Brass Boys

"Because a soccer team needs support," the brass band Young Brass Sounds was founded in 2005 to cheer on the Ajax Cape Town team. At every home game, the band is in the stadium, playing for the full 90 minutes. And its presence apparently helps - since the inception of YBS, Ajax Cape Town hasn't lost a single home game. Brass Boys portrays the members of Young Brass Sounds. We see them during rehearsals and on the stands at different games, and the film gives an impression of the living conditions in their neighbourhood. The band keeps them off the street and away from gang-related violence, because "there's no time to become a gangster when you're practicing." They are unschooled musicians, every one of them, who practise their parts by ear. Their conductor has invented a notation system that indicates when to press which valve on the trumpet, and this provides them with some help. The documentary builds up to the visit of Ajax Amsterdam to Cape Town and the game they will play against their South-African namesake. YBS rehearses new songs for the reception of the Amsterdam team at the airport, and of course for the 90 minutes of the important game. Between the many cheerful notes, an undertone of a tough existence also resounds throughout. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)