Screening 3 and Village Politics

Creating a screen out of the wall

Tajikistan Screening No. 3: Aug 24
Location: Chohkandez Village, Gorno-Badakhshan, Tajikistan

I stayed in a beautiful Pamiri house while in Badakhshan, warmly taken care of by a lovely Tajik family. The house, sitting on the side of a mountain, was flanked by two fresh-water streams (and the water tasted better than Evian)! Waking up every morning to the sounds of running water and beautiful natural views is very refreshing.

In Chohkandez village that night, we screened AN ISLAMIC CONSCIENCE: the Aga Khan and the Ismailis in a Pamiri house. All was going smoothly till we encountered some village politics.

Three quarters of the way through the film, the head of the village came into the large main room of the house where we were having the screening. Clearly smelling of alcohol and with blood-shot eyes, he told all of us the screening is over in unequivocal terms. A few of the older men took him outside and tried to calm him down. He kept getting more and more agitated.

Then a few women got involved to try and calm him down. When he started to get too loud, I put on my best Russian and tried to speak to him. He wasn't having any of it.

Apparently, this guy had asked all the residents to help out with building a water pipe for their village earlier in the day. The village people did not help out: many of them were busy as there are a lot of weddings going on in the summer and with Ramadan looming, many people were trying to get married (and celebrate it with feasts and dancing) before the fasting begins.

The head of the village couldn't make much progress on the water pipe and thus got quite angry. He drank the rest of his afternoon away.

Then in the evening when he heard about the screening, saw the empty village, and found out that most people were watching a movie, he got even more angry. If the people would not help build a pipe, then they would not be allowed to watch a film - went his logic. As he is the head of the village and the (physically) biggest guy in the neighborhood: his word is final.

The crowd, quite apologetic, left. And some DVDs were given away so they can finish the film... once the pipe is built :)

I am trying to talk to the head of the village.

Pictures from the Second Screening in Tajikistan - Buni Village

Tajikistan Screening No. 2: Aug 23
Location: Buni village, Gorno-Badakhshan, Tajikistan

Setting up at the community centre (above).

We replaced my charger-less laptop for Vadim's laptop.

Question and Answer Session.
One question that came up a few times: why didn't we show more of Tajikistan in the film?
My Answer: We would have loved to, and I think there should be a full documentary on the Tajik jamat in itself, but there is limited space in a film. We had to be selective. A good film is NOT an essay - we hope this film encourages and inspires people to do their own research in books, on the Internet, etc. We merely were trying to give a summary of a 1400-year old story - and to do it within an hour.

PAMIR MEDIA: An Islamic Conscience in Khorog

Pamir Media

Pamir Media
English Version (translated from the Russian / Tajik original versions below)

Screening of the documentary film "Islamic Conscience: Aga Khan and Ismailis" in Gorno-Badakhshan

As it was reported by the producer Shamir Allibhai, the independent documentary film "Islamic Conscience: Aga Khan and Ismailis" was screened in Khorog town and several villages of the region. The film was made under guidance of a famous film director Bill Cran, the multiple winner of Emmy award.

Earlier the film was shown in Canada, USA, UK, and East Africa. On 29th of August the premiere was shown in Dushanbe in Dom Kino. [SA: Film was planned to be shown in Dom Kino but instead was shown elsewhere]

In Gorno-Badakhshan the screening of the film was initiated by its producer. According to the source, the main purpose of the screenings is to make aware the population about the activities of the Spiritual leader of Ismailis His Highness the Aga Khan, history and cultural traditions of Ismailism, one of the branches of Islam.

Russian version

В ГБАО СОСТОЯЛСЯ ПОКАЗ ФИЛЬМА: «ИСЛАМСКОЕ СОЗНАНИЕ: АГА ХАН И ИСМАИЛИТЫ»

Хорог. «Памир Медиа»./Шамс Рахматулло/. В Горном Бадахшане состоялся показ документального фильма «Исламское сознание: Ага Хан и исмаилиты».

Как сообщил продюсер фильма Шамир Алибхай, независимый документальный фильм «Исламское сознание: Ага Хан и исмаилиты» показан в городе Хорог и нескольких селах области. Фильм снят по сценарию известного кинорежиссера и многократного обладателя премии Эмми Билла Крэна.

Ранее фильм был показан в Канаде, США, Великобритании и Восточной Африке. 29 августа состоялась премьера фильма в душанбинском Доме кино.

Показ фильма в ГБАО состоялся по инициативе его авторов. По словам источника, фильм был показан с целью ознакомления зрителей с деятельностью духовного лидера исмаилитов мира Его Высочества Ага Хана IV, историей и культурными традициями Исмаилизма, одного из направлений Ислама.

