Musical Globe

Sirens

Rita Baghdadi
Screening time  
01.04. / Saturday, 19:00 - 21:00 Theatre 2  

Headstrong 23-year-old guitarist Lilas lives with her mom and brother on the outskirts of Beirut. By day, Lilas teaches music to kids. By night, she’s trying to keep her thrash metal band, Slave to Sirens, together. Growing up in the shadow of their parents’ civil war, Lilas and her bandmates, Shery, Maya, Alma, and Tatyana have big dreams but few opportunities. When the band’s appearance at a UK music festival isn’t the life-changer they had hoped for, Lilas comes home to Lebanon on the brink of collapse. The future of her band, her country, and her dreams now all at stake, Lilas faces a crossroad. She must decide what kind of leader she will be, not only for her band, but also as a young woman struggling to define herself in Lebanon, a country as complex as each of the Sirens themselves.

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Rita Baghdadi

Rita Baghdadi is an Emmy award-winning Moroccan-American documentary filmmaker. Her work has been supported by Sundance, Tribeca, Netflix, HBO, Canon, Film Independent and the International Documentary Association, and has screened in top festivals worldwide including Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, True/False and CPH:DOX. Rita got her start as a cinematographer, filming verité documentaries such as Served Like A Girl and Circus Of Books. Her feature documentary directorial debut, My Country No More, was awarded Best Feature at the 2018 Big Sky Film Festival. Her documentary City Rising won the LA-area Emmy award for Best Social Issue Film and is still being used as a tool for activism around housing inequality. Known for the intimacy of her bold, character-driven films, Rita’s third feature documentary Sirens premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at Outfest. When she’s not in the field, she is an active mentor dedicated to empowering women and girls of color through documentary film training.

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Sirens

USA, Lebanon
2022, 79'

Directed by:
Rita Baghdadi

Cinematography:
Rita Baghdadi

Edited by:
Grace Zahrah

Music:
Para One

Producers:
Rita Baghdadi, Camilla Hall, Tatiana el Dahdah, Jeremiah Hammerling, Jennifer Tiexiera

Produced by:
Animal Pictures, Lady & Bird, Endless Eye Productions

Festivals & Awards:

Sundance FF: Grand Jury Prize (2022), Outfest: Grand Jury Award (2022), Sun Valley FF: One in a Million Documentary Award (2022), Florida FF: Special Jury Award (2022), Thessaloniki DFF: Special Mention (2022)