Abel Selaocoe, Billie Holiday, Edoardo Ponti on Sophia Loren
South African cellist and singer Abel Selaocoe's musical influences. Film director Eduardo Ponti on working with his mother Sophia Loren. New Billie Holiday documentary reviewed.
The cellist and singer Abel Selaocoe grew up in a township in the south of Johannesburg and creates music that draws on classical, African and contemporary music. He talks to Samira about As You Are, the music he’s composed for Opera North’s sound-walks in Leeds and about the celebration of music from Africa which he’s leading in collaboration with the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Symphony Orchestra at this year's London Jazz Festival.
At the age of 86, film legend Sophia Loren stars in her first film in almost a decade, The Life Ahead. Directed by her son Edoardo Ponti, she plays a former sex worker who looks after a Senegalese migrant boy. Edoardo talks to Samira about directing his mother sixty years after she won a Best Actress Oscar for Two Women.
Billie is a new online documentary about the jazz singer Billie Holiday which uses material collected by the journalist Linda Kipnack Kuehl: archive, colourisation techniques and previously unheard recordings of interviews with people who knew her. Tega Okiti reviews.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Hilary Dunn
Last on
Abel Selaocoe
Abel's Jazz Takeover at the  from 20 - 27 Nov and also broadcast on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 3 on 20 Nov at 7.30 pm - 9.45 pm
Main image: Abel Selaocoe
Photo credit: Matt Davis
Billie

Photo credit: Don Peterson
Billie is available digitally from 13 Nov on Barbican including a live  on 15 Nov as part of EFG London Jazz festival. It will be in cinemas in CardiffÌý²¹²Ô»åÌýGlasgow and will be available to buy on Ìý²¹²Ô»åÌý 16 Nov
Edouardo Ponti

Photo credit:Â
Regine De Lazzaris
aka Greta
The Life Ahead directed by Edouardo Ponti streams on Netflix from Fri 13 Nov
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- Tue 10 Nov 2020 19:15ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 4
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