Haiti’s most celebrated big band, the 20-member Septentrional has been making music — a fusion of brassy Cuban big band and funkier Haitian voodoo beats — for more than six decades. Directed by Whitney Dow, this graceful and touching documentary charts the history of the country through its relationship with song, from its independence from French colonialism all the way up to and including 2010’s devastating earthquake, which took almost 300,000 lives.

The artistic is always a reflection of the external political realities of its surrounding times, of course, even in the best and most mindlessly carefree eras. In the case of Haiti, however, crushing foreign debt and a 15-year American occupation that ushered in the brutal dictatorship of Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier has meant plenty of poverty and hard times. That fact is reflected in the music herein, which is hopeful but still almost always laced with ribbons of despair. Interweaving performance footage with interviews and extant material, When the Drum Is Beating is historical non-fiction for those who like their liveliness mixed in, and not on the side.

Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, When the Drum Is Beating comes to DVD presented in a solid 1.78:1 widescreen transfer, with a Creole language option with English subtitles. The disc’s sole bonus feature of note is an interview with director Dow; it’s nice, but some extra musical content would surely have been a welcome inclusion as well, and not too difficult to round up from the editing room floor. Previews for other First Run Features titles are also included. To purchase the DVD via Amazon, click here. B (Movie) C+ (Disc)