SHIFT Kuwait & May Festivals

To Rest in Peace has continued its festival run, screening at four events since the DGA in April.

We're honoured to have screened at SHIFT, a charity event that seeks to shift your perspective on Kuwaiti cinema. I had a chance to see most of these films on the festival circuit, and to meet some of the filmmakers. From all accounts, it was a successful evening, and I wish I could have been there to celebrate.

We also screened with a showcase of USC films at the Newport Beach Film Festival, a few miles away from where we shot most of To Rest in Peace (at El Toro Airfield).

Our Italian premiere happened in Naples, with the Social World Film Festival. 

And we went back to the mountains for the Lake Arrowhead Film Festival in California.

SoCal Independent Film Festival

 

To Rest in Peace will return to Huntington Beach for the SoCal Independent Film Festival! The festival runs September 28th to October 2nd. Our screening is on Thursday, September 29th at 1:10PM.

I say 'return,' because we shot our last day of principle photograph on Huntington Beach. People often point to this scene as one they are sure was shot in Kuwait. The Towers of Kuwait appear in the background, as Malek is contemplating the water. But these were filmed separately by Ali Younis, and then composited by Michael Ashton. The scene itself was shot by Sean Conaty with our priniciple photography crew in Huntington Beach, California.

Incidentally, if you would like to see more of Kuwait, Ali Younis has some beautiful nature videos up on his YouTube channel. Check out Kuwait's Desert in Spring. And did you know that Kuwait has flamingos?

The beach scene is one of my personal favourites in To Rest in Peace. It is the moment when Malek, having struggled with his choice of whether or not to risk his life and bury the two dead men himself, has reached the end of the road. There is no where else to go, and he is forced to contemplate his decision in a communion with nature. Part of the inspiration was this sentiment by Lord Byron, from Childe Harold's Pilgrimmage:

     There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
     There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
     There is society, where none intrudes,
     By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
     I love not man the less, but Nature more, 

     From these our interviews, in which I steal 

     From all I may be, or have been before, 

     To mingle with the Universe, and feel 

     What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.

Michael Benyaer gave a layered performance, underscored by Leah Curtis's music. This is one scene that stayed almost exactly the same throughout the editing process, from Zachary Dehm's first cut.

I look forward to revisiting Huntington Beach. It was the end of our production, but not of our festival run. More festival news is coming up soon, including our Canadian premiere. And we're off to the Big Bear Lake International Film Festival tomorrow! 

Charles Anteby

Charles Anteby's latest demo reel includes a scene from To Rest in Peace.

The scene was shot on our third day of production. During the screening in Kuwait, several people tried to guess which local hospital we filmed in. But this was actually filmed in Santa Clarita, California. Kudos to our production design team.

The third day of production was particularly difficult, because of a big technical setback we had in the morning. We were not able to get our first shot in until after lunch, and then only because of some major problem solving by camera department, grips and electrics, and producers. Having a professional cast with a good attitude helped us rally and rescue the scene. My biggest concern when the crew is working against the clock is: will the stress of the day affect the performances? But I was very happy from "action" to "cut."

Congrats to Charles on your continued success!

Vote on Kuwait's Got Talent

Student Talk magazine is running a "Who is the Most Talented?" contest, based on their Kuwait's Got Talent series.

You can vote for To Rest in Peace director, Fawaz Al-Matrouk... that is... me :^) through this link. Voting is open for the month of August.

Student Talk

I did an interview for Student Talk magazine, that was published in their June issue. You can browse the magazine's current issue here, and if you would like to read the interview, you can find it here. Topics covered are To Rest in Peace, Kuwaiti filmmaking, period pieces, and future goals.

World Cup Champions!

We won the World Cup Film Awards!

Congrats to the whole team.

Congrats also to the feature film world champions, Fordson: Faith, Fasting, Football.

This competition has been tremendous fun. It's a nice change of pace from the usual film events, conjuring up a sportsing atmosphere. Several members of our crew are big soccer fans. This past World Cup, we watched games together when we could, and exchanged celebratory (or consolatory) texts when we couldn't. So there's an extra pleasure in celebrating this win.

Now there are three more years until Brazil 2014...

The World Cup Quarter-finals

To Rest in Peace is a quarter-finalist in the 2011 World Cup Film Awards. It is an elimination-style tournament that pits one team against the other, like the second round of the FIFA World Cup. You can cheer for us on the World Cup Film Awards Facebook page.

