The festival runs through Nov. 24 with centerpiece screenings including The Young Victoria, a period romance from Gosford Park writer Julian Fellowes with Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend as Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, a Terry Gilliam film already well-known for being Heath Ledger’s final project.

For tickets and more information, visit AFI Silver’s Web site.

2009 Umbrella Music Festival: Our pals over at the Chicago Reader noted in their ’09 Fall Arts Guide that the Umbrella Music Festival “is eclipsed only by the Chicago Jazz Festival as the most impressive and adventurous jazz event of the year.” Since those guys seem to know what they’re doing, we’ll take their word for it. This year’s event—which, for the fourth turn of the calendar, “celebrates jazz and improvised music from Chicago and beyond”—extends over four days and includes performances from Matthew Shipp and a quartet that includes Tortoise’s John Herndon. But the clear highlight is a closing-night performance of compositions by Joe McPhee arranged by Ken Vandermark for a nonet which features both players. Tickets for events vary in price, but most (if not all) still seem to be available. The first night’s slate of events is entirely free.

2009 Troika Music Festival:  Down in North Carolina’s Research/College Triangle (that’d be the area defined by the cities of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill), organizers will present a locally-focused festival on November 5, 6, and 7. They call it Troika Music Festival (it’s cause, you know, three cities…triangle…you get it), and though the honchos say that they like to promote things Durham, they appear happy to include “critically acclaimed acts visiting from elsewhere”—even those from Raleigh and Chapel Hill. This year’s notables include Dead Oceans’ Bowerbirds, Merge Records’ The Love Language, and Future Islands, which may be so only for the fact that its MySpace page says the band hails from Baltimore. As of this writing, tickets were still available.

All Tomorrow’s Parties: On November 24, the folks over at Warp X will release All Tomorrow’s Parties, a film which is, according to press, “a kaleidoscopic journey into the parallel musical universe of the cult music festival of the same name.” Because the thing was reportedly born of the efforts of “over 200 filmmakers, fans and musicians,” we here at Fesitval Watch believe that this translates roughly to: A confusing mélange of film and video footage chopped together in an attempt to make live musical performances interesting for suckers stuck watching them at home.

In any case, ATP the film features (again, from press) “performances from an eclectic mix artists including: Battles, Sonic Youth, Belle And Sebastian, Patti Smith, Animal Collective, Grinderman,  Iggy and the Stooges, Portishead, Mogwai, Slint, Grizzly Bear, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Gossip, Daniel Johnston and The Boredoms [!!!].” Basically, it’s a best-of culled from the entire history of the festival. As such, it might be worth your dollars—even if its collage-y nature spells the need for a couple of aspirin (or perhaps, something a bit more illegal).

As for the live event, tickets are sold out for both of the next ATP festivals—December’s “Nightmere Before Xmas, 2009” (curated by the reunited My Bloody Valentine) and “Ten Years of ATP.” For those of you who happen to be headed over to the Butlins Holiday Centre for either of those shows, festival organizers have filled the gap between weekends with a four-day series they’re calling “In Between Days.” Performers include Fuck Buttons, Dirty Three, Mum, Om, Growing, and Deerhoof. As of this writing tickets (at 100 Pounds per person, lodging and “self-catering” included) were still available.

Salome, one of the few metal bands that performed at this year’s CMJ.

For D.C. bands, the takeaway from CMJ seems to have been this: It will not pluck you from obscurity, but it can’t hurt. Also: Don’t believe the hype.

“The myth that you can land the perfect agent or manager at a place like that—I don’t think it pays attention to the reality that you’ve been talking to that person for seven months already,” said Jesse Elliott, whose polymathic alt-country band These United States played a handful of shows during this year’s College Music Journal Music Marathon. The annual industry gathering featured over 1,000 artists, close to 100 venues, and around a dozen acts from the D.C. area.

Elliott’s got a point: Most of the young bands I heard chatter about during the festival—like Florida’s Surfer Blood, New York’s Freelance Whales, and London’s Golden Silvers and Mumford and Sons—had recording contracts, significant blog buzz, or both going in, not to mention full management teams in place. These are not bands whose success lives or dies according to an industry festival.

