OMAR SALEH: A JORDANIAN INDIE FILMMAKER & ACTOR WITH AN ATTITUDE

April 8, 2007

Actor-director Omar Saleh has made a niche for himself, with his no-holds-barred political, social, and sci-fi comedies such as Decision Man, The Last Patch (co-directed with Rifqi Assaf), and What a Job (co-directed with Mohammad Aboujarad). His quirky acting style in films such Decision Man and The Order of Out (directed by Jafar Safwan), has made him a darling of Jordan's indie filmmaking circles. Both he and filmmaker Mohammad Aboujarad gained regional visibility when their film What a Job was selected to the international competition of the Carthage International Film Festival in Tunisia. The introverted artist managed to dodge this interview for a long time until we delivered an ultimatum: do the interview or we will force you to watch your films. He finally relented.

(Special thanks to Suha Ali and Habib Mousa for the translation, editing, and interview preperations.)

YOU ARE A TELECOMS ENGINEER, WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING ACTING AND DIRECTING FILMS?

The arts have always been a lifelong passion for me. I do not remember a time when I was not involved in writing poetry or short stories. It was an escape form the harshness of life to a more pleasant world of my own making. And when I say harshness of life, I mean the constant anxiety of not knowing what the future holds for me, my family, and the country in general. But unlike most people my generation, I was unable to find comfort in the traditional distractions such as sports or going out.

So instead of singing the blues, I became interested in creative forms of expression. At some point during my writing stints, I started noticing the healing powers of the audience. The bigger the audience, the less my anxieties grew. There is an element of catharsis when an artist meets his or her audience.

Yet there was something missing in my poetry and short stories, besides the fact they were still underdeveloped and very introverted at that time. I think it was my inability to reach out to larger and more diverse audiences that kept me searching for other means of artistic expression. I was hooked on audience therapy. And I needed to expand my circle of impact and influence. I realized I needed to consider another vehicle for my creativity.

"When some people reach dead-ends, they turn petty and dwell on their personal wounds, or they jump off the deep end, but as soon as I hit rock bottom, I felt liberated."

When I participated in the Amman Filmmakers Cooperative, I knew right then I had found my calling in life. At that time, I was a couple of years out of college, my job was going no where, political activism was being choked with so many restrictions, and I was just turning more and more bitter. I was broke, in debt, alone, muffled, and just plain pissed off. When some people reach dead-ends, they turn petty and dwell on their personal wounds, or they jump off the deep end, but as soon as I hit rock bottom, I felt liberated. FREEDOM!!! (move over Mel Gibson) I felt that I had little to loose. Now I can unleash my art, my bitterness, my anger, and not worry about a damn thing. A poor, educated (humor me) young man is a catalyst for change. That's when I took the plunge with the Amman Filmmakers Cooperative and helped in Ammar Quttaineh's award-winning short film, the controversial political satire Overdose, and then I was ready to make my first film, Decision Man, a whacky short about the new world order and the Third Voice (I will explain soon). Finally, I co-directed the short film What a Job that gave us regional presence via the Carthage festival and Izmir Short Film Festival, with my good friend and co-director Mohammad Aboujarad.

DECISION MAN IS A BIZARRE SHORT FILM. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING WHEN YOU MADE IT?

Usually, I am not fond of my work, yet Decision Man is my favorite short film. The idea is just too hilarious. During the US invasion of Iraq, there was so much talk about re-engineering the educational and religious curricula in the Arab world to suit the taste of the USA, a country with a long history of committing injustice against its own people and others including those in Vietnam, Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon. I guess they wanted to engineer a more docile Arab. This brazen attempt at thought control struck me as Orwellian. One evening, I was drinking bad coffee with Hazim Bitar, my producer and Amman Filmmakers Cooperative founder, at a local café and we were poking fun at the whole idea of what the new school books would look like after the White House was done rewriting them. At that point Hazim started joking about the Third Voice that trumps the outcome of any inner debate between good and evil. I think we hurt ourselves laughing that evening at the though of making a film about it. The idea just sounded great. Or maybe it's the bad coffee that killed some of our brain cells. In a few hours, a film script was taking shape. In a few weeks, my first short film Decision Man was completed. Basically, this is a film about the neo-world, with neo-values, run by neo-conservatives. There is Good and there is Evil, but now there is a third force: Uncle Sam, aka the Third Voice. So, Mr. Good whispers in your right ear, Mr. Evil in your left, and Uncle Sam vetoes everyone. How could I not fall in love with this crazy idea.

