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The Mystical Music of Mugham Comes To Montana wins another festival

30 November 2009 10:28 (UTC +04:00)

According to the author of the documentary Thomas Goltz, the movie got an award in the â€œshort film competitionâ€ section.

Other winners of this section this year are such films as Love of Self, Into The Zone, You Are Not Frank Sinatra, Paper Places, Man of the Soil, etc.

The 15-minute documentary is about the exhausting cross-cultural musical road trip of the group Qadim Sharq (â€˜Ancient Eastâ€™) across the Treasure State, with performances at Rocky Mountain College in Billings in the east, the music department of Montana State University in Bozeman in south-central Montana, the Livingston library on the Yellowstone River, and finally at the University of Montana at Missoula in the west.

Along the way, the group opened the ears of hundreds of locals to the magic of the mystical, non-rhythmic, modal music of Azerbaijan - mugham.

â€œMugham in Montanaâ€ or The Mystical Music of Mugham Comes to Montana won an Award of Merit in the short film/documentary category at the La Jolla, California 2009 Accolade Film Festival Competition in August 2009.

The documentary was shown within the Big Easy Films Festivals in New Orleans on November 14.

The Mystical Music of Mugham was shot by cameraperson Randy Jacobs with extra footage shot by Ian Clark, and edited by Katy Magruder of the Montana Sprout Group. Special logistical assistance was provided by Vahid Alekbarov, a refugee from Armenian-occupied Karabakh, now resident in Billings

The executive producer was Tale Heydarov, Chairman of The European Azerbaijan Society (TEAS).

The tour itself was facilitated through Elin Suleymanov, Consul General of Azerbaijan to California and the Thirteen western US states (including Montana) with funding from the Heydar Aliyev Foundation in Baku.