PAN! Our Music Odyssey

Docudrama on Trinidad’s steelband movement

Everything began with the theft of old oil drums in the 1940s. This docudrama tells the tale of how steel bands emerged in Trinidad in a mix of historical film, eyewitness interviews, and recordings from the Panorama competition. Here, each year ensembles consisting of up to a hundred musicians compete with one another. The film captures the euphoria, music, and rhythms of the event; at the same time, it shows how the once criminalized subculture has become a national cultural treasure with international appeal.