Coming to theatres this Friday, November 1: BEHIND THE BLUE VEIL
Robin Symon’s look at the plight of the Tuareg in the modern world is making its world premiere at NYC’s Quad Cinema for an exclusive one-week run. It will expand to Los Angeles at the Beverly Hills Laemmle’s Music Hall in early December.
Symon’s film offers a broad survey, but with a particular focus on Mamatal, the son of a Tuareg chief, who is on a quest to preserve his people’s culture. Traditionally matriarchal and nomadic, the Tuareg in recent decades have been hemmed in by politics and geographical boundaries they have had no hand in controlling. Like other indigenous people around the world, they have been historically victimized and vilified, and more recently have become targets for so-called anti-terrorism forces, even though the people largely have resisted the growing encroachment of Al Qaeda in the region – a narcotrafficking presence that has cut off the Tuareg from their only means of income as desert transport guides. As the Mali government collapses – a government that provided little to no assistance to the people, systematically withholding resources and education and taxing them into insolvency – Tuareg rebels find themselves struggling for their self-determination and resisting Al Qaeda’s efforts to install a new government that would impose harsh Sharia law on the region and likely lead to their end as a distinct people.
what (not) to doc 