We are the only team representing Canada in the competition, though we could have also represented Kuwait or the United States. The film was made by a Kuwaiti raised in Canada (Toronto represent!), with a canadian star, and two canadian producers, through an american university, shot in California and Kuwait, funded by Canadian and Kuwaiti sources. A multi-national effort in our globalized world. But with the mighty maple leaf flying high, I say: Go team Canada!

Incidentally, team Kuwait won the Gulf Cup in 2010, giving us hope they may qualify for their second World Cup appearance in 2014. (Their first was in 1982).

Several members of the To Rest in Peace team are passionate soccer fans, so it is particularly exciting to be in this tournament. It looks like we have tough competition in Angela Hinton's A Palette of Possibilities. It may come down to extra time, or penalty shots. The semi-finalists are announced May 22nd!

Gulf Film Festival

To Rest in Peace will be in competition at the Gulf Film Festival in Dubai, April 14-20. We are amongst ten Kuwaiti films selected, which will join other filmmakers from around the world.

Our screening dates are April 15th at 6 P.M., and 17th at 3 P.M. Check out their website for more details.

The Gulf Film Festival is run by the same team who put together the Dubai International Film Festival, where we had our official premier in December. It will be great to go back and see everyone again!

Awards at the Kuwait International Film Retreat

To Rest in Peace won three awards at the first annual Kuwait International Film Retreat! We placed second in editing and directing, and first in cinematography.

If you attended the screening, and missed Leah Curtis's award-winning song for the end credits due to the technical glitch, you can listen to it here:

Congrats to the other winners, Dawood Shuail, Meqdad Al-Kout, Marwa Marafie, and Jude Chehab. And, of course, Mousaed Khaled and Mansour Al-Mansour, who won special jury prizes for acting. There were also some great legends of Kuwaiti and Egyptian cinema who were honoured at the event. It was wonderful to see them in person.

Congrats also to Hasan Abdal for his excellent film War Zone. I've had the great pleasure to see several films by Hasan over the years. This one starts off as an action drama, but turns into an Abdal-esque comedy of the imagination. There is such a quality of childlike wonder to his vision, reminiscent of E. T., Hook and Indiana Jones. If his career fulfills its promise, I imagine some future Drew Casper will be lecturing on his oeuvre as the arab Steven Spielberg.

The picture above is of me with Ali Younis, the talented cinematographer for War Zone, who was indispensable for the Kuwait unit of To Rest in Peace.

Unfortunately, my friend Vachan Sharma's film Tokai was not screened, but you can see it on YouTube. The film was co-directed by Abdulrahman Alaskar, and Abeer Tebawi.

This was a great beginning for Kuwaiti cinema. Thanks to the visionaries who put it together. And a personal thanks to Sheikh Nasser Al-Sabah, Sheikha Al-Zain Al-Sabah, Yousef Al-Malik and Abdul Sattar Naji, who very generous with their hospitality and praise of the film. Thanks also to Abdulreda BenSalem and Tarek Jammal, who went above and beyond to organize the events.

I look forward to what the next year will bring!

Kuwait International Film Retreat

To Rest in Peace will screen at the first annual Kuwait International Film Retreat on three consecutive days, April 6-8th. Check out their website for the schedule and location.

We have the great joy of screening with three talented filmmakers who were very generous in their support of To Rest in Peace.

Ali Younis, who was the 1st AC and production manager on the Failaka Island shoot, is the director of photography for War Zone.

The writer-director of War Zone, Hasan Abdal, was also very generous with his time and advice in making To Rest in Peace.

And Vachan Sharma, a fellow USC Trojan who consulted with me in the early stages of pre-production, and appeared as an extra in the hospital scene, co-directed TOKAI (Street Cleaner).

This is the first of a series of exciting updates we will post in the next couple of weeks. To get advanced notice of our progress, before it becomes public, you can join the facebook group.

Best of luck to Ali, Hasan, Vachan, and the other Kuwaiti filmmakers represented at the festival.

Scene from the Film

Twenty years ago today, Kuwait was liberated from the occupation.

The moment is described beautifully in Jehan Rejab's memoir, Invasion Kuwait: An Englishwoman's Tale:

As I stared about me, I thought I heard a woman ululating in the distance. I ran round the other corner to look at the mosque and someone said happily, 'It's clean now.' I think they were unearthing a Kuwaiti flag. I do believe Kuwait may be FREE — FREE — FREE.

