Fiona Murphy ~ Remember Baghdad. Arabic Version. With Introduction From Edwin Shuker

Five families from the Jewish community look back on a scarcely imaginable time in Baghdad – Iraq was booming, it was pleasure-seeking, and there was inter-communal trust. Iraq was once one of the most diverse places on earth, more tolerant of its minorities than any European nation.

Today, after decades of war and instability, Iraq is a very different place. In spite of the danger, North Londoner Edwin Shuker decides to return to the country he loved. We follow him back to Baghdad. He wants to buy a house in Iraq so that he can say “the Jews have not all gone”. He wants to plant a seed of hope for the future.

Website: https://rememberbaghdad.com/

From the Director’s Statement:

‘The lives of my parents’ families closed down as the British Empire shattered: my father’s community was thrown out of Ireland and my mother’s fled Jamaica. I grew up in London, conscious that people suffer for the crimes of generations long gone.

So when I was between films and was offered a job cataloguing an extraordinary archive of early home movies belonging to an Iraqi-Jewish family, I responded vividly to the news that the Jews of Iraq did well under the British, and paid for it. They had committed no crimes, and unlike mine, nor had their community.

The end of the British Empire was not the only strand that bound their stories together with mine. My mother’s family was ethnically Jewish. And while that was where the historical similarities ended, the smiling faces in the archive and the stark fact that only five Jews remain in Iraq today, awakened my own sense of loss.

At first I just wanted to convey the pain of losing your home. It seemed important, now, right now, to push back at the narrowness of our news, dominated by discussion of economic migrants, desperate refugees and the difficulties of integrating immigrants. The older stories were laments about the pain of exile: “It’s a Long Long Way to Tipperary”, and “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept”. I wanted to show that that migrants travel with heavy hearts, give them a voice, and bring back the world that was lost. I knew this must be my next film.’

Edwin Shuker ~ “We Dreamt Of Being Expelled.” Being Jewish In Iraq

Growing up Jewish in Baghdad Edwin Shuker remembers one thing very clearly: the desire to run away and lead a normal life with his family. The road to London was far from easy…

The INSANE Logic Of The YODEL

• by: Bart Plantenga

Video lecture on the wide & wild world of the YODEL based on the book YODEL IN HIFI. This film premiered in LONDON on 11 March 2014 at the Peckham Liberal Club as part of the Muckle Mouth series. Book YODEL IN HIFI: From Kitsch Folk to Contemporary Electronica. For info:http://uwpress.wisc.edu/

Break the voice and you enter the marrow of existence. The film documents the ubiquitous and unique presence of yodeling just about everywhere. From roots deep in the earth to soundings that probe deep space… And no genre is safe: opera, hiphop, rock, pop, folk, jazz, house, techno, reggae… FEATURES: Werner Herzog, Bernhard Betschart, Phil Minton, Myriam van Imschoot & Doreen Kutzke, Barbara Hannigan, Taylor Ware, Francelle Maria, Drag Queen Lady KinMee, Dominatrix Manuela Horn, a yodeling cat, Tarzan, Bob Marley, Aka Pygmies, Prison work songs, hollerin’, Jimmie Rodgers, SE Rogie, Mike Johnson, Kia Brekkan, Kishore Kumar, Cyrill Schläpfer, Erika Stucky, Christine Lauterburg, Alice Babs, Focus, Mental Theo & Charly Lownoise, Bobbejaan Schoepen, Honeymoon Killers, Harry Torrani, George Van Dusen, Brian Eno, Cranberries, Buzzcocks, People Like Us, Mysterious Asthmatic Avenger, Shelley Hirsch, Jacques Dutronc, Munich House Mafia, Franzl Lang, Fatima Miranda, Kristina Fuchs, Zabine, Meredith Monk, Neil Rolnick, Anna Kiefer, Paul Dutton, Mij, Tim Buckley, Slim Whitman, Mal Webb, Wandervogels, Chinese yodeling, tea-picking yodels, Korean, Japanese, Filipino, Basques, Cambodian, Taiwanese, Persian, Tuvan, Georgian…

This film uses original footage but mostly relies on found and archival footage. My hope & goal is to make a feature length documentary using high quality stock and more original footage. I am looking to partner with a producer and filmmaker with interest in the subject.

All sources & credits for found footage used in this film available upon request.

Yodel in HiFi: From Kitsch Folk to Contemporary Electronica ::  http://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/4594.htm
YODEL-AY-EE-OOOO: The Secret History of Yodeling Around the World :: http://www.routledge.com/
Wreck This Mess Radio :: http://www.mixcloud.com/wreckthismess/
Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/

Bart Plantenga is a freelance researcher, writer, translator, and editor. He is the author of Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo: The Secret History of Yodeling around the World and the compiler of the CD Rough Guide to Yodel. He lives and works in Amsterdam and is the disc jockey of radio show Wreck This Mess.

Author’s website: bartplantenga.weebly.com/
Author’s blog: bartyodel2.wordpress.com

Jordan Salama ~ From Exile To Exodus: The Story Of The Jews Of Iraq

Robert Walser ~ Portrait und Erinnerungen

“Er hat in seinen Büchern mehr Dichtertum, als einige Dutzend Preisträger zusammen.” (Albin Zollinger) Biografisches über den Schweizer Schriftsteller sowie: Freunde und Schriftsteller berichten darüber, wie sie ihn erlebt haben (70er-Jahre).
Siehe auch die Playlist “Schweizer Schriftsteller und Dramatiker” hier: https://www.youtube.com/playlist

Max Brod On Franz Kafka (English Subtitles)

This is an interview with Max Brod, Kafka’s longtime friend and literary executor.

After Kafka’s death, Brod refused to comply with Kafka’s instructions to burn most of his work, instead seeing many of Kafka’s texts to first publication.