“Most of the bands at these festivals are already signed,” wrote Todd Hyman, who runs the District-based labels Carpark and Paw Tracks and hosted CMJ showcases for both, in an e-mail. “Though this year there seemed to be a preponderance of unsigned blog bands. Seems folks were complaining about that.”

Like many of the D.C. bands who played the festival, Hyman questioned CMJ’s usefulness. “CMJ used to be really influential 15-20 years ago,” he wrote. “College radio’s influence has waned with the rise of the Internet. [Austin's South by Southwest] seems to be the main festival these days. I suppose CMJ benefits college radio music directors the most. And now bloggers.” Nevertheless, Hyman’s labels have hosted CMJ showcases several times since 2000, and he estimated he’s attended the festival 13 times.

When you cast aside the make-you-or-break-you narrative, though, there are subtle benefits to CMJ, bands said. “Though everyone likes to fantasize about big crowds and label offers, I think realistically we just wanted to play for a few new people at a new venue and to add CMJ to our collective resume,” wrote Nate Frey, whose band Last Tide played a set at the Brooklyn venue Littlefield, in an e-mail.

The Annandale, Va.-based doom-metal band Salome performed at one of CMJ’s only metal showcases, which Relapse Records sponsored. The band signed to Profound Lore Records over the summer, and said it sees CMJ the way most bands do: as an opportunity for exposure. Rob Moore, the group’s guitarist, said that performing under the Relapse banner meant a large turnout, and that as much as the music industry has changed in recent years, labels remain important as brands and filters. “If I were just to record something and stick it on the Internet, the chances of somebody hearing it are next to none,” Moore said. “So you still need a record label or blogs or Web sites or something to guide your path.” CMJ, he said, can connect bands to all those things, even if it may not deliver a recording contract.

Following exposure comes networking. “You’re basically going to meet people and hope something good comes out of it,” says Patrick Kigongo, of Ra Ra Rasputin. “As long as bands realize that they’re not going to have some sort of miracle happen to them, they’ll have fun.” He said his band—which CMJ initially wait-listed but later asked to a join a showcase—met other artists and a label with whom it may release something soon, not to mention a dubious show promoter who didn’t carry business cards.

Elliott, of These United States, said he appreciates CMJ for its more serendipitous possibilities—like meeting a band whose music you admire, or scoring a short write-up on a New York Times blog. These United States also met up with a producer from a studio where it may record its next album, and took some time to check out the space.

Evan Brody, who helps run D.C.’s Underwater Peoples label even though he lives in New Jersey, said someone from the Mexican People Summer label came to one of his showcases, and that he even had a conversation with Ryan Schreiber, the founder of the influential review Web site Pitchfork. And he met some of the bloggers that helped Underwater Peoples become one of this year’s most-talked-about petri dishes for young bands. “I think it helped put a lot of faces to a lot of people who I’ve spoken to,” he said. “There was a lot of IRLing going on.”

Photo courtesy of Salome’s MySpace page.

On October 17 and 18, dance instructors and promoters Michael Hart and Sharon Schiliro presented the 1st annual “Dancing by the Bayou” festival at Glen Echo.  The event hosted a number of Louisiana and D.C. zydeco and Cajun bands for people to dance to throughout that weekend.  The roster included Nathan & the Zydeco Cha-chas, Jesse Lege & Bayou Brew, and Leroy Thomas and the Zydeco Roadrunners among many others.

Hart and Schiliro, who will be presenting a dance at Glen Echo on Sunday, November 8 with the Acadien Cajun Band, talked to me recently via e-mail about their festival and the state of zydeco and Cajun music in the Capital region.  They combined most of their responses.

City Paper: Do you think the recent festival will translate into increased enthusiasm for upcoming events, and/or will it be like that Buffalo Gap event—an annual thing that folks look forward to once a year?

Hart and Schiliro: I do think we may get a lift in attendance at the upcoming November/December dances, but weather, football games, etc. can always cut into the attendance; we shall see!  We do have an outstanding Zydeco band for our Mardi Gras dance in February to be announced shortly!  The Mardi Gras dance, in the last two years, has had great attendance for a week night!