SO YOU ARE ON A CRUSADE TO EXPOSE INJUSTICE?

I am on a mission to say what I feel the urge to say, while staying out of trouble. If some see it as a crusade against injustice and inequity, then be it. But I see myself as an artist speaking his mind. My films and my intentions will always be open to the subjective interpretation of audiences.

"My films and my intentions will always be open to the subjective interpretation of audiences."

I am now addicted to this emotional connection between me and the audience, especially with those who can relate to my concerns. It's a wonderful bond that I can't describe, but one that has helped me deal with my anxieties and focus my energies. I hope my art has done the same for others, no matter how few or many.

BECAUSE OF YOUR JOB AS A TELECOMS ENGINEER, YOU RAN INTO SOME TROUBLE WITH THE TUNISIAN AUTHORITIES. TELL US MORE ABOUT THIS?

We had a wonderful and memorable time in Tunisia and we made so many Tunisian friends. Tunis is a beautiful country. When we flew from Amman to Tunis, for the Carthage International Film Festival, where the Amman Filmmakers Cooperative had a film in competition and another in panorama, we were held at the airport for hours while the authorities investigated the discrepancies between our visa application and the official festival invitation letter. In a way, I don't blame them for being suspicious.

In the visa application, I described my job as a telecommunications engineer, and co-director Mohammad Aboujarad described his as IT support. That's what we did for a living. To the Tunisian authorities, this did not make sense, considering we are filmmakers and official guests of the Carthage festival. Then we had to explain how our rent-paying jobs, so to speak, were different from our parallel existence as filmmakers.

But thanks to the Carthage festival management, we managed to clear the misunderstanding. I guess not until this incident happened did we realize the uniqueness of our situation, at least in the Arab world, as filmmakers with split personalities. Techies by weekdays; filmmakers by weekends.

DID THE GAP BETWEEN YOUR FILM CAREER AND YOUR PROFESSIONAL CAREER IMPACT THE WAY OTHER FILMMAKERS SEE YOU?

Yes, it has been a source of some tension for many Cooperative filmmakers. None of the cooperative filmmakers, when they joined, had attended film schools, other than the educational programs of the Amman Filmmakers Cooperative. The cooperative is a second chance for people like me. In less than a couple of years, we were telling Jordanian stories that audiences were interested in hearing, at regional and international film festivals. This is something a tiny few Jordanians who went to film schools can claim. Locally, some sought to marginalize us. Either our independence frightened them or they were once gate keepers who had the power to decide who is a "real" filmmaker and who is not. Now, we let the film festivals decide.

I would have loved to study filmmaking at a school like La Femis or USC. But the cost is too prohibitive. The reason I studied telecommunications engineering in the first place was the fear of economic hardship and the even greater fear of losing my independence if I made filmmaking into a career. This is the dilemma of most cooperative filmmakers who wish to remain independent, considering the majority of those who pursued film and video studies now work in the public sector or depend on public sector funding.

But since I set my own agenda, march at my own pace, commit whatever resources I can muster to make my films, I am immune to this negativity. And so long as no one makes it illegal to participate in film festivals, we are here to stay. I consider international film festivals to be the primary catalyst for our survival. A storyteller needs an audience. So long as we can find them at film festivals, we will keep telling Jordanian stories our way. And so long as film festivals are interested in our stories, no one can shut us up. I can’t imagine being content with my technical career without filmmaking.

YOU HAVE A GOOD JOB NOW IN THE FIELD OF TELECOMMUNICATION. WITH THE IMPROVEMENT IN YOUR FINANCIAL SITUATION, HAVE YOU GROWN COMPLACENT? DID THE FIRE INSIDE COOL DOWN?

