After the first week in Malmö, next stop was Stockholm where Talat myself and Roushan Illahi where going to attend and perform at a Kashmiri conference.
Now I know we have issues with UK trains and i was reminded how efficient trains are here in Sweden…well that was about to change. 2 hours into our 5 hour journey the train breaks down, now we left Lund Central Station around 4pm and time of arrival into Stockholm was supposed to be around 9.30pm, we didn’t get into Stockholm until well after 1am.
Following day we set off to the venue about an hours drive from Rinkeby where we where staying. This area a few years ago was host to a race riot with cars set on fire etc etc.
With a couple of hours before the event we all mucked in and set stuff up. Im not a trained sound engineer but what knowledge i had from being a musician came in handy, as since this was a weekend event, the technical team weren’t around to give us assistance nevertheless we eventually got it sorted. At one point i had to ring my mate back in the UK to get advice, but everything worked out in the end and the conference about plight in Kashmir when ahead, with MC Kash and myself closing the event with a perf.
Yesterday was last day of video workshop and the group from Western Sahara will now take their work to Goteburg with Råfilm. I will connect with Råfilm when they return back before i head back to UK.
The previous day one member from Equip Media and Saharavoices and myself had the pleasure of meeting and also interviewing Marie Granlund, parliamentarian from the
social democrats, who listened to their stories while i filmed.
The rest carried on frantically finishing off respective films to show in Goteburg.
During my last day i was kindly given a copy of Råfilm first dvd by one of its other members which I’ll show to like minded filmmakers back in Manchester.
Later today 2nd phase of my work will begin with Talat who’s filming a Kashmiri conference in Stockholm and I’ll be helping him cover the conference.
See you in Stockholm.
Monday 22nd at Råfilm offices we where in the company of one their video editors Sascha Füischer who worked on the feature film documentary about Zlatan Ibrahimovic who recently sign to that other so called in Manchester.
Anyway as i was saying Sascha presented a workshop on Editing-Story & Dramaturgy with subheadings such as 1.WHAT KIND OF STORY AM I TRYING TO TELL
2.DOCUMENTARIES WITH A MESSAGE
3.DRAMATURGY(structure of a story)
I have definitely learnt some more stuff about the art of editing and will take some of those ways on board just like the group from Western Sahara, who’s film 3 Stolen Cameras has taken on a new lease of life, especially the intro which just smacks you in the face.
So after a few days with Råfilm Sahwari voices and Eqquie Media the group decide to make a documentary about
Mariem Hassan a Sahrawi singer and lyricist from Western Sahara.
She usually sang in Hassaniyya, an Arabic dialect and sometimes in Spanish. They started doing research via the Internet and i came across a workshop Mariem had done with locals from Stockholm, it was really inspiring to watch. She was also a regular at WOMAD festivals which i have also attended and been apart of the same festival many many years ago as official photographer at their Morecambe Bay site which is no longer hosting the event.
I became a fly on the wall for the rest of the day, in and out of various space buzzing around filming stuff as they group got down to some serious work.
Once id film enough footage i listened and watch a few videos of the conflict that was happening in Western Sahara, some of it really disturbing and sad to see, but on positive note saw some hip hop artist from USA, Holland and Spain performing a track in the occupied territory with slick editing and camera work.
The day was concluded by a I.T workshop about transfer of media and how meta data works etc. Another good day at the office as they say.
Thursday 18th Aug I jump into an ongoing workshop which started on Monday with the guess from Western Sahara it was a frantic day with a million and one things going on. Phone calls from Malmo local newspaper were always interupting the flow of the workshop.
The first part of the session was to introduce the group to a selection of films made by Råfilm and concluded with an existing film they’d done together about situation in occupied territory of Western Sahara. The title of the film was called Three Stolen Cameras.
I was mortified at what i saw in the film, most of the footage came from concealed cameras and at some point in the film you could see the the riot police spotting tge people with these hidden cameras.
Once spotted their cameras would be converscated hence the title of the film.
2nd part of the session would be a brainstorming exercise about new ideas and themes regarding presenting relvealing footage in another way. So myself included we sat round and wrote ideas on post it notes and out them in the wall once we’d finished.
One by one, me included we’d present our ideas and the rest of the group woukd of course feedback their thoughts.
All in all it was an eye opener for me, as i wasn’t aware of this problem they had with the Moroccan government. But once again it was good to see how Råfilm Collective approached this in their unique way.
