Dusty and Stones – Raindance Film Festival 2023

Director: Jesse Rudoy

One can never say enough about the power of music. Music heals people. Music brings people together, more than perhaps any other art form. In the case of country music, that is particularly nice to see. An all-American genre that has somehow crossed borders and reached the hearts of people all over the world. Including the Kingdom of Swaziland (now Eswatini).

Dusty & Stones are a country music duo hailing from Mooihoek, Swaziland. Founded in 2005 by cousins Gazi Simelane, better known as Dusty, and Lindokhule Msibi, or Stones, they have become the country’s top country music performers, winning several accolades in their hometown. Jesse Rudoy’s documentary Dusty & Stones, one of this year’s gems at Raindance, chronicles their rise, from humble beginnings to their award-winning performance in the Texas Sounds International Country Music Awards and beyond.

Right from the beginning, we feel the juxtaposition of these two worlds. A small country in Africa and an American pop culture staple. As the laid-back atmosphere of Mooihoek invites into this world, we immediately get this sense of identity and what they are all about: boots on the floor, and a cowboy hat on the rack. From then, we see these two cousins playing gigs in their hometown, much to the delight of their family and friends; they give interviews, they discuss their career with their manager, and they talk about this opportunity to go to America.

In Texas, they meet up with record producer Robert Ellis Orrall and are introduced to the session musicians in the recording studio they will end up working with. This might just be one of the most significant moments in the film. We understand what it took for them to get to this point. We watch them go through the process of recording the songs and by the time the songs are finished and they are listening to them in the studio, they are all crying and so are we. It is a very moving moment and one whose significance cannot be overlooked. By the time the Texas Sounds International Country Music Awards rolls in, Dusty and Stones are excited, nervous, happy, apprehensive… It is a big moment and they know it. And it’s a success, of course. Their moment has come.

When they go back home, they’re even bigger stars than they already were. By that point, we’ve witnessed their struggles and marvelled in their talent and ambition and it paid off. The sense of what it means not only to them but to their country is palpable, and it is a beautiful testament to the power of music and dreams.

Dusty and Stones is screening at the Raindance Film Festival 2023.