To honour the occasion, I'm posting this scene from To Rest in Peace. It has been everyone's favourite since the first draft, and my personal favourite as I was about the boy's age when Kuwait was invaded. When I asked what scene people would like to see posted, my friend Nadia said it best:

The scene with the son and his painting, to honour the bright future of Kuwait!

Question of Scenes

Next week will see the fiftieth anniversary of Kuwait's independence (February 25th), and the twentieth anniversary of its liberation (February 26th). To honour the occasion, I plan on posting a short scene from To Rest in Peace.

So, my question to you is: What scene should I post?

I have one in mind, a personal favourite, but I thought it might be fun to ask people to vote. You can use the comments section below. Or you can e-mail me.

And if you have not seen the film, you can have a look at the trailer, and vote on what scene you would like to see posted.

Jehan Rajab

Exactly twenty years ago, Jehan Rajab was living in occupied Kuwait, and keeping a diary of her experiences. She wrote this in the entry marked by today's date, January 26:

The sound of the heavy guns resounded off the walls of the buildings around us and swelled to an ear-splitting stridency; and then it was over. There was dead silence for a second and we all stared around at each other grinning delightedly, even at the soldiers. We were alive and for the moment that was wonderful.

The passage was published in her book Invasion Kuwait: An English Woman's Tale, which I just finished reading. It's a vivid account of Kuwait during the occupation.

The chapter starting with the air war and ending with a free Kuwait is presented as a day-by-day account from her 1991 diary. The following entry is also from January 26th:

We could see that the black rain had made a fearful mess of all the buildings in Kuwait. It had streaked all the walls and tiles like dirty tears and even Saluki [the desert dog] had turned from being a pale champagne colour to a dirty grey.

Mrs. Rajab is the co-director of the Tareq Rajab Museum, which provides one of the most harrowing episodes of the memoir. She writes about her efforts to hide the mass of antiquities from official looting. Day after day, she lived in fear of the house to house searches, which might reveal the hidden treasure, and often ended in execution.

On February 20th, six days before the liberation, the Iraqi army finally arrived to tear through the house. I will leave the description of this search for you to discover. She writes it with agonizing eloquence.

Invasion Kuwait is a profound record of a dark moment in history. I highly recommend it. Thanks to my cousin, Fate, for introducing me to the museum, which led me to the book.

The picture of Jehan Rajab above is from the Kuwait: Class of 1990 collection on aljazeera.net

Guten Tag, Österreich

When looking at the stats for this blog and for Vimeo, I expected to find that the three countries most interested in To Rest in Peace would be the US, Canada and Kuwait. It's a film made for an american school, by a Kuwaiti who grew up in Canada, about an event in kuwaiti history. But it looks like the country with the second most pageviews after the US, with even more pageviews than Canada and Kuwait, is Austria!

Vielen Dank. Vielleicht sollte ich einige Blogeinträge auf Deutsch schreiben?

It still amazes me how small the world has become in the Internet Age. One day I might get used to the idea and take it for granted. But for now, I'm astounded every time I look at the pageview statistics. The Failaka Island video alone has gotten views from 73 different countries!

Thanks for checking in. And stay tuned. Big news to come.

Twenty Years

Today is the twentieth anniversary of the invasion of Kuwait. To honour the occasion, I'd like to unveil a painting by my friend Ben Rathbone, inspired by the story of To Rest in Peace.

The painting was conceived as part of the promotional materials for To Rest in Peace, hearkening back to the painted movie posters of old epics, like Lawrence of Arabia. It has evolved into something so much more — a work of art in its own right.

You can find more of Ben's work on his website, http://www.480bc.com.

It's strange to reflect on the passage of time, and realize that twenty years mean an entire new generation of Kuwaitis has grown up without a memory of the occupation. I was eight, but I remember it vividly. And it's been an enlightening journey, to recreate this moment in history, and hear the memories it conjures up for those who lived through it.

My hope beyond To Rest in Peace is to document some of those memories, from the frightening, to the tragic, to even the absurd. We taped two interviews while filming in Kuwait last January, and these will be the start of such a project.

Until then, To Rest in Peace is waiting for its chance to premier, and I will keep you informed of its progress. We start hearing back from festivals in August!

