Patriata Film and Production Company is a pioneer in integrated media enterprise, with a special innovative focus on normally inaccessible areas of cultural interest.
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- Film
Jazz Bridges - Music Without Frontiers
During their rule in Afghanistan, the Taliban banned music and most forms of artistic and cultural expression. After their downfall in 2001, artists were given a new lease of life. In 2007, the cultural wing of the US Embassy in London sponsored a concert to showcase the fusion of Western (American, British and Danish) and Eastern (Afghan) musicians. The unique combination of Afghan music and Jazz was the brainchild of American Voices’ John Ferguson who describes the project as “a groundbreaking moment in the recent history of Afghan music”. Jazz Bridges: Music Without Frontiers is the film of that event. Apart from the sometimes pounding, often haunting soundtrack, the film interviews the musicians as well as organisers of the concert. These include celebrated rhythmists Mark and Mike Mondesir, Michael Macy, cultural attaché at the US Embassy, Ghulam Hussain and his Ensemble (Afghanistan’s acclaimed folk musicians), CoCo York (celebrated international American jazz singer), and American Voices’ John Ferguson, and pianist Mike Del Ferro.
Ten Days: (selected by the following International Film Festivals: Filmstock, Queens, Digital Narrative Arts)
Ten Days opens on a street corner in an urban ghetto of Gujrat, Pakistan, where we are introduced to the procession participants who are led by the first ‘voice’ that unravels the film’s central focus – the rituals and symbols, as well as the historical and religious significance – of the Ashura commemorations.
We then meet the second ‘voice’ who is seen rehearsing the ‘qaseedas’, or lamentations that are performed during these commemorations, on the way to a particular gathering near Gujrat.
Through the subtle imagination of celebrated artist, Siddiqa Juma, and against a haunting ‘qaseeda’, the historical context of the commemorations is presented, followed by a lingering, uninterrupted first-hand view of the main procession in the city of Lahore. Here, the viewer is introduced to subtle glimpses of the many different religious and cultural aspects of Ashura in Pakistan.
August Lebanon
An American photographer accompanies a Muslim delegation on the first international flight back to Lebanon following the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in the summer of 2006. He sees the extent of the devastation, meets government officials, and follows a fact-finding team throughout the country, giving a compelling everyman insight that attempts to explain extraordinary events to ordinary people.
‘August Lebanon’ is an evolving documentary – based on observational on-the-spot storytelling. The main ‘voice’ is American photographer, Jorge Roberto Ramirez, who leaves Los Angeles when he is invited by a friend to join a fact-finding humanitarian team from England to film the first flight back to Lebanon following the end of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. Having asked ordinary, mainly young, people in the US what they understand about the recent conflict, Jorge delves into deeper questions about the situation and interviews Lebanese families on the airplane returning to their homeland for the first time since the conflict, capturing their individual stories as well as their hopes and aspirations - a young mother with her infant daughter; a Christian family evacuated a month earlier.