Review: Let's Get Lost and People Playing Music

From Teta Alf Marra by Mahmoud Kaabour

Back from another great music and movie night. This evening's Mahmovies! night started with a 10 minute teaser trailer of Mahmoud Kaabour's (the man behind Mahmovies!) latest documentary feature Teta Alf Marra (Grandma 1000 times) accompanied by Kaabour's spoken words and live music. The documentary is about Kaabour's Grandmother in Beirut and it looks like it's a very endearing and touching film. Can't wait to see it when it is released.

This was followed by Bruce Weber's Let's Get Lost. I didn't know much about Chet Baker before this movie, so it was interesting for me to learn about him. It starts off about Chet, his childhood and his talent, but the second half features the women in his life and they didn't draw a very good picture of him. Despite his talent, turns out he was selfish, abusive, and self destructive. I guess nobody is perfect!

William Claxton - Halima and Chet Baker Redondo Bea

But what fascinated me the most was that finding out he was married to Halima, a half Pakistani/half West Indian woman who appears in the famous photos by William Claxon (she was his second wife, Baker was married three times). They have a son called Chesney Aftab Baker. Not sure of his whereabouts, but someone please track him down because that's a movie waiting to be made.

After the movie, we were treated to 'People Playing Music' by Noura Sadaka, Nabil Amarashi and friends. Homegrown original music never sounded so delightful and refreshing - I really enjoyed it.

I've also come to the conclusion that the cello is the saddest musical instrument ever and the marimba is the happiest musical instrument ever.