CP: Were you happy with your first festival?  Any fave performers or dancers or stories you would like to mention?

H & S: Yes, we are very proud of what we achieved for our first Cajun and Zydeco music and dance festival at Glen Echo Park.  While Mother Nature’s attire for the weekend did not include sunshine, we had dancers attend the festival from Richmond, Virginia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Rhode Island, to name a few locales outside the beltway.  You could feel and see the joy in the dancer’s faces. For many, it was their first time to Glen Echo Park.

We did have a magic musical moment during the Festival.  Cedric Watson came to the stage during the performance by the BeauSoleil Quartet [a special 4 member version of BeauSoleil] late Saturday night.  Dancers were dancing, but spun slowly to a stop as they all gathered around the stage.  The ballroom lights were dim, as Michael Doucet and Cedric created the most beautiful fiddle sounds one could hope to hear.  The dancers were mesmerized by the improvisational playing between Cedric and Michael.  Pure music magic!

Another wonderful story is of the mother and daughter who attended the Festival.  The daughter brought her 90-year-old mother, who used a two-handed walker, to the Festival to celebrate her 90th birthday.  BeauSoleil, upon learning that the mother was from Louisiana, broke out into a Cajun musical version of Happy Birthday.  The moment could not have been sweeter!

CP: How many people attended each individual session (Saturday day, Saturday night, Sunday day, etc.)

H & S: Over 300 people attended each day. We anticipated larger attendance, but the weather played a huge role in keeping folks away.  It was the coldest weather in 50 years for this time of the year!

CP: When did you begin preparing for the fest?

H &S: We began planning and preparing for the Festival a year in advance.

CP: Was it hard getting certain bands?  BeauSoleil, for example? Others?

H & S: Certain bands were challenging to book, due to their travel schedules.  Others were easy.  BeauSoleil Quartet was a blessing to book, since they were going to be in the area for a private event.

CP: Were you unable to get certain bands you wanted?

H & S: We contacted Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys and Geno Delafose.  While they wanted to perform at the Festival, both they and we could not build enough dates around the Festival to offset the travel.

CP: Were you trying via the festival to establish a name within the national and international zydeco and Cajun dancing and music world or were you trying to get new folks into zydeco?

H & S: Our goal was to present a major event for the Washington, DC metropolitan area. We travel to many Festivals during the year, outside our area.  To establish a Festival, strengthens the Cajun and Zydeco dance community and brings in excellent musicians and music. The Festival was a “thank you” to the entire dance community and the musicians, to say we support the community, the music and want the culture to thrive.

CP: Do you think you met your goal?

H & S: We met our goals, with the exception of the financial goal.  Again, Mother Nature did not put her best dance foot forward that weekend!

CP:  Did you lose money or break even or make money?

H & S: We did suffer a loss financially, but feel strongly it was due to the adverse weather.

CP: Do you know if that is that standard in the zydeco and Cajun world?

H & S: Yes, we have spoken to other promoters and a Festival normally takes several years to establish its identity and take hold in the community as a destination.

CP: The D.C.- area zydeco audience seems to be growing older.  Did a bar-like atmosphere that Twist & Shout had help bring in some young folks to zydeco who eventually liked it, who might not have embraced the genre if it was just heard at Glen Echo, where they feel they may not fit in if they’re not doing the right dance steps?  Any other thoughts on attracting a younger, newer audience?

H & S: While the Cajun/Zydeco community in the DC Metropolitan area is mature, we continue to attract new dancers.  Younger dancers do come from time-to-time and really enjoy the music. The bar atmosphere that was Twist & Shout, Tornado Alley and others, drew younger folks but not so much for the music, but to drink, stand and watch the bands.  Now go to the clubs in Louisiana, out in Lafayette, Lake Charles, and other areas outside New Orleans and it is filled with young, wonderful dancers. We continue to make the effort to draw young folks to the dances.  Dancing by the Bayou is on Facebook and other social networks. Glen Echo Park does draw young folks and we welcome any ideas that might help bring them in greater number to our dances.

CP:  Does the Glen Echo atmosphere (and its location far from Metro) dissuade newer folks from wanting to check out the genre?

