English subtitles
Documentary
Duration 97min
Synopsis
Maverick underground American/Lebanese musician and ethnomusicologist Alan Bishop (Sun City Girls and Sublime Frequencies), lands as a stranger in Cairo, soon after the 2011 uprisings, and teams up with three young Egyptian musicians for the translation of his old songs into Arabic. Under Bishop’s mentorship, this unlikely collaboration transforms into a band, The Invisible Hands.
Structured around fly-on-the-wall scenes, archival ghost apparitions, absurd cameos, and poetic diary narrations by Bishop and unfolding between the two critical elections that marked the post "Arab Spring” period in Egypt, the film juxtaposes the tragicomedy of politics and art-making in a troubled periphery.
with ALAN BISHOP, AYA HEMEDA, CHERIF EL MASRI, ADHAM ZIDAN
Director MARINA GIOTI
Poetry and Prose ALAN BISHOP
Co-director GEORGES SALAMEH
Produced by MARINA GIOTI & GEORGES SALAMEH
Executive producer ATHINA RACHEL TSANGARI
A VERTIGINOUS Production
Supported by DOCUMENTA 14 & THE GREEK FILM CENTRE
THE INVISIBLE HANDS has been selected at Docs In Progress, in the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival
For more information updates & news, please go on our FB page here & Instagram here
Festival screenings & Exhibitions (selected)
documenta 14, Athens, Greece (World Premiere)
68th Berlinale Forum Expanded, Berlin, Germany (International Premiere)
Yebisu International Festival for Art and Alternative Visions, Tokyo, Japan (Asian Premiere)
20th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, Thessaloniki, Greece
CPH:DOX – Copenhagen International Documentary Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark
22nd Maine International Film Festival, Waterville, USA (US Premiere)
Anatomy of Political Melancholy exhibition, curated by K. Gregos, Art Space Pythagorion, Samos, Greece
Anatomy of Political Melancholy II exhibition, Athens Conservatoire/ Goethe Institut, Athens, Greece
Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon
12th DORF Music Documentary Festival, Primosten, Croatia
Kapittel 2018 Literature Festival, Stavanger, Norway
Womex 18-The World Music Expo, Film Programme, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
Cinedays Film Festival, Skopje, Macedonia
Signal, Centre for Contemporary Art, Malmö, Sweden
Fire Museum Presents, The Rotunda, Philadelphia, USA
Hellas Fimbox Berlin, Germany
Greek Documentary Association: “Με τα Μάτια Ανοιχτά”, Focus on Greek Documentary, Greek Film Archives, Athens, Greece
Zawya Cinema, Cairo, Egypt
Saristra Festival, Cephalonia, Greece
Tusk Festival 2019, Newcastle, UK
Griechische Filmwoche München, Munich, Germany
Award
10th Giuseppe Becce Prize for Music (awarded by an independent critics jury at the Berlinale)
Press
Flix (Greek)
Berlinale Film Review at Screenanarchy.com THE INVISIBLE HANDS, An Unlikely Meeting of Cultures Yields Strange and Beautiful Results
Berlinale Film review at moveitmag.gr (Greek)
Press mention in The Wire The Invisible Hands follows Alan Bishop and his band in Cairo
Interview for Kaput Magazin für Insolvenz & Pop, 2018 (English)
Interview and presentation (WOMEX) Scene Noise, Cairo (English)
Eleni Tzannatou in conversation with Marina Gioti, Popaganda, Greek Online Magazine, 2017 (Greek)
Publication: The Aleph of Athens by G. Missouridis (bilingual English-German). Excerpt from Culturescapes-Greece book, Merian Verlag, 2017
TRITO 909fm - National Greek Radio (March 2019)
Berlinale Film Review at Screenanarchy.com THE INVISIBLE HANDS, An Unlikely Meeting of Cultures Yields Strange and Beautiful Results
Berlinale Film review at moveitmag.gr (Greek)
Press mention in The Wire The Invisible Hands follows Alan Bishop and his band in Cairo
Interview for Kaput Magazin für Insolvenz & Pop, 2018 (English)
Interview and presentation (WOMEX) Scene Noise, Cairo (English)
Eleni Tzannatou in conversation with Marina Gioti, Popaganda, Greek Online Magazine, 2017 (Greek)
Publication: The Aleph of Athens by G. Missouridis (bilingual English-German). Excerpt from Culturescapes-Greece book, Merian Verlag, 2017
TRITO 909fm - National Greek Radio (March 2019)
Distribution & online screening
Arsenal-Institut for Film and Video Art, Berlin, Germany (9-29 May 2020)
Signal-Contemporary art space, Malmö, Sweeden (8–25 November 2018)
AFLAMUNA, Beirut, Lebanon (20-27 July 2022)