Afghan Star

Last Wednesday I went to see the Premiere of "Afghan Star" at Bridport's Electric Palace Cinema. The film-maker Havana Marking was there also. She has made a remarkable documentary about a pop-idol TV programme that goes out in Afghanistan. You may have heard about it on the news. Around 2000 enter the singing competition, and 3 of them are women. Even though the Taliban are not in power, this is a very risky thing to do, and the women can receive death threats. It's an inspiring film though, showing the ordinary Afghans going about their lives, and their various attitudes to this rather modern TV show. Do see it if you can. It won awards at the Sundance festival. I understand it's now being shown at a London cinema, and later to go on Channel 4.

One of the women singers came from Herat, another hailed from Kandahar, two towns I remember well from the seventies. Here's one or two 35mm slides of Kandahar....taken with my old Kodak Retinette on Kodachrome II.

Bolex Survives Afghan Waterfall

I will never forget an incident that happened to me in Afghanistan, way back in 1969 when the King was still in power....

In the central hills there is a series of stunning blue lakes, and the minerals in the water have created a dam, called Band-i-Amir. The water cascades over. This must be one of the relatively unknown wonders of the natural world.

At the top of one of the waterfalls I was about to set up my trusty Bolex H-16RX, with a Som Berthiot zoom lens fitted with anamorphic, in an attempt to take in the breathtaking view. It was slippery...
Before I could get the camera onto the tripod, I stumbled, and the camera somehow escaped my grasp... and joined the waterfall. I couldn't see it, and I scrambled down the 30 feet or so, then jumped into the pool below. My frantic efforts darting around to locate the object made two local chaps laugh uncontrollably !

I wasn't so amused. When I fished it out, it was obvious that the water had got everywhere, into the mechanism and between the lens elements. The RX Fader, bashing against the rocks, was twisted into a strange shape, though the body and lenses didn't look bad. I returned to the Land Rover and shut myself into the dark, hot trailer to try and save the film. Luckily, not too much water was between the leaves of film, and it dried quickly in the Afghan atmosphere. But the sodden camera was going to be a job for Messrs. Bolex.

After my return to UK, I sent the camera to them and it arrived back a few weeks later. Incredibly, those perfectionists had made everything look like new. And Kodak as usual did a great job with the film, and all my movie material was fine. (No, the camera wasn't running as it went down, unfortunately !) That Bolex certainly was a sturdy beast. And it joined me on many more outings... including back to Afghanistan a year later !
Some of the footage I shot at Band-i-Amir went into my 16mm documentary The Giant Buddhas of Bamiyan.
I see there are some more pics of this place which maybe show the natural dam better, at www.greatgametravel.com

I took these Kodachrome slides with a Kodak Retinette that I was given as a boy. They say this lake could be 1000 feet deep. The water is amazingly clear.

This landscape reminds me of Planet of the Apes ! Talking of feature films, do you remember The Horsemen with Omar Sharif and Jack Palance ? Some of it was filmed around here.

Very few people live in the area, at least when I was there in 69 / 70.

This photo shows one of the Land Rovers driven by life-long friend Martin, somewhere in Afghanistan, I can't remember exactly where. It was taken by my brother Rex... with a 35mm Contarex, that huge SLR with interchangeable backs, if I remember rightly... I wonder what was to happen to this proud and independent Afghan family in less peaceful times....