Grass: The 1925 Film About the Journey of the Bakhtiari People
Last week, The Smithsonian Museum of National Art in Washington DC featured "Grass" (the 1924 legendary documentary about the Bakhtiari people's harrowing migration) with musical accompaniment by Iranian American musician Kamyar Arsani, a master of the traditional Iranian frame drum called the Daf. He performed as part of a trio creating music inspired by Bakhtiari folk traditions. Here is an embedded (from public domain) version of the documentary (start at Miniute marker 1:26, without the musical and visual enhancement provided in the event) for those who missed the great event and film (Dir.: Merian C. Cooper & Ernest P. Schoedsack, United States, 1925, 72 min, DCP, English intertitles):
According to the event page: "In 1924, filmmakers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack (who would later go on to make King Kong together) set off with Marguerite Harrison, a writer and occasional spy, to document the migration of the Bakhtiari people of what is now Iran. Twice a year, fifty thousand Bakhtiari and their half a million animals make the treacherous trek to seasonal pasture lands. The filmmakers captured harrowing images of strength and endurance as the Bakhtiari and their herds cross the raging, half mile–wide Karun River and scale the snow-covered, fifteen thousand–foot Zardeh Kuh mountain."
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