Tajik version

ДАР БАДАХШОН ФИЛМИ «ТАФАККУРИ ИСЛОМ: ОҒОХОН ВА ИСМОИЛИЁН» БАРГУЗОР ШУД

Хоруғ. «Помир Медиа». Шамс Раҳматулло. Дар Бадахшон намоиши филм таҳти унвони «Тафаккури ислом: Оғохон ва исмоилиён» баргузор шуд.

Муаллифи филм продюсер Самир Алибай изҳор дошт, ки ҳадафи намоиши филм нишон додани чеҳраи фарҳангии ҷараёни исмоилия ва фаъолияти пешвои он Оғохони- IV ба бинандагон мебошад .

Филм аз тарафи коргардони мустақил таҳия шуда, намоиши он бо ташаббуси инфиродии гурӯҳи эҷодӣ сурат гирифтааст.

Филм дар 7 маҳалҳои мухталифи Бадахшон ба намоиш гузошта шуда, аз ҷониби мухлисон гарм пазироӣ гардид.

Shamir in the Pamirs

Tajikistan Screening No. 1: Aug 23
Location: Yomj Village, Gorno-Badakhshan, Tajikistan

There are effectively two ways to get to Khorog from Dushanbe: a long, at times treacherous, bumpy drive or a plane. The flight from Dushanbe to Khorog can be quite precarious too. The small plane can only fly when the weather is good because even at its maximum altitude, it still needs to pass through the mountains. At certain times during the 1-hour journey, you are so close to the peaks that it feels like the wings are going to get clipped by them.

All said, it was a spectacular view.

Reach out and you may just touch the Pamir mountains

What was the plan for screening in Khorog?

Well…there really wasn’t one. I wanted to do a screening there but I figured I would just go there and sort it out. I had received a few messages on Facebook this year requesting to play the film in Khorog so I thought, will get at least five people at the screening even if the screening is just playing the film off of my laptop!

One of those Facebook messages was from Vadim (left).


Vadim was the key force for the screenings coming together in Khorog and he worked tremendously hard to make it happen. He picked me up at Khorog’s airport and I thought from there we would go to lunch to plan the next few days to make a screening happen. As soon as I sat in his SUV, he was like ‘let’s go.’ I said, ‘where?’ ‘Our first screening is in 2 hours' and off we were.

Armed with a laptop, the film DVD, and a projector and screen that we sourced locally, we were ready to go. The first village we went to was Yomj.

I wasn’t sure how all this worked. Vadim said, "Don’t worry, the head of the village will spread the word of the film and all the people will come. We will screen it in the community centres which are common to most villages." What about the power to run the laptop and projector? He said, "Inshallah, it'll all be fine", trying to instill comfort in me (as he smiled, nervously).

Team work.

The men from the village helped us set up. They covered the windows with sheets. They setup benches and chairs. And they laid out the wires. As we were about ready to start, the power went out.

We waited for 5 mins, 10 mins, 15 mins. Apparently the next village over was doing some work on the power wires and all subsequent villages lost power. It was going to be awhile till it came back on. Don’t worry, Vadim said.

A few men from Yomj brought out a generator.


Once the generator started running, we were back on or so I thought. As the generator was being coaxed on, the power surged and it must have been too much for my laptop power supply to handle. The fuse blew. Done. For this screening I had enough battery power to make it work, thankfully, and I would have to sort out my laptop woes later. Thus began our first screening in Tajikistan.

Paperweight, formerly a charger. The tape is because a few Tajiks tried to open and fix the charger, and when unsuccessful, they put it back together.

The screening was a moving experience, and an experience that I felt again and again over the next 7 screenings in Tajikistan.

When the crowd would see Tajikistan on the screen, they would get very excited. When they saw the Aga Khan walking amongst his people, they would start softly saying prayers to themselves. They were teary-eyed at different points in the film and at the end, they said they were upset that it had ended.

We did Q+A sessions after each film and when it was over, they would invite us to their houses for food and tea but we had to decline. We said our good-byes quickly exchanging hugs, smiles, and handshakes: we had more screenings to do.

This is the first time we premiered the film with Russian subtitles.

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.

Central Asia Premiere - Dushanbe, Tajikistan - Pictures

We did it, we did it, we did it.

When I wanted to screen the Aga Khan Film in Tajikistan, I did not know how difficult it would be. Thank you to the certain key people, you know who you are, who made it happen and would not take no for an answer.

---

These pictures are in reverse order but nevertheless, the celebration pictures are the most important so here they are first:

Musicians and music from the region.

Dancing, Tajik style.


A full-house: standing-room only please.


This gentleman on the left complimented the film during the Q+A session, saying how for him, as a non-Ismaili, this was very useful and he thinks this is an excellent piece to show to many others.


A small world: The lady in the middle I had actually met just over a year ago in Kenya when I was trying to capture the essense of the East African Ismailis' stories. She had just arrived from Afghanistan, heard the film was playing and showed up. It was nice to see her. She recalled the struggle we had a year ago in the context of how it all worked out in the end.

