The documentary tells the adventure of the Flying Carpet Children Festival, a festival held every year in the Mardin area of Turkey, near the Syrian border. It is an experience where art rises above conflicts and daily hardships, highlighting the humanity of both those who bring this art to the region and those who live there and enjoy the event. The perspective of local children, who escape their complex routine for a few days, will be narrated alongside that of the leading artists attending the festival, who open their eyes and learn more than ever in their lives. We will also attempt to answer a difficult question: does art have a place when basic necessities are lacking?
Visit the festival's website: https://www.flyingcarpetfestival.org/
Main features and goals of the crowdfunding campaign
The uniqueness of our documentary about Flying Carpet lies in the conception of the film. As audiovisual artists, we will be "performers" within the experience, but at the same time, we face the challenge of narrating what happens there. Our intention is to involve as much as possible the people around us during the filming, letting ourselves be inspired by what happens at every step. Even if that means changing scripts, overthrowing preconceived ideas, and breaking our brains.
Our goal is to make the festival known, of course, but not only. It is also about making the audience think about questions that come to our minds: is it legitimate to invest time, effort, and money in art where other goods considered more basic in the famous Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs are lacking? Can art and culture create those bonds that identities, territorial conflicts, religions, and factions undo? Who changes their perspective more, or for the better, or at least becomes more aware of it, the giver or the receiver? How can a child's perspective inspire that of an adult?
Why this is important
Since we discovered the Flying Carpet Children Festival, we have fallen in love with the project. There isn't much more to explain. The motivation of the organisers, the people who participate, both residents of Mardin and visitors. But one thing is the aesthetic impression and another is the artistic gaze. And perhaps for this reason, we wanted to explore a narrative, beyond a mere description. We want to make cinema, to tell a story that moves like the stories we have come to know and surrounding this festival have moved us. We do not want to explain facts, but to be the echo of those voices that represent a dart in the stomach for those who hear them.
Team and experience
We are a six-people Italian-Spanish team with a clear vocation for cinema and social transformation. We work as a team, respecting equality among us, establishing hierarchies but maintaining horizontality in decision-making. All of us have previous experience in filmmaking, journalism, and media. Several of us are accredited as international press. This is a team diverse in expertise: collectively, we form a complete team in terms of cinematography and camera operation; sound design and direct sound; production, pre-production, and post-production; documentation and scriptwriting; direction.