Far from home, a young German filmmaker set his sharp blue eyes through the viewfinder of his DSLR. And the result? He captured a story he calls “Welcome to Lebanon”. His documentary got nominated for one of the largest independent film awards in Germany, the Camgaroo Award.

The talented Jan Jessen wanted to portray Lebanon as a whole, and he was able to do so through meeting up with Fayha Choir. The collective is as diverse as the country itself. It consists of members from various regions, social classes, political loyalties, religious beliefs. If that doesn’t serve as a sample of the Lebanese population, what does? Fayha Choir represents a miniature Lebanon.

In his video, he explains how he came across the choir and managed to make a documentary about it. “Sadly, it did not win this award,” says Jessen, “still, getting nominated is pretty cool.” The Camgaroo Award is considered the largest independent film award in German-speaking countries. It receives about 600 film applications per year and only about 70 films are nominated!

“I am just eager to get feedback, especially from Lebanese people,” he tells us. “It is very hard to do a documentary on another country or other people without seeming ignorant or patronizing.”

“I am also sure that I made some heavy editing mistakes that are really obvious if you understand the lyrics of the songs.” For example, you may notice that Jessen did not realize that the choir was singing Armenian when he stitched it with an interview about the beauty of Arabic music. But that’s an honest mistake any filmmaker could make.

He has entered this documentary into some other festivals due early this year. Jessen’s documentary about Fayha Choir is pending right now at the Bundesfestival Junger Film 2018: Filmreif, a federal young-talent award that goes to young people up to 29 years old.

Jessen adds, “This was an interesting journey, I learned so much and I would love to get some feedback on it so I can adjust and develop a better sense [of] things.” Comment below to let him know what you think about his work!

Points to clarify:

Fayha Choir just turned 15 years old! It has three branches now. The oldest branch is in Tripoli, Lebanon. Another is in Barbir, Beirut and the newest has recently opened in Cairo, Egypt. The conductor of the choir, Maestro Barkev Taslakian, holds rehearsals on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday in Beirut, and Thursday, Friday, Saturday in Tripoli. The Maestro also has monthly travels to Egypt to oversee rehearsals and work with members of Cairo.