Daragh McCarthy’s documentary Boujeloud: Father of Skins has won a Bronze Palm in the Short Documentary category at the 2017 Mexico International Film Festival.
It has recently shown at Asbury Park Music & Film Festival New Jersey and is next showing at San Francisco DocFest 2017
Filmed in 2008 over three days in the Rif Mountains of Morocco as the Sufi Master Musicians of Joujouka perform their Rite of Boujeloud and celebrate the 60th anniversary of the recording of the 1968 album Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka.
Daragh McCarthy explains that The Master Musicians of Joujouka Morocco are Sufi trance musicians, “or perhaps a four thousand year old rock and roll band, who were introduced to the West by Paul Bowles, William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Rolling Stone Brian Jones and Free Jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman.
“They have acquired almost mythic status for their “panic music” playing for hours on end deep into the night. Music they say that can “heal crazy minds”
“This observational documentary is shot in the village of Joujouka during the Boujeloud festival, reputed to be a continuation of the ancient rites of Pan.
“The Master Musicians of Joujouka have been comprised of the Attar and other families from a village in the Rif Mountains of Morocco for several thousand years in a continuous tradition with the music passed from fathers to sons.
“I was invited to the village of Joujouka in the Rif Mountains of Morocco for the first truly public performance of the Boujeloud ritual in 2008 commemorating the 40th anniversary visit of Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones to the village in 1968 to record his album “The Pipes of Pan” with the Masters.
“I lived and ate in the house of musician Abdeslam Errtoubi shooting continually for three days capturing the intense music, milestone celebration and daily life of the village”.
“Boujeloud, corresponding perhaps to the Greek god Pan, is a half man half goat who originally gave the gift of music to a young shepherd from the village called Attar. In tandem with the gift of music came fertility for the crops. In return for these gifts Boujeloud was promised a wife.
“Each year Boujeloud returns to the village coming down from the mountain to steal a girl from the village to be his young bride. Distracted by the wild playing of the musicians and dancing boys who masquerade as girls he returns to his cave empty handed and exhausted next morning.
Daragh McCarthy produced, directed and shot the 27-minute documentary. Ronan O’Muirgheasa edited the project.
Daragh McCarthy is a previous winner at MIFF 2015 when the short doc Harvey Pekar’s Teo Macero received a Sliver Palm.
