An Incomplete Calendar

An Incomplete Calendar is a story about oil, music and “the Third World project.” The film explores the remarkable and untold story of a musical titled Rhymes and Songs for OPEC, recorded in 1980 by the Concert Choir of Central University of Venezuela to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, established in Baghdad in 1960. 

The film interweaves forgotten songs and shadow archives to tell a different story of oil, not as a commodity but as political leverage that was used for the liberation struggles in Palestine and for building pan-Arab solidarity, a transnational project that was shattered by the triumph of neoliberal economics in the 1970s.

 

This is the final episode of a trilogy of essays by Sanaz Sohrabi that unpack the relationship between the political economy of images, archival technologies and visual cultures of resource extraction in Iran and broader West Asia.

Thank you to our screening partner: Twelve Gates Arts.