In a warehouse theatre named Mothership Studios, in Marrickville’s industrial heart, a group called the Miya Miya Film Club is presenting a marvellous double feature. Decking out the space with old posters, as you walk in, you are instantly hit with the gorgeous smell of manoosh being cooked and the sound of laughter filling the space.
New on the scene, having been around less than a year, is the Miya Miya Film Club, which is an independent community-led film and arts initiative dedicated to celebrating and elevating the voices of the South West Asian and North African (SWANA) region. Using film and art as tools for cultural preservation, connection, and resistance.
Allowing for the film choices to come from a place of passion and wanting to share culture, this part one of two is centred around the enchanting figure that is Fairuz. A much-loved Lebanese vocalist that I had never heard of before, but quickly learned of through the organisers’ loving and nostalgic stories of listening to her music with family, and from the films themselves. Here she has a presence unlike any I have ever seen, somehow stiff, almost awkward at times and still yet immensely alluring with her very kind eyes drawing your focus in every scene. A figure I am now very excited to learn more about.
The films themselves were brilliant. The first Safar Barlik is about the Lebanese resistance, which nobly fought against the cruel treatment at the hands of the Ottoman Empire during WW1, and the common people who got wrapped up in it. With the beating emotional heart of the film being Fairuz, often against the backdrop of such breathtaking shots of the landscape and mountains that I had to pick my jaw up from the floor. The second film though, The Ring Seller, was really something special, directed by the master Youssef Chahine who with a supremely deft hand is having fun playing with blocking, camera and theater stage like aesthetics for a folk tale set in a small town where the mayor is lying to his people about a great villain outside of town, a lie which comically comes back to bite him. The film is all sung, much like Demy’s Umbrellas of Cherbourg, but for my money is just as or even more enjoyable than Demy’s famous work.
Events and organisations like this are of such vital and significant importance. They let us, those who are outsiders, explore a world and culture which we know nothing, or little about, while being guided by those who do. Exposing us not just to different cultures but different ways to approach art, getting us used to new rhythms of filmmaking and expression. Then, on the other side, for those who already know, it can be a celebration and a way to ground themselves in a community. As the event organiser commented on, we so often overlook, look down or assume the worst from these countries in the media. Rarely getting to see the truth or revel in the brilliance of them. Here is your chance to do so in the best, most intimate and warm way possible.
by Billy Newbery