Gei Zantzinger

Who was Gei Zantzinger?

Alfred Geist Zantzinger was an American documentary filmmaker specializing in documentaries about traditional musics of the world. He directed and produced films about the musics of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Cape Verde, Lesotho, South Africa, and Brittany.

He was the grandson of noted Philadelphia architect Clarence C. Zantzinger.

He graduated from Westminster School in Connecticut and earned bachelor's and master's degrees in folklore and anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Zantzinger began making films in southern Africa in 1966, while a Ph.D. candidate in the folklore/folklife program at the University of Pennsylvania. He studied film with Sol Worth at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School of Communications.

Zantzinger also worked as a record producer. He lived in Devault, Chester County, Pennsylvania, where his production company, Constant Spring Productions, was based.

He died of leukemia on February 16, 2007, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.