From KCRW in Santa Monica, this is The Treatment.

Welcome to The Treatment. I'm Elvis Mitchell. You can also hear the show at KCRW.com.

As a musician, Yusu Endure is really about faith and believing in change through people. In the, Yusu Endure, is really about faith and believing in change through people.

And the film Yusu Endure, I Bring What I Love, is about that journey he took after recording the album, Egypt.

Its director, Elizabeth Chai Vassarelli is here. Thank you so much for being here, Chai, first of all.

Thank you for having me.

It's interesting. The two films you made have really been in their way, both questions of faith and people dealing with trauma.

I'm your first documentary about these kids in Kosovo.

And then this film, too.

And I just wonder if that feels like it's kind of a resonant theme for you, dealing with people as they're asking questions about their lives.

I think I am naturally attracted to those topics.

I think that it's something I'm interested in, but it's funny because after a normal

life, I was like, let's make a happy film about Africa.

After spending three years on and off in Kosovo, and, you know, the subjects in that film are dear friends of mine.

But, you know, we were all the same age at the time, and it was really hard living through, you know, what happens after war with them.

So when that was all done, I was like, let's travel, let's go to someplace beautiful and make a happy musical film in Africa.

Of course, it ends up looking at, you know,

much more important issues. And I think, you know, the film gets quite involved with Usu's life.

And, you know, it does take you on a journey. But when I began making this film, I wasn't

necessarily looking for that. But it also feels to me like a film that's kind of an antidote to musical documentaries

because it's really a film about a man who makes everything into family around him.

And you come to really understand both the sensibilities and his political ideas too.

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