Its only a short trip over to Fez from Meknes. We camp outside of town and spend a morning relaxing and taking stock of what we have achieved so far. Using the powerful words and imagery from Hassans poem as a natural midpoint, we start to map out a possible structure for the documentary and make lists of musical material, locations, lyrics and visual ideas that we still need to find.
In the evening we head into the medina to Cafe Clock, an arty cafe and oasis of calm (not to mention providers of some quality camel burgers). We meet with Annas Habib, a singer that Ayesha has worked with before, who sings in many languages and specializes in sacred music from all over the world. Within minutes of explaining the project he has already come up with a classic text that he would like to record on the same track as Moona, and comes up with a location - Riad AlKantara (which means "the bridge"), one of the most beautiful Riads in Fez. We arrange to do this in a couple of days.
The next day, we meet up with Adil, a rapper from Fez who has written a rap for the project. We film him in the middle of the hectic medina just before sundown (what we now call "crazy hour", the moment of hectic madness just before sundown and the feast to break the daily ramadan fast). Later, we head to the studio of JP, a french producer living in Fes who works with Adil. We record interviews and more footage there, and Teo kindly pulls some energy out the bag to shoot some footage for their own music video in return for their help and input to our project.
The following day, we meet Annas and go to Riad Alkantara, and with the kind permission of the owner, we decide to record Annas singing in the main room. Its a majestic three floor courtyard open to the sky with an amazing acoustic. Despite some initial concerns about wind and noise, we manage to come away with a series of excellent vocal performances, with Annas singing a text that says (roughly) "he who looks inside himself with find his god".
Lastly, just before leaving Fez, we manage to squeeze in one last shoot for the music video, on the main hill with breathtaking views overlooking the whole city. After a few days scurrying around in the labyrinthine Medina, weaving in and out of the stalls with equipment and hunting locations, its a nice way to say goodbye to the city as the sun goes down.
thanks to:
Cafe Clock 7 Derb El Magana
Talaa Kbira
Fes Medina
www.cafeclock.comRiad Alkantara24 Oued Souaffine, Dough
Fez, medina
www.riadalkantara.com
