A Day in the Life of a Burqa-Wearer

Postmarked Friday, January 27th, 2006
Topic: Film (254 words, 13 images, 2 comments)

Earlier today, I helped my friend Sean shoot some scenes for his upcoming final project film. By help, I mean I donned a floor-length baby-blue burqa, clipped on a microphone and screamed sayings in Persian, such as "Don't piss, there are landmines over there!!"

Sean is enrolled in the MA in Visual Anthropology program with me and is, in my humble opinion, a fantastic filmmaker. I got to know him during the long days/evenings that went into editing our 5-minute films last semester, and I think his final cut was one of the best in the class. He is not afraid to push the limits of "anthropology" and he plays with experimental images and sounds in order to awaken and broaden his viewers' senses (and sense of the Possible).

So, when he texted me the other day and said, "Morning... need to recruit a burqa-wearing, farsi-speaking woman for 30 minutes filming... interested?", it was a no-brainer. His latest project is (loosely) based on his own experiences traveling throughout Asia (mostly Pakistan and India) and deals with our perception of physical and mental landscapes and our senses. His work is all pretty abstract (as opposed to a more direct kind of "this is a story about a man and his dog" film), and it WORKS. I hear the footage from today's shoot is fairly hilarious... I can't wait to see it once it's put together.

Here are some images from the shoot, with me, Sean and our friend Lukas.

What you get when you mix a Smurf and a Persian angel... Here I am, smiling. And a close up! Sean, the creative genius!
Lukas, the great light and sound man! Setting up the lights... This light provided me with my daily dose of Vitamin D. Sean, in his Pakistani outfit.
Lukas, keeping things smooth. What a lad! Did I mention he is from Cork, Ireland? The art of capturing it all on video. "OK Sean, now make some rustling noises with your beard."
We wound up using natural light for the shoot.      

Reader Comments

1.

Comment from name? u called me light and sound man (http://www.lukasbirk.com)

hi... if you ever wanna swap flats for a weekend ...!! :O))) I am up for it. Thanks for the healthy muesli bars.

I was just thinking can you compliment somebody with... HI the Burqa suits you?? guess not.... Luke

2.

Response from Marjan

Sounds good, man... I'll give you a good deal on the Bed and Breakfast deal (comes complete with hot chocolate and healthy bars)!

As for the burqa, you can always tell them it brings out the color of the slits of their eyes?!

Add A Comment:

Optional Fields
Required Fields
Human Test

Here is a simple test to make sure you're human and not spam. Please re-type your name into the field below. It must match what you've entered above to pass.