Two films on Music
JAHAJI MUSIC: India in the Caribbean
Directed by Surabhi Sharma
112 mins/ DV/ 2007
13th April (Friday), 2007 at 6.30pm
The screening will be followed by a chat with the filmmaker
KHAYAL DARPAN
Introducing a Documentary Film about Classical Music in Pakistan
Directed by Yousuf Saeed
105 mins /Urdu/Hindi (with English subtitles)
14th April (Saturday), 2007 at 6.30pm
DANCE WITH FARM WORKERS
Directed by Wu Wenguang
90 min / 2001 / China
15th April (Sunday), 2007
About JAHAJI MUSIC
From the mid-nineteenth century Indian labourers arrived in the Caribbean on boats, bringing a few belongings and their music – the beginnings of a remarkable cultural practice. More than 150 years later musician Remo Fernandes travels to the Islands to explore potential collaborations and create new work. Jahaji Music: India in the Caribbean is a record of a difficult, if unusual and complex, musical journey.
Director’s Note:
We walk around Trenchtown with Bob Marley’s teacher and Rastafari philosopher Mortimo Planno; accompany calypso and soca singer Rikki Jai to Skinner Park; chat with visual artist Chris Cozier in the Savannah; follow Dancehall Queen Stacey to Weddy Weddy Wednesday; groove to Lady Saw’s lyrics; record a new song with Denise Saucy Wow Belfon and are guests at an East Indian Hindu wedding. Endeavouring, through it all, to weave a story of memory, identity and creativity. Jahaji Music is an attempt to make meaning of aspects of contemporary culture in Trinidad and Jamaica, even as it is a witness to the nature and possibilities of artistic collaboration.
About KHAYAL DARPAN
In 2005, the Delhi-based filmmaker, Yousuf Saeed, spent more than 6 months in Pakistan as part of a research fellowship where he surveyed the development of khayal and other forms of classical traditions in Pakistan after 1947. After traveling in the 3 main cities of Pakistan – Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad – interviewing musicians and scholars, attending music concerts, and observing the teaching of music in various institutions, Yousuf not only managed to document some of the surviving practitioners and patrons of art music, but also raised many vital questions about cultural identity, nationalism, legitimacy of music in Islam, Pakistan’s popular culture and its affairs with India, and the survival of classical music itself in South Asia. The film features some well-known as well as many lesser known but talented musicians of Pakistan, breaking many stereotypes about the country.
While Khayal Darpan (http://www.khayaldarpan.info) informs us of some the hidden talents of Pakistan, it also raises many questions about how the classical music is going to survive in future, not only in Pakistan but in India as well, and whose cultural property it really is. The film is a real tour-de-force for a new generation of South Asians who are bent upon defining their cultural and national identities according to their religion.