Når øyeblikket synger (1995)

This documentary film provides a colorful and humorous picture of happy, rhythmic Africans versus stiff, unrhythmic Europeans. The Africans sing and dance while looking after children, threshing grain, sawing wood, directing traffic and laying train sleepers. For them, music is an indispensable part of work and leisure. "Both Europeans and Africans are born with rhythm in their bodies, but Europeans have lost it," asserts music philosopher John Collins in the film. Music professor Jon Roar Bjørkvold emphasizes how important rhythm is for body and soul and talks passionately about "the musical human being" based on African music and general human development. The film turns upside down old notions that "primitive" music is less valuable than European "classical" music.