Documentary filmmaker Panu Aree has uploaded about 16 minutes of pre-post-production footage from the upcoming musical documentary Baby Arabia to YouTube. It's in two parts, here and here.
A follow-up to The Convert, directed by Panu, Kaweenipon Ketprasit and Kong Rithdee, which was about a Thai Buddhist woman's conversion to Islam for marriage, Baby Arabia is about a Thai band that performs an infectiously rhythmic brand of Malay-Arab music. With a sprawling lineup that includes accordion, guitars, keyboards, several singers and a battery of drums and percussion, they play at weddings, funerals, fairs and other events in Muslim communities and elsewhere. The documentary project recently received money from the Pusan International Film Festival's Asian Cinema Fund and the Asian Network of Documentary.
Panu posted the YouTube clips to Facebook and I started watching them there, but I wanted to stop. It's too good for a little YouTube window. But I couldn't turn away and became engrossed as the minutes ticked by. I guess if there's one weakness I have it's for musical documentaries, or if you will, rockumentaries.
I've taken the liberty of putting the two clips in a playlist, and it's embedded below. Turn it up to 11.
Update: The clips were taken down, but a 9-minute trailer was later uploaded. It's now embedded below. Enjoy.
(Via Panu Aree at Facebook)
amazing!
ReplyDeletei've always been fascinated by malay-arab music in thailand, and typically it is so so hard to find!
this is a great development, and this band is fantastic!!!
thanks for writing about this!