The recent Reel Festivals in Lebanon and Scotland was an intense, inspiring experience, and we’re still processing what happened along the way. Like all best laid plans, there was a huge amount of fluidity and unexpected crossovers. The first and most challenging issue we faced was the developments in Syria leading to both our festival being postponed in Syria and a number of participants not being able to make it to take part, most notably the street musicians from Daraa’, Southen Syria. We were of course disappointed about this, our thoughts are with them and we still hope to host them at some point in the near future when the situation allows. However, Syria was still very much a part of our festival, with collaborations between Syrian poets and Lebanese and Scottish writers, as well as film-makers presenting their works to a new audiences.
Shooglenifty @ Music Hall (Photo: Douglas Robertson)
Perhaps one of the most vibrant piece of collaboration we saw was when the Scottish band Shooglenifty come to Beirut for 4 days as part of Reel Festivals. We arranged for a small session for them and local musicians to play together in an informal setting. It was great. Perfect atmosphere, long, drawn out pieces of music with people testing the waters, seeing what possibilities for overlap there were, and then going for it.
This led to Shooglenifty inviting two of these musicians, Omar Dewachi and Bashir Saadi to perform with them as part of their concert in Beirut’s legendary Music Hall on the weekend. These musicians, having met for a total of 2 hours before the concert, managed to put together a beautiful piece, as Shooglenifty’s chief fiddler Angus described it ‘people coming together in peace through music’.
Bill Drummond's Graffiti in Beirut (Photo: Dan Gorman)
Another highlight in Beirut must have been the chance to spend some time walking the streets together with art music legend Bill Drummond and Lebanese graffiti artist Siska, who helped us spread Bill Drummond’s mantra “Imagine Waking up tomorrow and all Music had Disappeared”
On our return to Edinburgh there were many beautiful aspects, but one of the strongest memories must be the poetry collaborations, which took place in Edinburgh at the Scottish Poetry Library and the Forest and atthe Scottish Writer’s Centre in Glasgow. Lebanese, Syrian and Scottish poets performed new translations of each others work to rapt audiences. As one audience member put it: “It fairly makes a difference when you know the poetry makes a difference.”
And of course we musst mention the films, in Lebanon Scottish film-makers had audiences spell bound, with the Wicker Man making Time Out Beirut’s Classic film of the month and Amy Hardie and Lou McLoughlan leading excellent Question and Answer sessions. Then on the return leg we were very proud to see packed audiences for our Syrian and Lebanese screenings, particularly those with directors present. Hady Zaccak from Lebanon presented A History Lesson and Syrian directors Reem Ali and Soudade Kaadan both screened their films to great success. Right now we need these sorts of interactions more than ever, and we’ll be uploading footage of some of these discussions on the site soon.
Now we’re looking forward to continuing the festival through the creation of new works, with a film currently being edited by Scottish Iranian Film maker and musician Roxana Vilk, DJ Dolphin Boy putting the finishing touches to some Syrian and Lebanese mixes and a forthcoming e-book of the poetry translations. We aim for these boundary crossing collaborations to continue and develop, there will be more!
Thanks from all at Reel Festivals to all the participants and volunteers, and all the audience, for making this one of the most memorable Reel Festivals yet.
Syrian, Lebanese and Scottish poets at the Scottish Poetry Library (Photo: Chris Scott)
