WAJD: Music, Politics & Ecstasy

About this IDEA

A feature documentary exploring Arab-Ottoman music, its delicate relationship with Islam and the state, and the yearning for transcendence.

Introduction

Hello everyone! So we are very excited to launch this campaign on the first crowd-funding platform in the Arab world! Our project "WAJD: Music, Politics & Ecstasy" has been the blood, sweat and tears of over two years of extensive study, travel and shooting. We have completed 80% of the production phase of the film, with only the Vancouver segments remaining. However we have exhausted all of our own personal resources and desperately need more funding! This is where you come in. We have over 70 hours of fantastic footage and we just want to start editing. If you think this story is half as interesting as we do, we hope you'll support the film by donating and spreading the word via facebook, twitter, email and word of mouth!

The Story

In the summer of 2010, young Syrian-Canadian filmmaker Amar Chebib, went back to Damascus to study traditional Arab music. Eventually he was introduced to its connection to Ottoman classical music and the important role of Sufism, especially the Mevlevi Sufi Order of the Sufi poet and Islamic scholar Jalaluddin Rumi. However he also quickly realized that this subject was quite controversial due to both nationalism and religious conservatism. So along with its spiritual aspects, Amar began to explore the socio-political influences that shaped and then suppressed this musical tradition. In the process, Amar embarked on his own personal journey of discovering his relationship to this music and ambivalent relationship with Islam. In other words, a story was found that was both personal and socially relevant.

Amar serendipitously met Dima, Palestinian-Kuwaiti film producer, at the Dubai International Film Festival in 2010, who immediately fell in love with the project due to her passion for socially/spiritually sensitive stories with strong aesthetic values. Dima came on-board as a producer and together we realized Amar's journey was really the emotional thread of the film, weaving together the universal themes of belonging, alienation and spiritual yearning.

In the winter of 2011/2012 Amar went to Turkey for a couple months to continue shooting the film and was enraptured by the beauty of the musical-spiritual culture of Istanbul. However even there, this sacred musical-spiritual tradition had been suppressed because of the Eurocentric reforms undertaken during the formation of the Republic of Turkey. Fortunately, there was a new generation of musicians, artists and spiritual enthusiasts that were passionate about spreading this music and integrating it into life in an often-skeptical post-modern world.

Amar has since returned to Vancouver where he continues to study music and a large and diverse Sufi community has become home. We plan to continue shooting in Vancouver and begin post-production as soon as possible!

Budget / Timeline

We are currently seeking funds for post-production. $15,000 will be used for 3 months of video editing, $5,000 for sound editing and the final sound mix, and the remaining $5000 for colour correction, archival materials, and music synchronization rights. We plan to have this film finished by early November and screening in film festivals by spring 2013, insha'Allah!

Key Participants

Mohammad Seifuttin Zein Al Abidin

A master of classical Ottoman-Mevlevi music, Islamic scholar and Amar's beloved oud teacher, "Sheikh Seif" grew up among the last dervishes of the Mevlevi Sufi lodge in Aleppo before its closure. Through his background and unquenchable thirst for knowledge, he became the most sought-after music teacher in Syria. Now retired, he continues to teach a small handful of students, stubbornly without payment.

Cemalnur Sargut

President of the Turkish Women's Cultural Association and a renowned Sufi teacher, Cemalnur, grew up in a Sufi family but preferred to study western philosophy in her youth. A long bout of depression eventually led her into the Rifai Sufi lineage. She began teaching at the ripe age of 22, facing the challenges of a male-dominated society to become one of the most sought after Sufi teachers in the world.

Kudsi Erguner

A master of classical Ottoman-Mevlevi music, Neyzen (reed flute master), and internationally renowned recording artist, Kudsi grew up in Istanbul performing in illegal underground Sufi lodges. He comes from a long family line of Sufi musicians facing suppression from the previously anti-Islamic Turkish government. He was also among the first to perform abroad with the state-supported "Whirling Dervishes".

Kabir Helminski

Author and co-founder of the Threshold Society for Sufi learning, Kabir spent an extensive period of his life studying Sufism in Turkey and was initiated as a Mevlevi Shaykh. He has since become a well-known Sufi teacher and translator of Rumi's poetry in North America. He currently travels and teaches worldwide and was recognized as one of the 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center.

Esin Chelebi

The 22nd generation great-granddaughter of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, Esin Chelebi is the sister of the current official leader of the Mevlevi Sufi Order. For all practical purposes, she unofficially runs the Order under the non-profit International Mevlana Foundation, since institutional expression of Sufism is still illegal in Turkey.

Julien Jalaluddin Weiss

Born in Paris and originally trained as a classical guitarist, Julien moved to Aleppo, and began rigorously studying the qanoun (zither) for 6 hours a day after learning about Arab music in his mid-twenties. Almost 40 years later, he has converted to Islam, adopted the name "Jalaleddin" after Rumi, and is one of the most well-known qanoun players in the world. He now lives in Istanbul where, through his research, he seeks to retrieve a lost common ground of a sacred pan-Ottoman musical tradition.