I am more financially secure, at the moment, with a decent job that affords me a middle class lifestyle, by Jordan's standards. But there is more to life than securing creature comforts. Some people develop emotional immunity to the pain of others, soon as their pain is gone. I consider this an abnormal behavior. A healthy, normal individual is a person whose well-being is connected to the well-being of the larger communities to which he belongs.

"Others curse the darkness; I make films."

As an artist, while I respect art for the sake of art, I cannot get myself to be anything but an issue-oriented filmmaker. This is what stimulates my creativity. How can we ignore the hardships of so many Jordanians? How can we ignore the killing fields of Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine? How can we ignore the Israeli occupation? How can we ignore the absence of freedoms and loss of dignity for the average Arab? Others curse the darkness; I make films.

Actually, I was glad to discover something about myself. I too had doubts about my commitment to certain causes and whether my connectedness with these causes was driven by my bitterness and frustration. But I am still the same Omar Saleh, with or without a job. This consistency alone makes me happy with who I am.

IN SOME RECENT ARAB FILMS, THE ARAB PEOPLE WERE TO BLAME FOR THE LACK OF PROGRESS. IN YOUR FILMS, IT'S ALWAYS THE FAULT OF SOME OUTSIDE FORCE THAT RENDERS PEOPLE HELPLESS. ARE YOU A CONSPIRACY THEORIST?

Of course citizens should take charge of their destiny. But only in a democracy can we put the blame squarely on the citizens for choosing policies that don't work. People don't choose poverty or illiteracy or sickness or extremism. Given a choice, people choose prosperity, education, health, and commonsense. In our part of the world, it's laughable to suggest that citizens can be blamed for decisions and outcomes not of their own making. Were the Arabs consulted before the US invaded and destroyed Iraq and helped Israel do the same to Lebanon? Were the Arabs consulted when Palestinians were thrown out of their homes and their land and dreams stolen? Did the Arabs consent to the unequal distribution of wealth? Did the Arabs approve of the arms buildup, which drains desperately needed monies for infrastructure projects, by countries that don't have to worry about outside threats? Did the Arabs consent to shrinking school budgets? Did the Arabs agree to sacrifice their political freedoms? Did the Arabs vote for official corruption that deprives desperately needed social programs from funding? Of course not. Many of the social, economic, and political problems have solutions, but the Arab people don't have any say, except in a token and ineffective way. Come on, lets get real and stop blaming the victims.

The victims need our understanding, not our scorn. Only with choice comes accountability and responsibility. That's the fundamental philosophical difference between traditional issue-oriented filmmakers and the new class of "official" independent filmmakers.

WHAT'S NEXT FOR YOU?

I hope to continue to challenge myself artistically. I am looking for a script that will push me to the next level, as a director. There is no shortage of issues and topics to write about, there is a shortage of resources.

"Until I find funding, I will continue to produce the films that I can make, instead of the films that I want to make."

Of course I can make a short film with the resources available to me, but the films I really wish to make are too expensive. Until I find funding, I will continue to produce the films that I can make, instead of the films that I want to make. So far I have done fairly well. I do have a couple of projects I am discussing with the Amman Filmmakers Cooperative. We'll see how things develop.

OMAR SALEH'S FAVORITES.

Jordanian Cinema Leaders: Adnan Madanat.

Poets: Ahmad Matar, Mahmoud Darwish

Writers: Ghasssan Kanafani, Ahlam Mustagaanmi

Directors: Hatem Ali, Khaled Yousef, Hani Abouas'ad, Pedro Almodóvar, Wong Kar-Wai, Annemarie Jacir, and Ammar Quttaineh.

Actors: Sulaf Fawakhergy, Jamal Suleiman, Ammar Omary, Adel Imam, Hind Sabri, Muna Shalabi, Julia Roberts, Penelope Cruz.

Singers: Marcel Khalifa, Fariouz.

(c) 2007 Amman Filmmakers Cooperative

http:/AmmanFilmmakers.alif.com