Strictly Confidential

"Benda Bilili", the film about the story of Staff Benda Bilili, was welcomed with a standing ovation on the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival. Devoted to the band's extraordinary story, this is the film on which French directors Renaud Barret and Florent de la Tullaye (aka Belle Kinoise) have been working on for the past 5 years, ever since they encountered the band in Kinshasa. The film shows the band's journey from the sidewalks of Kinshasa to the stages of large European concert halls and festivals, and features performances of many songs from Staff's popular "Très Très Fort" album, which came out last year on Crammed. 
"An extraordinary film ... it will do what Ry Cooder & Wim Wenders did for the Buena Vista Club and make them (Staff Benda Bilili) world famous...", says BBC Radio
"a remarkable documentary and an amazing music film" (The Telegraph)
Staff Benda Bilili attended the premiere (on the opening night of the prestigious Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (Directors' Fortnight) at Cannes), and performed a show at the Quinzaine party after the screening. The band will be staying in Cannes for several days, and worldwide media are already conducting dozens of interviews with them.
On top of that, the band have been announced as winners of "Best Group" in the Songlines Magazine Awards 2010! They will be presented with the award when they perform at WOMAD Festival in the UK on July 23. Full tour dates across Europe for the coming months can be found here.