The Invisible Hands

Marina Giotis’s documentary “The Invisible Hands” (2017), co-directed by Georges Salameh, will be screened at KET on Wednesday, January 29th. After the screening, there will be a Q&A with the directors.

A few words about the film:
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.

Following its premiere at Documenta 14 in Athens, the film was screened in various festivals and special screenings, including CPH:DOX in Copenhagen, Yebisu at Tokyo Metropolitan museum of Photography, the Sursock Museum in Beirut and the 68th Berlinale Forum Expanded where it was awarded the Giuseppe Becce best music award by an independent film jury.

The film will be screened with greek and english subtitles.

Τhe Invisible Hands (Documentary, Greece, Egypt, 97’)
A film by Marina Gioti, co-directed by Georges Salameh
With: Alan Bishop, Aya Hemeda, Cherif El Masri, and Adham Zidan
Produced by Vertiginous, co-produced by Haos film
With the support of Documenta 14 and the Greek Film Center