TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2015 // A FILM REVIEW OF "SONG OF LAHORE"
The 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, runs April 15th-26th and features hundreds of features, documentaries, short films, and special events all throughout downtown New York City. The ArtsWire Weekly's three featured reviewers Mateo, Derek, & Chrisena are hitting the festival and bringing the reviews right to you! What you should see and what you should skip...
For centuries, Lahore, Pakistan was the epicenter of all things artistic. There are stories about the nonstop music that kept the city streets alive. Music was flourishing. Musicians passed down their knowledge and their instruments from generation to generation, creating entire families that could not only play music, but could survive on it as a profession. Sadly, nowadays this wonderful time of artistic growth is only a memory trapped behind closed doors. Shariah Law was implemented in 1977 in Pakistan. With this new change in rules, and the extremist views in power, musicians took their skills, instruments and songs unsung and went into hiding. Those same musicians who had once been thought of as belonging to a higher cast were now in fear for their lives.
Since the 70’s, the rules regarding the playing of music have eased, but not much. The main problem is that with the Shariah laws taking over, the importation of new instrument equipment has become impossible. The image that is burned into my mind is the scene near the very beginning of one of the film, where the flutist is holding his grandfather’s violin. It is cracked, the strings are gone, the bridge is broken and the wood is dull. Because Pakistan has such a ban on music, this treasured instrument and family heirloom will continue to decay just as a society’s culture decays with oppression surrounding art.
However, where there is a will, there is a way. Filmmakers Andy Schocken and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy take us behind sound-proofed doors and show us an underground world of musicians in SONG OF LAHORE. We meet a father and son who play an assortment of percussion instruments, a flutist who carves his own flutes, a multitude of guitarists and violinists, a citar player and their conductor. Their home studio is Sachal studios, a place that was built in the early 2000’s. The original goal of Sachal Studios was to preserve classical Pakistani music, but when we meet the musicians, they have decided that they now want to take their music a step further and do something fresh and new.
They decide to choose one of their favorite pieces, Take Five, and play it with their classical instruments.
The mixture of these two styles works surprisingly well. Although it did bring about a chuckle when I first heard it, it is an amazing rendition of an American classic. Thanks to YouTube, Sachal studios’ video zooms around the world and catches the ear of Wynton Marsalis. Within a matter of months, the Sachal Studios Jazz Ensemble heads off to New York City to perform with the Lincoln Center Jazz Ensemble.
Watching these men experiencing New York through fresh eyes was incredibly moving. They are astounded by things that New Yorkers tend to be irritated with. They enjoy the street performers spray painted silver, and are amazed by the men playing drums on buckets on the street corners. They even commandeer the Naked Cowboy and force him to play an American ballad, to which they sing all of the words. These scenes are so eye-opening. We take our artistic freedoms for granted here, and I felt ashamed that I am guilty of that.
Song of Lahore is heartwarming and makes you rethink everything you know about a different culture. It makes you take a look at what we take for granted in this country, our religious and artistic freedoms. I laughed, I cried and left feeling a personal responsibility to appreciate every scrap of art this city has to offer.
VERDICT: MUST SEE
DIRECTED BY Andy Schocken & Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy FEATURED The Sachal Jazz Ensemble, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra
Playing as part of The 2015 Tribeca International Film Festival. For tickets & schedules: http://www.tribecafilm.com
CHRISENA RICCI once went to a costume party dressed in an all black dress and black wig. No one there could guess who she was. So she shouted out, "I'm Christina Ricci, without the T or I and add an E!" Everyone stood there confused, she was annoyed, so she stormed off. She never returned to that apartment ever again. Which is fine, because she later realized she was at the wrong party. She now lives in New York City.