Photos From The Culturist Film Club Screening of An Incomplete Calendar
On October 2, I hosted my first event as The Culturist Film Club at Alserkal Arts Fondation. I presented a screening of Sanaz Sohrabi’s An Incomplete Calendar in the foundation’s Project Space and Sohrabi joined us online for a post screening discussion.
It was a lovely gathering on a Friday night and sitting at the back during the screening I could feel an attentive energy in the room. Most of the audience members stayed for the discussion and a few participated with questions and comments. Sanaz is so thoughtful and articulate about her work, and an artist and filmmaker who is accessible to a wider audience, my favourite kind.
Thanks and gratitude to Alserkal Arts Foundation, Kevin Jones and Solani Tehri for their support.
The photos below are courtesy of Alserkal Arts Foundation, by Daryll Borja from Seeing Things, and extracts from my introduction notes are added after the end.
Photo credit for all:
'An Incomplete Calendar' by Sanaz Sohrabi, with Hind Mezaina of The Culturist Film Club. Presented by Alserkal Arts Foundation. Photo by Daryll Borja (Seeing Things).
An edited version of my introduction:
I’m happy and honored to introduce and present An Incomplete Calendar by Sanaz Sohrabi in this modest setting for a film that premiered at Cinema de Reel, won awards, and continues to travel to notable international festivals. It will be at IDFA in November, one of the most important documentary film festivals.
In my opinion it is one of the most important films of the year. A timely and relevant film because of the current state of the news and regional conflict since February 28, not to mention everything that’s happened since October 2023. It’s a film that looks at history using counter archives to reframe oil not as commodity but as a political leverage for liberation struggles and Pan-Arab solidarity between 1960-1970, and also about nationalism and de-colonial politics between the 1950s-80s.
I say counter archives because this film is the last in a trilogy that looks at a history of oil over the last century, colonial violence, liberation struggles and contested solidarities. The first two were based on corporate archives from British Petroleum. Both are essay films like the one we will watch tonight - One Image, Two Acts from 2020 and Scenes of Extraction from 2023 which I screened last summer at Jameel Arts Centre.
Tonight we will see Sanaz’s first feature length film, and learn about little-known 1980 vinyl record which was the starting point of this film. “Rhymes and Songs for OPEC” is a special music album recorded by the Central University of Venezuela’s concert choir to commemorate the 20th anniversary of OPEC Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Using music and archives that include stamps, letters, magazines, films and photographs collected over the past six years, plus voiceovers, the film is a geopolitical portrait about energy, infrastructure, labour, solidarity, nationalism and cultural exchange across West Asia, Africa and Latin America during the second half of the 20th century.