm was

named to a Top 10 list. The Wall Street Journal declared it, “An extraordinary fi lm

biography, perhaps the best ever produced in the American Masters series.” Newsday called it

“As memorable and moving as any musical drama you will see and hear anywhere, Broadway

included.” And, the New York Times described it as “an elegant homage.” Another artist

portrait, Alexander Calder, was pronounced “an American masterpiece” by Charlie Rose. It won

a Peabody and Emmy award. His latest fi lm is Medal of Honor, a history of the highest

medal awarded by our country. In addition to producing and directing, Sherman is a

cinematographer and sti l l photographer. More about the fi lmmaker can be found at

www.FlorentineFilms.com/Sherman.

Producer Martha Ferguson: Ms. Ferguson has studied art, piano and guitar for many years and is an avid promoter of music

as an international language. She has a degree in Socia l Ecology from the University of

California at Irvine, a program which enhances peoples’ understanding of their relationship to

the natural world and each other. It is from this perspective that Ms. Ferguson is here

promoting an idea of unity in a world without borders using music as its language and guide.

She has studied guitar with Mr. Bensusan , personally produced concerts and workshops for him

Colorado and is currently his producer of concerts throughout the US, Canada and Latin

America.