GOSSAMER ROADS - a film about the Salaam Project
"The Salaam
Project was an arts-based collaboration between the Islamic Women's Association of Queensland, Access Arts and Arts Queensland. The project hosted a number of dynamic
workshops led by Muslim women artists and craftswomen living in and
around Brisbane. The workshops were freely offered as a way of
stimulating the wider community's interest in the diverse cultures and
traditions of Islam. Each of the artists represented
her own cultural traditions, which included some of the beautiful
traditions of Egypt, Iran, Bosnia, Sudan, Lebanon, South Africa and
beyond, and in addition each of the artists is also very talented at
drawing forth rich discussion and cultural expression from the
participants. This made for a very beautiful tapestry of creative
ideas. The workshops ran for ten weeks and included sketching and
painting with Salam El-Merebi and Sudabeh Ramhormoz, weaving and
crochet from Aida and Nagia Khalaf,
children's art classes with Shamime Mustapha, Mehndi (henna hand
painting) with Sumaiya Latif, and Bosnian dancing with Sevkija Hodzic".
The workshops were fully
attended by members of the Muslim community as well as women and
children from the wider community, and it was delightful to see so
many positive interactions, all of which are opening doors to better
understanding and integration across communities in Brisbane. One of
the strongest features of the workshops has been the opportunity to
demystify many customary aspects of Muslim women's culture, whereby
women can get to know each other, simply as people; as mothers, sisters, daughters, grandmothers and aunties, and to discover that we all enjoy Fausia's delicious cakes!
The documentary, produced by Teone Reinthal is a beautiful record of this very stimulating and enjoyable event. The beautiful soundtrack music was composed and performed in series of improvised first-take recordings which has emerged as a fine collection of inspired compositions from Steve Reinthal. The CD is also entitled Gossamer Roads.
Narrated by the dynamically inspiring director of IWAQ, Galila Abdelsalam, the film, Gossamer Roads was launched in 2008 at Eidfest in Brisbane, exhibited with a selection of the artworks, and the Salaam project will finally culminate in an exhibition destined to tour in 2009.
