The Invisible Hands (2017)
Documentary, Greece/ Egypt, digital video, 97΄
The Invisible Hands, 2017, film still
SYNOPSIS
Maverick underground American/ Lebanese musician and ethnomusicologist Alan Bishop (Sun City Girls, Sublime Frequencies), lands as a stranger in Cairo, soon after the 2011 uprisings and teams up with three young Egyptian musicians for the translation of his old songs into Arabic. Under Bishop’s mentorship, this unlikely collaboration transforms into a band, The Invisible Hands. Structured around fly-on-the-wall scenes, archival ghost apparitions, absurd cameos and poetic diary narrations by Bishop, and unfolding between the two critical elections, that marked the post ‘Arab Spring’ period in Egypt, the film juxtaposes the tragicomedy of politics and art-making in the so-called periphery.
CREDITS
Direction, Story, Editing: Marina Gioti
Poetry and Prose: Alan Bishop
Cinematography, Co-direction: Georges Salameh
Producers: Marina Gioti & Georges Salameh, Executive Producer: Athina Rachel Tsangari
Produced by Vertiginous in co-production with Haos Film
Supported by documenta 14
With: Alan Bishop, Aya Hemeda, Cherif El Masri, Adham Zidan
STREAMING
Watch the entire film at Doc Alliance/ dafilms.com
SCREENINGS
– documenta 14, Athens, Greece (World Premiere)
– 68th Berlinale Forum Expanded, Berlin, Germany (International Premiere)
– Yebisu International Festival for Art and Alternative Visions, Tokyo, Japan (Asian Premiere)
– 20th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, Thessaloniki, Greece
– CPH:DOX – Copenhagen International Documentary Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark
– 22nd Maine International Film Festival, Waterville, USA (US Premiere)
– Anatomy of Political Melancholy exhibition, curated by K. Gregos, Art Space Pythagorion, Samos, Greece
– Anatomy of Political Melancholy II exhibition, Athens Conservatoire/ Goethe Institut, Athens, Greece
– Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon
– 12th DORF Music Documentary Festival, Primosten, Croatia
– Kapittel 2018 Literature Festival, Stavanger, Norway
– Womex 18-The World Music Expo, Film Programme, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
– Cinedays Film Festival, Skopje, Macedonia
– Signal, Centre for Contemporary Art, Malmö, Sweden
– Fire Museum Presents, The Rotunda, Philadelphia, USA
– Hellas Fimbox Berlin, Germany
– Greek Documentary Association: “Με τα Μάτια Ανοιχτά”, Focus on Greek Documentary, Greek Film Archives, Athens, Greece
– Zawya Cinema, Cairo, Egypt
– Saristra Festival, Cephalonia, Greece
– Tusk Festival 2019, Newcastle, UK
– Griechische Filmwoche München, Munich, Germany
– Hotel Simplon exhibition, Giulietta, Basel, Switzerland
– Pugnant Film Series, Microcosmos cinema, Athens
– Movement Festival, Astor cinema, Athens
– Aflamuna streaming platform for Independent Arab Cinema
– Arsenal Berlin streaming platform
AWARD
10th Giuseppe Becce Prize for Music (awarded by an independent critics jury at the 68th Berlinale)
DISTRIBUTION
Arsenal Institute für Film und Videokunst, Berlin
Doc Alliance/ dafilms.com streaming platform
PRESS
– Berlinale Film Review at Screenanarchy.com: “THE INVISIBLE HANDS, An Unlikely Meeting of Cultures Yields Strange and Beautiful Results”
– Berlinale Film review at moveitmag.gr (GR)
– Press mention in The Wire “The Invisible Hands follows Alan Bishop and his band in Cairo”
– Interview for Kaput Magazin für Insolvenz & Pop, 2018 (EN)
– Interview and presentation (WOMEX) Scene Noise, Cairo (EN)
– Eleni Tzannatou in conversation with Marina Gioti, Popaganda, Greek Online Magazine, 2017 (GR)
– Publication: “The Aleph of Athens” by G. Missouridis (bilingual English-German). Excerpt from Culturescapes-Greece book, Merian Verlag, 2017
UPDATES
www.facebook.com/theinvisiblehandsfilm
The Invisible Hands, 2017, official film poster
The Invisible Hands, 2017, teaser-trailer
The Invisible Hands, 2017, teaser
The Invisible Hands, 2017, film still
The Invisible Hands, 2017, film still