Dr. Ali Jihad Racy

Musician, composer, ethnomusicologist, Director of UCLA Near Eastern Ensemble, and author of world-renowned book Making Music in the Arab World: The Culture and Artistry of Tarab, Jihad is an international heavyweight in both the Arab and world music scene. He is the world's foremost authority on the emotional-ecstatic phenomenon of tarab and has a deep knowledge of the Ottoman classical music heritage and how it interfaced with the Arab musical tradition.

Dr. Ibrahim Farajajé

A native of Berkeley, CA and provost and professor of cultural and Islamic studies at the Starr King School for the Ministry, Ibrahim is also a Sufi teacher. His work challenges western stereotypes of Islam and conservative literalist interpretations of the Quran. He currently lives between Berkeley and Istanbul where he leads Sufi immersions for students from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds

Alper Akcay

A young up-and-coming visual/performing artist from Istanbul, Alper has been studying and performing the ritual Mevlevi whirling ceremony and many other forms of sacred movement since his youth. He is part of a younger generation of Turkish artists who are integrating traditional knowledge into modern society. Alper is respected throughout the different Sufi circles in Turkey and has been an invaluable resource in opening doors to private ceremonies that have never been recorded.

SynopsisFrom the crowded streets of Damascus, to a traditional Aleppine courtyard, into an intimate Sufi lodge of Istanbul, Syrian-Canadian filmmaker Amar Chebib invites us into a deeply personal journey exploring traditional Arab-Ottoman music and its delicate relationship with Islam and the state.Through a poetic narrative, riveting interviews and ecstatic musical performances with some of Western Asia's most significant musicians, academics, and spiritual figures, we uncover what makes this music so evocative, why some religious/political authorities forbade it while others embraced it, and the influential role played by Rumi and the Mevlevi Sufi Order in preserving it.As we explore the beautiful complexity of an ancient musical tradition struggling to maintain its roots, we discover that WAJD: Music, Politics & Ecstasy is more than just a film about music. It's a personal account of self-discovery that mirrors humanity's conflicted identity and how music can set us free.

Director's StatementIn this film I intend to address the ubiquitous negative stereotypes and attitudes towards Islam in the West, as well as the cultural regression that has taken place in parts of Western Asia (usually referred to as the "Middle East") due to both Eurocentrism and the rise of conservative reductionist schools of Islamic thought. I believe Sufism and its music have much to offer both an overly secularized outlook that has lost touch with the sacred and a dogmatic belief structure that negates the importance of beauty.Deriving from the Arabic tri-letter root wa-ja-da (to find), and etymologically related to wujood (being), wajd refers to the state of religious ecstasy experienced by the Sufis. I believe all true art hints at this state, whether implicitly or explicitly, by connecting us to the universal experience of beauty. However traditional sacred music is particularly capable of shifting our attention from the preoccupations of daily life to the contemplation and realization of being connected to and sustained by something greater than our own individuality.Using the narrative of my own journey to Syria and Turkey, I seek to both challenge and charm the film's audience into a greater understanding and appreciation of this music, Islam's fundamental principles of compassion, love and beauty, and to ultimately inspire awareness of one's deep connection to the sacred.

About Dima Alansari / Amar Chebib

Dima Alansari is a filmmaker, born in Beirut, Lebanon. With over 10 years experience in the TV & film production industry, Dima has worked in Kuwait, Lebanon and Dubai and most recently was the General Manager and Executive Producer for one of the top leading and most active film investment and production companies in the Middle East, Desert Door Productions. Dima has produced numerous videos, shorts, documentaries and TV projects, amongst them, the documentary 'Storm from the South', which was nominated for the "Al Muhr Award for Excellence in Arab Cinema" at the Dubai International Film Festival, 2006. Her latest work includes, the Internationally Acclaimed and award winning, National Geographic's 'Journey to Mecca' a 2D IMAX® feature-length docu-drama about Ibn Battuta, the legendary 14th century writer, traveler and explorer. Dima now lives, works and creates in Vancouver, Canada.

Born and raised throughout the Arabian-Persian Gulf, Syrian-Canadian filmmaker Amar Chebib graduated from the Vancouver Film School in 2006. In 2008 he directed his first short drama 'Le Boucher' which subsequently screened in film festivals worldwide. In 2010 he received support from the Canada Council for the Arts to complete his second short, 'Mish Mush'. The film premiered at the Dubai International Film Festival, was nominated for a Muhr Award for excellence in Arab Cinema, won Best International Short Drama at Illinois International Film Festival and Rumschpringe International Film Festival, and was an official selection at over 30 international film festivals. Amar is now based in Vancouver, Canada but continues to travel throughout the year.

Together, Dima and Amar have created Salam Films, an international film production company based in Vancouver, Canada. Its primary focus is to produce socially, politically and environmentally aware films that celebrate cultural diversity and universal consciousness.