Video director Sonya Edelman asked me to join her on a more then unusual project. We were to create ‘Poetry Videos’. Our talent: Bahareh.
The first meeting was an intriguing one. It started off pleasantly enough with Bahareh warmly welcoming me into her beautiful home and feeding me the most delicious baklava from Iran. (Bahareh’s coffee table always offers the most amazing selection of treats). Sonya was there, and I was ready to learn more about the project. Bahareh brought some of her many colourful journals out, selected a poem and began to read.
As the poem came to life, I was distracted by something quite unusual. Bahareh writes diagonally. She also doesn’t cross anything out. I had to ask, and Bahareh calmly replied,
“I’ve talked to another poet, she saw my notebooks and the way I write and she said ‘where do you take notes, where do you write?’ I said ‘notes? I just write”.
It’s true. I have seen Bahareh write in her journals and the poetry does seem to just arrive. Each page of each journal has a complete poem, yet each journal also has an entire unique theme of its own. Getting to know Bahareh’s poetry is getting to know Bahareh. Her poems live in the same world we do, yet different. A world more colourful, fantastical, and surreal and yet sometimes more grey, isolated and horrific.
As the preparations began Sonya had a clear vision of the style she wanted to pursue,
“I’ve always liked the music video format, it’s like avant garde filmmaking. They really push boundaries conceptually, and are ripe with images that lend themselves to producing something highly visual and stylistic”
Out of Bahareh’s hundreds of poems, two were chosen: “The Invitation of the Mosque” and an untitled poem which we called “Beach”. The goal: to shoot two poetry videos in one day. We made our preparations and a couple of weeks later equipment and crew were assembled, and the big shoot came upon us.
Dawn at the breakwater.
The light was perfect. It was clear that this was going to be a good day. This was Bahareh’s first time to be the talent on a set and we were all a bit worried about how she would react. There is nothing glamorous about filmmaking, and certainly not on the beach. A few hours went by with Bahareh stepping in and out of the water, walking across the sand, sitting, writing and standing , and then came Sonya’s call: ‘Great Bahareh, now let’s do it one more time!’ Our set didn’t offer any comforts yet Bahareh took direction naturally and all in her stride.
“Bahareh had to be responsible for her own makeup and wardrobe, we would cut, she would fix herself – she was a great sport,” Sonya recalls.
We wrapped up at the beach at 11am, but there were two more locations to go: Hamdan Street and Sheikh Zayed Mosque. The sunlight wouldn’t be right till about 3.00pm, and the sun was going to set by 6.30pm – so there were just three and a half hours to shoot in both locations including traveling time. It was going to be tight.
Filming at the mosque
Bahareh arrived at the mosque looking exquisitely elegant in her stunning abaya. As for the rest of us – well let’s just say the ones provided didn’t have quite the same effect.
“It was nice to have an all female crew, all of us in abayas, it added a certain vibe – but sometimes I tried to move around and get certain shots and I’d trip over – I don’t really know how to move in an abaya!” says Sonya
Filming in the mosque was an overwhelming experience. For Sonya there was literally too much to film: “You’re going to get great shots even if you don’t know how to use a camera!”
Needless to say I had to keep an eye on the time. We loaded in and set off to Hamdan Street. With traffic gaining and sun setting, we really had to move it if we were going to get the shots we wanted.
Shooting at Hamdan Street
We arrived, but there was nowhere to park… it was peak time in the centre of Abu Dhabi and we were desperate to find a parking spot close to our destination. We didn’t, and it was time to run – three women, two cameras, tripods, lenses… and Bahareh, our poetess, all the while pulling her suitcase. We arrived at the busiest junction of the busiest street in the busiest part of the day. As everyone hurriedly set up Bahareh calmly did her hair, touched up her makeup and changed underneath her abaya, right there in the middle Hamdan Street! We were all in agreement – this was impressive talent.
The effect that Sonya wanted to create was of Bahareh alone amidst a world whizzing past her. Not easy. Bahareh stood in the middle of the crossing with her eyes closed for a period of fifteen minutes. Cars beeped, pedestrians stared, even the police stopped to check our permits, and through it all Bahareh remained perfectly still.
“She was just elsewhere, she was on a different plane; you know how creative people are able to do.” Says Sonya
Bahareh describes the experience: “I just went on to another space. The space of why I was standing there and where the poetry came from. My different friends in the poems that I have encountered and the places that I have been to. And so it was very calming standing in this busy street. I recommend it for therapy.” (And she can: Bahareh has a PhD in Psychology).
At 6:38pm the sun finally set on our 12 hour shoot day. We did it… it was a wrap!
I’d never heard of poetry videos before, and it is clear that we are in new terrain. Yet after getting to know Bahareh and her poetry it dawned on me that it actually made complete sense. Bahareh’s world is multi-sensory; it is easy to connect with her inspiring honesty – her amazing source of truth. Indeed, we all probably have something interesting to say, the challenge lies in finding an interesting way to say it.
POEMS
Untitled – Beach
When I pretend to look I stop seeing.
There are waves in the ocean with no sound.
I breath in, but with every breath out I release more uncertainty and more doubt.
The breeze felt by the corpse, by the white bird and on my skin.
The truth held in the breeze.
The truth can be warm and beautiful.
The breeze today is daunting but not frightening.
It is the same sea I walked in last year.
The same shore I marked with my foot steps with my dreams and doubts.
But today with every step my foot goes in twice as deep as last year, but comes out with ease.
What is the truth in my heavy step.
Is it all that I have collected in my heart or all that I’ve released from the web of lies that gives me this weight.
Still in search but now I feel each and every step, each and every breath.
Invitation to the Mosque
I stepped out of myself
and onto the street
from a far
I saw a mosque
it was not prayer time
but I felt The Call with closed eyes
and open heart
I started to breath in The Call
It was quiet
so quiet in the gentle mist of the night
but I know I heard
Allah
Visit www.bahareh.com to find out more.
Behind the scenes:
Sonya Edelman -Director, DoP
Hanna Makki – Producer
Maitri Somaia – Second Camera, Editor
Bahareh – Talent