H & S: Glen Echo Park is not easy to get to with public transportation.  However, it does have a presence in its own right for fun and good quality dances. We have had young folks come to the dances, only to get other dancers to drive them to the nearest metro (Bethesda) after a dance.

CP:   Do you have any ideas you want to try to reach newer folks—ads in local university newspapers, flyers, Facebook, ads in local media, etc.?  Would this require a bigger budget than you have?

H & S: Indeed, we want to reach new folks!  We always want to grow the community that supports Cajun and Zydeco music. We have a million great ideas, all of which takes money! We do as many of the “free” advertising opportunities as possible.  I hope to apply for a grant this year to help support this effort. We also teach at large events and have a web presence of our own on Facebook.  We are working on obtaining better local media coverage, but without the budget it is difficult.

CP:  Will you be doing this again next year?

H & S: We think we owe it to the dance community, the musicians and ourselves to try again next year.  The support of the community has been overwhelming!

Tabi Bonney performs at Fat Baby last night in New York City.

The thing about CMJ is, not all of it’s CMJ. There are the unoffocial day parties—free, sometimes invite-only events sponsored by record labels, PR firms, and media. There are the more exclusive parties at night. And there are the shows that, although not nominally part of the five-day conference and music festival, go on anyway, right in the middle of it all.

Take Casper Bangs‘ show last night at Pianos, which was sponsored by the weekly concert series Cross-Polination and was not part of the official CMJ roster. Nevertheless, the band—the project of Rob Pierangeli, who used to play in the Hard Tomorrows—played to a nearly full room.

Pierangeli paid $45 when he applied to play at this year’s CMJ, but his band was turned down. “Sorry to be frank, but I don’t see if the music has that much to do with who gets in,” he told me today. “So if you want to play, you have to know someone. Everyone knows that though. That’s not new information.”

The problem, he said, is that bands have to apply to CMJ through a service called Sonicbids, which was conceived as a digital middle man between bands and show promoters. The CMJ application comes with a fee but is free for Sonicbids members, who pay around $70 a year.

Pierangeli doesn’t like that arrangement, and he’s not the only one (here’s Sonicbids’ response to the controversy over its submissions method and pricing). ”Maybe a lot of artists are out there getting gigs and finding Sonicbids is a strong tool to advance their careers,” Pierangeli said. “But not me. I’m just one experience, but it seems kind of like bullshit to me.”

He said he doesn’t want blow money an event whose impact seems to have diminished. Because of how technology and the economy have changed the recording industry, ”perhaps there’s less incentive for the industry to really to come in [for CMJ],” Pierangeli said. “West Coast people don’t come out. They’re probably like, ‘we’ll wait for South by Southwest or something. We’ll go to that instead.’ So what the fuck are we doing coming up here? People just play it so they can say that they played it.”

Still, he does see advantages to the festival. “I think the value is just connecting with new people and connecting with old people. In terms of maybe what CMJ what it once was, and bands getting signed and discovered, it’s not like that anymore.”

Which is why, following the release of a 7-inch and an EP next month (you can hear the latter here), Casper Bangs will begin releasing singles frequently and for free. Pierangeli said he hopes to begin that project in December. Not that he doesn’t love albums or lacks enough material to fill one. But, he said, “people just want songs right now. They don’t want to commit.”

–

Some shots of other District artists who performed last night during CMJ:

Deleted Scenes at Cameo Gallery:

True Womanhood (full disclosure: I’m friends with the band) at Cameo Gallery:

Tabi Bonney at Fat Baby. Niki Jean, from Bonney’s pop group the Crybabies, joined him for a song:

Surf City, from New Zealand, at Cake Shop:

Middle Distance Runner performs at the CMJ Music Marathon in 2008.

Every CMJ has its success story—the unknown act who, thanks to buzz and grit and talent and luck , tickles the right trigger of the wayfaring label rep or taste-maker who, for whatever reason, has decided to see it. But most of the thousand-plus little-known bands and artists who descend on New York City each fall for the College Music Journal Music Marathon don’t walk away with freshly inked contracts or top-tier management. Their game is more incremental: A write-up here, a handshake there. So whether they’re dampening expectations or they mean it, it’s probably unsurprising that most of the D.C. bands performing during this year’s CMJ say their primary goal is just to “have fun.”

