Aga Khan Film - PARIS PREMIERE - JAN 29th

Dear Supporter

We will be premiering the Aga Khan Film in Paris at the famous Institut du monde arabe!

The Institute is a cultural endeavour as a partnership between France and twenty-two Arab countries including the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan.

Details:

Tickets: FREE

Jan 29th - 6:30PM

Auditorium (niveau -2)

Institut du monde arabe

1, rue des Fossés Saint-Bernard – Place Mohammed V

Paris Cedex 05

75236

The film will play in English with French subtitles. See the trailer.

After the screening, there will be a discussion with Co-Director Jane Chablani and myself.

We hope to see you there and please forward this e-mail to your friends and family in Paris.

Best wishes

Shamir

Les Jeudis de l’IMA

Un espace de réflexion et de débat
Autour des cultures et des savoirs du monde arabe

JEUDI 29 JANVIER 2009 – 18 h 30
Auditorium (niveau -2)

DOCUMENTAIRE DU JEUDI

Une conscience islamique :
L’Aga Khan et les Ismaéliens

Réalisé par Jane Chablani, Bill Cran et Shamir Allibhai
Canada – 2008 – 62 mn – Couleur

L’islam pluriel
Le film est née du désir de donner à voir un Islam fait de « mosaïques de voix et de perspectives » à travers le destin d’une communauté singulière et de son chef spirituel. Depuis cinquante ans, l’Aga Khan est à la tête des Ismaéliens. Cette communauté, branche du chiisme fondée à la mort du 7ième Imam en 765, a connu son apogée dans le passé avec les Fatimides, une brillante dynastie qui a régné sur l’Égypte et une partie de l’Afrique du Nord du Xe au XIIe siècle. Aujourd’hui, les Ismaéliens témoignent à leur manière du pluralisme de l’islam. Un pluralisme qui est aux antipodes de l’image que veulent en donner des mouvements radicaux, un pluralisme qui suppose un dialogue ouvert entre les civilisations.

La projection sera suivie d’un échange entre les cinéastes :

Jane CHABLANI a travaillé notamment pour National Geographic et Discovery Channel. En 2007, elle a réalisé un documentaire sur Klimt,

Shamir ALLIBHAI poursuit en dehors de ses activités de producteur un master en études théologiques dans les domaines des études islamiques à Harvard.


Entrée libre dans la limite des places disponibles

Institut du monde arabe, 1, rue des Fossés Saint-Bernard – Place Mohammed V -75236 Paris Cedex 05

The challenges of screening in Dushanbe

Our screenings in Khorog went wonderfully. Dushanbe did too but only after a lot of headaches to make it happen.

Two and a half months ago we started seriously exploring the idea of a screening in Tajikistan. Screenings can be tricky to organize. Usually we find a sponsor and then search for and secure a venue. Next, we promote the event to get a good-sized audience. Little did we know that screening a film in Tajikistan is much more difficult than that.

First it was a foreign country and we had no idea of venues that would screen the film.

Secondly, there is a language barrier. Most people speak Russian and/or Tajik. We spoke neither. Some cinema-owners spoke broken English, others, nil. We often needed to bring along a friend to translate. Cinema owners, naturally, figure us out to be foreigners immediately and as quickly, the price for hiring out a screen doubles or triples.

When we finally agreed on the venue and the price, you would think, this is it. All set. Create tickets, market the event, invite embassies and other VIPs, and we should be ready to go. And all was ready to go - till a couple of days before the premiere.

Just before the Dushanbe screening was to take place, we were informed by the owner of the agreed-upon venue, Dom Kino, that he had been visited by officials from the government of Tajikistan who told him that the screening could not go forward without their permission. Fresh off five hectic days in Khorog where we were able to pull off seven successful screenings, I rushed back to Dushanbe to help three of my friends - who are really the heroes out of all this - sort out the situation. Meeting after meeting with the government ensued through the Ministry of Culture and the Special Committee on Religion. We couldn’t figure out what had suddenly caused the problem – one Ministry official even implied that the roadblocks were being thrown into our path not because the government desired to block the screening, but rather at the instigation of AKDN Tajikistan. But when I asked the head of AKDN Tajikistan, he said it was the government.

All the way to the day of the screening we attended meeting after meeting after meeting, pressing our case to make this premiere happen. There was also one really stubborn official at the Ministry who would not watch the film and just kept on coming up with different reasons to stop the screening, none of which really made sense and, cumulatively, definitely did not offer a coherent argument. My translator / friend said it seemed he had a deal with someone to deter the film.

Apparently this issue went to the Deputy Minister on Fri, Aug 29. We are not sure what he said because we just could not wait around any longer. Luckily we had a backup plan and a backup venue, and via a frantic round of calls to embassy personnel, UN’ers, AKDN’ers and others, got many people to come to the new location.

In retrospect, I look back at my original email announcing the screening in Tajikistan. The email blast went out before any of the struggle in Dushanbe happened, but it is rather ironic how I mentioned this documentary was a fight against those who are in power who like to impose it on the rest of us, almost foreshadowing what was to come in Dushanbe. Without leading into a huge discourse as to what is freedom: freedom really is a timeless struggle.