He directed and produced films about the musics of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Cape Verde, Lesotho, South Africa, and Brittany.
[1] 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.
His memorial service was held at the University of Pennsylvania Museum at 6 p.m. on April 6, 2007.