“These things are kind of a madhouse, and there’s a lot of talk of ‘there’s gonna be a lot of industry people,’” says Matt Dowling, whose band Deleted Scenes has two CMJ gigs and a meeting with a marketing firm. ”I don’t mean to be a cynic, but we’ve been playing for long enough and pined over certain goals to realize that the bottom line is to have fun. If the industry happens to like it, then great.”

John Thornley, of U.S. Royalty, is equally cautious: “I don’t think we’re going to go there and get a record, and I mean, it may happen. The goal is just to go there and play a show and get a lot of people.” But he also sees less tangible benefits. “If you meet a band at a party, and you like their music and they like yours, it’s that much more easy to work with them.”

At least a dozen bands and artists from the District will play gigs during this year’s CMJ, which starts tomorrow night and runs through Saturday, and includes about 75 different venues across New York City (there are also panel discussions and a film festival). Some acts already have recording contracts, others don’t, and all of them—once you get past their shared enthusiasm for merriment—have different goals.

For Middle Distance Runner, which already has a record label, management, and a promotions firm, CMJ is all about exposure. “To get our name out there in people’s minds more, it makes it easier to do our job,” says Stephen Kilroy, the group’s frontman. His band has played at CMJ during each of the last three years. “Our manager would have an easier time dealing with other bands’ managers if we’re more well-known and well-thought-of. So we’re going to go up there and try not to embarrass ourselves.”

Rapper Tabi Bonney said he doesn’t really know what the festival is, but that he’s happy to perform there all the same. “This is my first time ever going to CMJ,” he says. “I’d kinda heard about it, but my booking agency just set it up for me.”

CMJ Network, which publishes a college-radio top-30 list and a magazine, started the festival in 1980 as a way to expose underground artists to the recording industry. These days, well-known independent acts—like Hercules & Love Affair and Saul Williams—headline many of the bills. The bands encompass dozens of genres, and nearly as many nationalities. And while the industry presence (major labels and indies, managers, agents, PR firms, and lawyers) is substantial, for unsigned bands the rewards seem diminished, partially because of the ailing record industry, increasingly because of the down economy—this even as interest in independent music has ballooned in recent years and CMJ has grown. The 2009 festival had 10 percent more applicants than the previous year, Robert Haber, the founder and chief executive of CMJ Network, told Newsday this week.

The role of college radio seems particularly anachronistic. “Ten years ago or even longer, college radio had a bigger impact,” says Mike Mori, an agent in New York who represents fairly successful acts like Noisettes, Ra Ra Riot, Dalek and The Antlers. ”It’s still a factor. It’s a piece of the puzzle but it’s a lot less important.”

But, Mori says, “any of these festivals”—like South by Southwest in Austin—”are great for music because they give small bands an outlet.”

That’s how Evan Brody sees it. Along with three other musicians with whom he attended George Washington University, Brody runs D.C.’s Underwater Peoples Records. Most of the bands that have released music through the DIY label are based in New Jersey, and several of them—like Real Estate, Ducktails, and Air Waves—have become blogosphere favorites in recent months.

So, Brody says, the label set down some goals for the three showcases (one official, two un-) that it’s hosting during CMJ: “No. 1 is have a good time. No. 2 is chill really hard. No. 3 is meet new people. I love meeting new people. And No. 4 is just making sure that everything is going smoothly.”

John Davis, who has performed at CMJ several times with Q & Not U and Georgie James, says young bands shouldn’t worry too much about the industry aspect of the festival. “You just need to make sure that something about what you’re doing is good (even if it’s form over function) and people will come to you,” he wrote in an e-mail. “That’s not to say that reaching out to people is bad or pointless—it definitely isn’t.  But I feel that you don’t want to spend too much time on that stuff when working on your music is always what really gets you someplace.”

As for Davis’ new band, Title Tracks, he wrote, “our schedule is drive up, play, get back in the car, drive home. Literally. We’ll be home later that night.”

