Documentary
In 2021, video production house HATCHED-MV released a the feature documentary “Music Connects: The Real School of Rock,” as an audiovisual testimony to the power of music to connect people across divides.
Filmmakers Stuart Jolley and Jonathan Brinton followed the project Music Connects for over two years, documenting how young people from Europe’s most divided communities came together over a shared love of music.
Students from Mitrovica Rock School in Mitrovica, and Roma Rock School and Music School Enterprise in Skopje, wrote original songs, which they recorded and performed on stages in the Western Balkans. Teachers and students from the Dutch Fontys Rockacademie coached the bands, and trained a next generation of sound engineers.
The project Music Connects was developed and coordinated by Musicians Without Borders, and funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the German Stability Pact Fund.