Award at PCFMF

To Rest in Peace won at the Park City Film Music Festival, placing third in the short film category. Congratulations to our composer, Leah Curtis, and the talented team she brought on board.

The picture above is Leah (on the right) with festival director Leslie Harlow.

You can listen to two pieces from To Rest in Peace below, including Salamun Salam, which won 'best world song' at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards in 2010.

Park City Film Music Festival

To Rest in Peace is screening at the Park City Film Music Festival, on Tuesday, May 29th at 12:15pm, and Saturday, June 2nd at 3:15pm. You can purchase tickets online on their Festival Genius page.

Congrats to Leah Curtis, and the artists who brought her score to life! You can listen to the To Rest in Peace soundtrack online.

Leah was also recently nominated for two categories at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards, for her Exitus Roma song, 'Animal Vagula,' with vocalist Lisbeth Scott. Their previous collaboration, 'Salamun Salam' from the To Rest in Peace soundtrack, won 'Best World Song' in 2010. The award ceremony will be held on November 15th.

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! 

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!

Ridley Scott

DGA Quarterly has a great interview with Ridley Scott in their Fall 2010 issue. The bit about his early directing days is particularly interesting. I won't spoil it with a summary here, but look for the advice he got from actor Ian Hendry. "From that moment on, I just changed gears."

Ridley Scott's work was an inspiration for To Rest in Peace from the very beginning. Sean Conaty and I watched Body of Lies and Black Hawk Down. And Leah Curtis and I listened to the score of Black Hawk Down and Gladiator.

Going way back, it was Gladiator that inspired me to study history in undergrad, with the dream of directing historical epics. Which is why it was such an honour to have Mr. Scott as an Industry Mentor on To Rest in Peace. His guidance raised the film to a whole new level.

Enjoy the interview!

Best World Song Award

I'm thrilled to announce that To Rest in Peace won 'Best World Song' at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards this week! Congratulations to our wonderfully talented composer Leah Curtis, and all the amazing artists who brought the music to life.

We were also nominated for 'Best Original Score in an Indie, Short or Documentary,' which was won by Christophe Beck for Waiting for Superman. It was an honour just to be in the same category as such an accomplished artist (and an Emmy Award winner!)

Hans Zimmer, whose work was an inspiration to us during the scoring process, won 'Best Original Score in a Feature Film' for Inception.

Leah wrote a great blog post about scoring To Rest in Peace, which you can read here. It explains the music track by track, with links to a SoundCloud playlist. The winning song 'Salamun Salam' can also be seen online in the Failaka Island montage.

Congratulations again to composer Leah Curtis, and all the incredibly talented artists who contributed to the score: vocalist Lisbeth Scott, Armen Anassian and Nancy Roth on violin, Lynn Grants on viola, Mary Anne Steinberger on cello, M. B. Gordy on percussion, Chris Bleth on duduk, Dean Parks on oud. Plus music consultant and contractor Alan Steinberger, scoring assistant Karim Elmahmoudi (fellow USC alum!), music editor Dave Lawrence, recording engineer Charlie Paakkari, and scoring mixer John Rodd.

Congratulations also to sound designer Chris Whetstone and re-record mixer Valen Hernandez, who integrated the score beautifully into the sound design of the film. And finally, a special thank you to Dr. Lisa Urkevich who consulted with Leah to help create the feel of Kuwaiti music, and my parents, Faisal Al-Matrouk & Mona Al-Kazemi, who provided the arabic lyrics.

Failaka Video

In January of this year, To Rest in Peace went to Kuwait to shoot b-roll footage. Most of it was shot on the Island of Failaka, which was completely abandoned for twenty years after the Gulf.

As we were boarding the ferry back to Kuwait, we saw tow trucks arriving on the island. You might remember this story from the January post, "News from Kuwait". They were there to remove the abandoned cars, in preparation for a complete demolition of the neighbourhood.

We were haunted by the realization that the footage we had was the last visual record of this moment of history, frozen for twenty years.

With that in mind, I decided to make this video. Some of the unused footage of Failaka is intercut here with the song "Salamun Salam" from To Rest in Peace, which is nominated for Best World Music Track at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards (in a couple of weeks!)

The footage was color corrected by Sean Conaty.

Hollywood Music in Media Awards

To Rest in Peace has garnered two nominations at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards!

We're nominated for the song 'Salamun Salam' in Best World Music Track, and for Best Original Score in an Indie, Short, or Documentary.

The Best Original Score nominees for Feature Film include Hans Zimmer, whose Black Hawk Down soundtrack was an inspiration for us during the scoring process.

Congratulations to composer Leah Curtis, and the wonderful musicians of To Rest in Peace!

Music

Leah Curtis wrote a haunting score for To Rest in Peace. Since we recorded last Tuesday, the music keeps coming back to me in every moment of quietude, crowned by the exquisite voice of Lisbeth Scott.

Here is the cue from our final scene, leading into the credits.

To Rest in Peace - End Credits by Leah Curtis

I'm astounded by what Leah was able to create, and the talent she was able to bring on board. Armen Anassian and Nancy Roth on violin, Lynn Grants on viola, Mary Anne Steinberger on cello, M. B. Gordy on percussion, Chris Bleth on duduk, Dean Parks on oud. Plus music consultant and contractor Alan Steinberger, scoring assistant Karim Elmahmoudi (fellow USC alum!), music editor Dave Lawrence, recording engineer Charlie Paakkari, and scoring mixer John Rodd.

One of the notes we got from our industry mentor, early in the rough cut stage, was to make the music bigger. He recommended we listen to Black Hawk Down, which we did, playing the entire soundtrack against sections of To Rest in Peace. It became the model for our opening cue, and for the scope of our music.

But Leah really outdid herself with it. I'm very proud to have her art included in this film.