Photo courtesy of Middle Distance Runner’s MySpace page.

CMJ Music Marathon and Film Festival 2009: As college radio directors prepare to descend on New York City for their annual milking of the music industry-PR teat, we here at Festival Watch are left to wonder if we might have missed out on something by not signing up for airtime. We’re not talking about the opportunity to see more than 1,300 live bands (including   Broadcast, Pissed Jeans, and Rahzel). Nope: We’re bummed that we may have been denied, in the words of one former festival participant, a whole bunch of free NYC dinners. Sigh.

For those of you who can afford the $495 dollar ticket price (only $2.62 a band!), registration has been extended through 6 p.m. today. But we’re guessing that if you pay for the badge yourself, you don’t get the free dinners.

Unsound 2009: If you’re in the market for a festival experience that’ll probably cost you more than $500, we’d suggest you check out The Wire-sponsored Unsound festival. This, according to press materials, is a “[m]usic and art festival…with installations, panel discussions, workshops, film screenings and performances from Biosphere, Kode9 & Spaceape, Stars Of The Lid, Monolake, Omar-S, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Grouper, Ikonika, James Blackshaw, 2562, Untold, Deuce DJ Team (Marcel Dettmann & Shed) and more.” Honestly, it sounds pretty rad—and The Wire is an excellent go-to for culture you might have otherwise missed. Trouble is that Unsound takes place in Krakow. Poland. It’s a beautiful place, and we’d definitely suggest that you make the trip. But you’d need to get there by tonight. And, though the roughly 40 Euro admission price is totally doable, the plane fare it would take to get there will probably put this out of most of your respective price ranges.

Maybe we’ll see you there next year?

Blip Festival 2009: In December, New York will also play host to BlipFest, “[t]he world’s premier chip music event.” If that quote (pulled from the event’s Facebook page) isn’t enough to convince you to go get yourself a $40 3-Day Festival Pass—as, apparently, the thing’s organizers, who provided little else in the way of information, thought it would be—we’d direct you to the YouTube-ed trailer for a film called Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet. Think Nintendo.

Lollapalooza 2010: Message board speculators are all a-speculating about who might fill in the line-up cards for next year’s Lollapalooza (it’s not really all that relevant, but, back in high school, we used to call this ‘lots of poor losers’–feel free to dissect that), and, apparently that’s enough for some folks, cause early bird passes to the 2010 version of that festival have completely sold out. The Lolla people say that more tickets won’t be available until spring—with luck, by then interested parties won’t have to rely on guesswork to inform their purchasing decisions.

My father read me Grimm’s Fairy Tales late in my literary development, long after I could sweep through novels with heavier plots on my own. But it gave me comfort to curl up and listen to the implausible tales that sought little more than to entertain and teach the simple lessons of humility and temperance.  The dreams that followed his bedtime stories were often sweet.

Such is the case with Masquerades, the romantic comedy that will close this year’s Arabian Sights Film Festival in screenings this Friday and Saturday evening.  It’s pure fairy tale fun set in a small dusty town in the Algerian Aures, rather than the typical rolling green pastures of England. The film’s protagonist, Mounir, suffers from the common man’s plague, that of wanting nothing more than the utmost respect of his neighbors.  A gardener by trade, he supports his wife, son, and narcoleptic sister Rym, whom the townspeople have deemed unmarriable.   In his desperation,  Mounir dreams up a wealthy suitor for Rym, which gets the town in a tizzy over wedding preparations.  But the man Rym truly loves is just as common as the rest. 

The reality that things may never change for these small town people is a subtle undercurrent in this film; a wealthy foreigner may never come and change their fate, they may never leave their dusty little town. Still, Masquerades is thick with farce and it’s nice to lose yourself in the improbable: townspeople having nothing to do but drink coffee and gossip all day and a young woman who drops off to sleep spontaneously. 

 Despite its charm, though,  Masquerades is short on character and plot development, and Mounir never really gets the justice he deserves for his actions. Also, the film has a flaw inherent in almost all fairy tales—the ending just seems too darn neat.

