Bela Fleck has been here many times for the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Now Bela’s brother, director Sascha Paladino, brings to town a truly unusual and intimate portrait of the musician on the road. But not just any road—Heart finds Bela stretching his comfort zone when he travels to Africa in search of the roots of his instrument, the banjo. As one reviewer at SXSW (in Austin, Texas, where this documentary won the audience award) said, “Fleck isn’t just creating an instrumental family reunion but birthing trans-oceanic sounds that should make us all forget we’ve forgotten we’re a part of this world together.”
—David Holbrooke