Director’s note: NHOW is a group I encoun­tered while liv­ing in the infor­mal set­tle­ments of South Africa. They are extremely tal­ented and have a true devo­tion to music. Due to the nature of their liv­ing sit­u­a­tion, they do not have imme­di­ate access to be con­tacted. If you would like to con­tact them, please con­tact me at jonathan.smith@theygotodie-movie.com.

New House of Wor­ship is an a cap­pella choral group com­prised of res­i­dents of the shan­ty­towns Car­letonville and Fochville, South Africa. Their pieces, all orig­i­nal works com­posed by the group, fuse both tra­di­tional African song and mod­ern influ­ences. They meet in the evenings in the set­tle­ment and work intensely on their com­po­si­tions, spend­ing hours on minute details that serve to bring their per­for­mance to life. They sim­ply sing because, “we love to sing, it brings the beauty out of life — we just love to sing for the beauty of it.”