Masquerades screens Friday, October 16 and Saturday October 17 at the National Geographic Society.  Saturday’s screening will be followed by a reception. Tickets are $10 for Friday’s screening and $15 for Saturday’s screening and reception.

The film is set in Damascus, Syria, where the women got their first training in photography and where they return after shooting photo-essays in Iraq. In their training, they are encouraged to share their life stories so that they can begin to create art from a deeply personal place.  These stories about Iraqi life have been largely unheard and the photos the women subsequently produce come from a perspective largely unseen.

I had the opportunity to ask Pachachi a few questions of my own. Here’s what she had to say:

What made you decide to make this film?

I’m from Iraq, but have lived outside, mostly in the UK, for a long time. Most of my films have been about the Middle East and often with a focus on women.  A couple of my films have been about Iraq. Eugenie Dolberg, who is the photographer who created the Open Shutters project, heard from a friend of hers about my films and she contacted me asking if I’d be interested in making a film about it.  There was, of course, no money for filming, but did it interest me?  I met with her to talk about the project and although I didn’t have a really clear picture of how it was going to work by the end of our talk, I decided to take my camera and go to see what happened.

How long did it take, and what was your process ?

The whole project took about 3 and a half months—a month in the house in Damascus where the women trained, 6 weeks in Iraq where they shot their photos and a month back in Syria, just outside Damascus, where they edited their work and wrote their biographies and essays. Then there was a delay for almost 8 months before I could begin editing because I was committed to something else. Editing took about 6 months on and off. I didn’t work with anyone else on the film—I directed, shot and edited everything myself. This was partly a matter of money but given the nature of  the project – the fact that we were all women living in one house and the intensity of the stories told—it’s hard to imagine a film crew being there.

Was this film simply a documentation of the Shutters program, or were you aiming to portray something more?

I started filming without a plan, just following the course of the photography project and the stories of the people involved.  As we went on, however, I realized this was much more than just a typical NGO-type project.  For everyone participating, it was a transformative experience.  When the women drew life maps and presented them to each other, they unearthed memories which had lain buried in the course of just trying to survive 30 years of wars, dictatorship, sanctions and military occupation.  And then they used the sense that this gave them of who they were individually, as a group and as a country, to decide on the photographs they wanted to take in Iraq and what they wanted to express about their lives.  As the shooting and editing went on, I realized that this was a film about the alchemy that can sometimes turn trauma and loss and grief into a creative work.

Can you tell me about a time when the film gods were upon you (when everything went right) and maybe a time when they weren’t (when everything went wrong)?

Really I  was lucky and blessed making this film.  I didn’t encounter any significant difficulties.  My problems were largely to do with having to do everything myself; I am not a camera person, but I was shooting, not a sound person but was recording.  It was pretty exhausting. Editing was a very complicated process because I was telling a story that was collective and individual at the same time and because there were so many strands to weave together.  The whole project and certainly the editing of the film was also emotionally demanding for me.  I was turned inside-out by the experience  because of my relationship to all the women and how close I got to them.  In a sense what they spoke about was also my story in some way because I am Iraqi too.

How was this film different from other films you’ve made—and what did you learn?

In some way this film is a development of other films I’ve made and not radically different in sensibility, but the circumstances I was working in were different.  The project was very focused – in one place, with its own trajectory and rhythm and there was nothing I could set up. I just had to watch and think and talk to people.  I think in other films I’ve been able to construct the filming; to research and set up different situations.  In this film, I just had to go with it.  Also, although other films I’ve made have had a collective focus,  it has never been quite like this, with a group of people all interacting together. Usually it’s me who is putting different people into the same ’story’ .

I think I came out of this film not with new ideas but a few thoughts that had been sharpened by the experience.  People in difficult situations like war or famine,  if they are portrayed at all, are mostly shown as victims only.  Because they aren’t always shown as complex human beings who happen to be living in terrible circumstances, those circumstances somehow seem to define them entirely and it makes it much more difficult for us to understand or identify with them.

Open Shutters Iraq will be screening at the E Street Landmark Theater Friday, October 9 and Saturday, October 10 at 9:00 pm. Pachachi will be present at both screenings to answer questions from the audience.