Unsung Heroes of Production Design

To Rest in Peace is unofficially picture locked, awaiting a thumbs up from its faculty mentor, Amanda Pope. This is a good time to reflect on some of the great work that never made it into the final cut.

Films often have to cut out lines, scenes, or even entire characters. (Compare the director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven to the theatrical release, which is missing a key character in the story). Fortunately, To Rest in Peace has not lost any scenes or characters. But there's a lot of great production design that won't make it onto the screen.

My personal favourite is the 'emergency room' sign in the hospital scene, pictured above. The art department did an amazing job of transforming a drab Santa Clarita set, into a Kuwaiti hospital. At a test screening in Kuwait, several people in the audience were convinced that we filmed at a local hospital. Thanks to Katie Byron the production designer, Henry Alvarado the art director, Rebecca Eskreis the set dresser, and the art PAs Julianne Dome, Cynthia Fox, Monica Sender and Stephanie Wooten.

The scene ended up playing best in one continuous steadicam shot, beautifully operated by David Baldwin. But the shot never looks in that direction. So, dear 'emergency room' sign, we'll miss you.

There was a lot of great work by the art department that never made it into the final cut, or even into the dailies. But what it did was completely free us to shoot in any direction we needed. We were standing in the spaces of our imagined world, and every detail around us was true to the characters and the story.

Crossing the Gulf

There's a nice little high speed ferry to Failaka. It has luxury seating, and takes about 45 minutes to cross the gulf. It does not, however, take cars.

So... in order to get our 1989 black mercedes over for filming, we had to take this beast of a ferry, which took almost two hours. There was a long lineup of cars, and you had to get there early in the morning, to make sure you found a spot.

It was well worth it, though. The mercedes was both a good platform for getting the background plates for the green screen shots, and a perfect match for the mercedes we had filmed in Los Angeles.

This will be a busy week, with picture lock coming up soon. Next post will report on a small test screening we're having today. Until then...

There's always time for giant chess...

How can you resist a giant chessboard?

Sean and I stopped for a quick game of chess on Failaka. After a few moves, though, the novelty wore out, and the itch to go filming got too big. So, unfortunately, I can't report on a winner. (There was a moment when my king was in check, but we won't talk about that...)

The cut is coming along nicely. This week we'll be showing it to the project mentors for feedback. Once those notes are addressed, we'll be having a small test screening, before we lock. Updates to come.

Progress

Footage from Kuwait is being integrated into the cut of To Rest in Peace. I must say, I'm absolutely thrilled with it.

There's still work to be done on the cut. Once we picture lock, there's sound design, visual effects, music composing and, finally, the color correct and sound mix. But now that the footage is all there, we can see the finish line ahead!

Thanks to everyone who's kept up with the blog, and sent me comments. As of today, the blog will get a weekly update. This will include a progress report on the film, and maybe a little story about production or post-production.

The picture here is from the police station in Failaka. Sean Conaty (the DP) and Ali Younis (the 1st AC, and major producing help) stand under a blast radius on the wall. The building was riddled with bullets and debris from the first days of the invasion. It's haunting to stand there and think of what these marks meant for the people who fought there.

Until next week...

News from Kuwait

2nd unit production is wrapped!

We filmed for five days on the Canon 7d, capturing b-roll footage of Kuwait. This will mainly be used to replace greenscreens for the driving shots, but we also captured some establishing shots and transitions.

Two days were spent on the island of Failaka, which was like entering a time machine. The entire neighbourhood is a ghost town, left as it was during the occupation, twenty years ago. There were cars in the driveways, and houses pock marked with machine gun fire. One wall had graffiti declaring a "Free Kuwait". Another was marked by soldiers, taunting that "this will be the mother of all battles".

It was a strange journey, made even more haunting by what we discovered as we were leaving. We saw trucks towing the abandoned cars out to the ferry. The very next day, it turned out, they were going to demolish the old houses. We managed to film there just in time.

Thanks to everyone who made this trip so joyful and productive. Sean Conaty, who shot hours of beautiful footage. Ali Younis, who gave generously of his time and equipment, acting both as 1st AC and production manager during the Failaka trip. Abdullah Al-Matrouk, who managed our last day of production, and doubled as an actor. Esam Al-Kazemi, Mohammad Al-Qattan, Abdulaziz Al-Mobailish, Haider Al-Mosawi, my dad Faisal Al-Matrouk, and everyone else who gave their passion and support to this project.