My translator and a new friend, Shodi, trying to remember everything I am saying so he can translate accurately.

Q+A with the audience.




The audience waiting for the screening to start. This venue, an open-air museum, was probably one of the coolest we have ever screened in.

Here I am sooooooo happy that we figured out a solution to the challenges of screening in Dushanbe!

_oOo_

So this weekend we celebrate, tomorrow we can rant about the unjustifiably MASSIVE challenges, created by various organizations, of screening a film here in Tajikistan . To be continued on Monday...

ASIA-Plus Article on Tajikistan Premiere

http://www.asiaplus.tj/en/news/44/37469.html

Documentary “An Islamic Conscience: the Aga Khan and the Ismailis” to be shown in Dushanbe on August 29

23.08.2008 10:51

Author: Daler Ghufronov

DUSHANBE, August 23, 2008, Asia-Plus -- Central Asia Premiere of documentary “An Islamic Conscience: the Aga Khan and the Ismailis” will be held at Dom Kino in Dushanbe on August 29.
Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, the film producer, Mr. Shamir Alibhai, said that “An Islamic Conscience: the Aga Khan and the Ismailis” is an independent documentary feature film directed by multiple Emmy-award winning filmmaker Bill Cran. It was first broadcast nationally on television in Canada and has been screening all over the world including at Harvard, Stanford, London, and East Africa.

The film is about His Highness the Aga Khan, who became Imam (spiritual leader) of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims on July 11, 1957 and his efforts to promote dialogue between civilizations.

Born into a world of wealth and privilege, he devotes his life to eliminating poverty and inequality. A religious leader who traces his ancestry back to the Prophet Muhammad, he struggles to balance the traditional with the modern.

For the past five decades, the Aga Khan has been the spiritual leader and Imam of the 15 million Ismaili Muslims in a world that has changed dramatically. From the end of colonialism and the expulsion of the Asians in Uganda to the fall of the Iron Curtain and 9/11, the Aga Khan has struggled for a common humanity in a divided world.

At a time when Islam is at odds with itself and with the West, the Aga Khan represents a voice of moderation, speaking out for pluralism and diversity, and promoting dialogue between civilizations. But will he be heard?

Central Asia Premiere!

Dear Supporter
Since we started making this film, we saw how often times those with the loudest voices were the only ones to get heard and how those in power like to impose it on the rest of the people. We wanted to fight for the silenced ones. We aspired to tell the story of a community and its Imam that has never been told through the medium of film before. We aspired to show a side of Islam that is often not covered in the media these days. And, as one does when the going gets tough, you put your head in the clouds way up there to find some peace and sanctity. For me, “the clouds” was an aspiration to do a BIG premiere in Tajikistan. Bringing the film to the Tajiks has been important to me, but they are part of a metaphor: a symbol for all those who have been marginalized, faced hardship and struggle, and whose lives should be at least a little bit easier.

This week, those clouds come down to earth and the dream becomes a reality. This week the film premieres in Tajikistan.

Stay up-to-date (based on as much Internet access I can get!) via the blog http://agakhanfilm.blogspot.com

And thank you to all those who have supported and bought the film. Your support has allowed us to make screenings in remote places possible including probably Central Asia’s first premiere of a foreign film in decades! :)

Best wishes,
Shamir

AN ISLAMIC CONSCIENCE wins 2nd place at Festival

Bayou City Inspirational Film Festival

BCIFF 2008 Jury Awards

Best Investigative/ Political Documentary

1^st Place- Drug Wars: Silver or Lead-Rusty Fleming

2^nd Place-An Islamic Conscience- Shamir Allibhai

3^rd Place- Documented America: The I Word- CJ Raef

Follow-up from the Seattle Screening

Source: http://www.tasveer.org/newsletters/2008-08-09%20ISAFF%20Volunteers/

An Islamic Conscience — One of Tasveer's best events!

We had a very insightful screening and discussion on Sunday on the documentary An Islamic Conscience. Many thanks to Chaya's Peaceful Families Taskforce and the Ismaili community for taking the lead on this event.

Some quotes from audience members:

“This film captured the respect and love that Ismailis have for their spiritual leader.”

“I really liked the film. I am glad it covered the expulsion of Asians of Uganda. This was an important event in our [Ismaili] history.”

“This film is relevant and important for all Muslims, not just Ismailis... Actually its important for everyone to watch it... it covered 9/11 and the work of Aga Khan in the post-9/11 world, especially in Afghanistan.” - Riz

“The environment was really nice and the event exceeded my expectations. I really liked the ideas that came up during the post-film discussion.” - Heena

“Two Thumbs for the moderator [Natasha Merchant]!” - Hafiz

Tasveer has An Islamic Conscience DVDs for sale. Contact info@tasveer.org for more info.

Tasveer is a Northwest non-profit dedicated to promoting Independent South Asian cinema.