Silent film concert: Views of the Ottoman Empire
Film critic Jay Weissberg of Variety takes you hundreds of years back in time to the Ottoman Empire, at our unique silent film concert, accompanied by live music and reading of Arabic poems and travelogues. These newly restored film treasures unearthed from archives worldwide provides a unique insight into the multicultural and pluralistic daily life in the Middle East in the early 1900s.
What was the Middle East like a hundred years ago? In an epic silent film concert we present newly restored films that were filmed during the Ottoman Empires last days. From the 1500s until the end of WWI the Middle East was subject to the Ottoman Empire, with headquarters in Istanbul. This period is often forgotten in school curricula on the Middle East, but has shaped the region we see today perhaps more than anything else. The films in the collection being presented under the Arab Film Days shows landscapes, buildings and everyday life from Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, Tripoli and Istanbul among others. Views of the Ottoman Empire has previously been shown in London, Brussels and Bologna and other major cities around the world. The majority of the screened films are from the collection of EYE Filmmuseum in Amsterdam.
The films were originally recorded by European travellers in the region. The oldest is from 1902, while the newest is from 1914. The films are put together by a group of film historians who have scrutinized various archives throughout the world looking for these film treasures. An important goal of the project is to dismiss the prevailing thesis that the Ottoman Empire was a society in full collapse decades before the First World War. These pictures show the opposite. The Ottoman state was possibly dysfunctional, but the communities in the Middle East were multireligious and multi-ethnical societies. This is an important message to those who say that the region is and always will be characterized by ethnic conflicts and extremism.
Live music with lute and clarinet
The films are without sound, but will be accompanied by live music and text reading. Gecko Fatal plays the lute, Erlend Baratt-Due the clarinet and Dana Jdid reads Arabic poems and travelogues from the towns we see on the canvas. This is a unique opportunity to experience a silent film concert that gives rare insight into life in the Middle East centuries ago.
Jay Weissberg has been reviewing films for Variety since 2003. In addition to being a critic in the film industry's most prestigious magazine, Weissberg has been in countless juries and curated sections for many major and minor festivals around the world. He is a graduated film historian and is visiting the Arab Film Days as project leader for "Views of the Ottoman Empire" where he has led efforts to collect forgotten film material from the Ottoman Empire.
Tickets will be out soon, save the date: Friday 17th April at 6 PM at Victoria