Testing the theory that a documentary will work so long as it has a compelling subject, I'll Sing For You examines the life of musician Boubacar Traoré, "KarKar" to his fans. Born in Mali, Traoré rose to fame after the nation won its independence from France in 1960. Inspired by footage of American rock 'n' roll stars, Traoré took up the electric guitar, becoming the voice of youthful optimism and the star of ramshackle music clubs called "grins." When the grins became arenas for political debate, however, they came under the scrutiny of Mali's increasingly iron-fisted government, and when they were shut down, so was Traoré's career. After Traoré moved to France, many of his countrymen thought him dead, until an English fan in the music industry tracked him down.
Assembled without care or coherence, I'll Sing For You does little to flesh out those facts. Director Jacques Sarasin lazily relies on a talking-heads/archival-footage approach to tell Traoré's story, doing little to put it in context and assuming a lot more knowledge of Malian history than most viewers possess. The 1968 military coup that led to a dictatorship which persisted into the 1990s, for example, might have deserved a mention.
Traoré's friends talk about him as a mysterious, almost mystical figure, but the camera doesn't capture exactly why. The only mystery comes in the gap between the good-natured elder statesman of today and the defiant young man striking the Bo Diddley pose in 1960. What I'll Sing For You does capture is Traoré's hypnotic performances, which is no small achievement: When Traoré sings, the source of his mystique becomes clear. Sarasin isn't much of a documentarian, but he's got an undeniable ear for good music.