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Screening of documentary "Young voices, Ancient Song" held in Baku

21 October 2016 22:00 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Javid Zeynalli – APA. "Young voices, Ancient Song” documentary, directed by Chairman of the Mugham Society of America Jeffrey Werbock, has been presented at Nizami Cinema Center. The event was attended by a number of state and government officials, MPs and public figures, APA reports. .

Chairman of the European Azerbaijan Society (TEAS), executive producer of the documentary Tale Heydarov spoke about the contributions made by Azerbaijani people to the world cultural heritage. He noted that Mugham – the masterpiece of Azerbaijan, plays a special role within these contributions: “First Lady of Azerbaijan, President of Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva has done a lot of work to popularize Mugham both in Azerbaijan and in the world. In 2003, Azerbaijani Mugam art was included in the list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO. A lot of work have been done to popularize Mugam in Azerbaijan and in the world from that year. The International Mugham Center was established in Baku. Azerbaijan Mugam Anthology and "Karabakh singers" album were prepared and international Mugham competitions are being held for several years.”

Heydarov noted that the dissemination of truthful information about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a strategic line of the TEAS chaired by him: "Our goal is to spread abroad the truth about the conflict by different possible means. One of them is to release books in Russian, English, French, documentary films, television programs and achieve their broadcasting on foreign TV channels. As you know, the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh caused not only of humanitarian problems. At the same time, it led to the destruction of cultural monuments in Karabakh, which is the cradle of Azerbaijani culture. This is a blow not only for Azerbaijan, but also for international cultural heritage. We decided to make a documentary film to bring this fact to the world community. We have involved Jeffrey Werbock, who knows Azerbaijan for many years. He knows Azerbaijani Mugham more than an ordinary citizen and keeps the status of a professional artist. Whthin these years we worked to bring up the film. More than 4 years were spent for the realization of this film."

Heydarov said that one of the main objectives of the film is the demonstration and its popularization abroad: "Our goal is to show that Mugham art is alive in Azerbaijan despite the occupation and problems. IDPs from Karabakh are keeping it alive.. Thanks to them, as well as the care of the state, Mugham continues to live in Azerbaijan. We have successfully carried out the presentation of the film in London. Our goal is to continue screening the film in other countries of the world."

The author of the film Jeffrey Werbock also had a speech at the event. According to him, the idea of making a film about the culture of Azerbaijan came to his mind 16 years ago and after many years TEAS supported him to realize his idea: “I am very pleased to make this film. I am very pleased that we show it in Baku. In the film, young people perform Mugam. During filming, there were a lot of interesting things. At the same time, I saw the difficulties faced by people who are forced to leave their native lands. Unfortunately, there are a lot of refugees in the world, but I saw such proud people for the first time. I am in love with the culture of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has a very rich culture, which is not much known in the world. I would like to bring this culture throughout the world. Azerbaijanis deserve that the world recognizes its culture.”

Then there was a screening of the film, in which Mugham is spoken of as a phenomenon of art. At the same time, the film shows the damage to the Azerbaijani and world cultural heritage caused by the war and gives details about the conflict in Karabakh.

In 2000, famous American artist Jeffrey Werbock was fascinated by the mugham performance of young Azerbaijanis in one of the refugee camps. Arriving in America and watching the records of the performance he was touched by performance of the young singer about his homeland. Interested by what he saw, after eight years he again visited Azerbaijan and the place of refugees. The film tells how he once again finds three young performers who have left an indelible impression on his memory.

The executive producer of the film "Young voices, Ancient Song" is Tale Heydarov, directors are Katy-Robin Garton and Jeffrey Werbock. Filming was held in Baku, Barda, Imishli and other places.