AUS virtual reality project Like Every Cloud selected to pitch at the world’s largest documentary festival

Photo caption: Studio owner Annour Ahmat displays two top-selling Sudanese cassettes (photo by Bentley Brown in Ati, Chad)

A virtual reality project by American University of Sharjah (AUS) faculty and students has been selected as one of only 12 projects worldwide to be pitched at the IDFA DocLab of the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam (IDFA), the largest and most prestigious documentary event in the world. 

Titled Like Every Cloud (Zayy Kulli Ghaima), the project explores transnational efforts to archive Sudanese music through the virtual reconstruction of a now-defunct cassette studio across the border in Ati, Chad. The work is directed by Assistant Professor of Media Communication Dr. Bentley Brown from the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), who grew up in Chad and whose research and creative practice center on language, film, sound installation, and the artistic translation of science.

Photo caption: A still from the VR project showing the now-defunct cassette studio (design by CAAD student Hala Abdelrahim)

Dr. Brown is developing the project with architecture student Hala Abdelrahim from the College of Architecture, Art and Design (CAAD), who contributes as an artist and designer, and College of Arts and Sciences students Turki Al Mutairi, a Media  Communication undergraduate serving as producer, and Sama Altaei, a Media Studies and Practice master’s student who joined the team as a graduate assistant.

“I was shocked when our project was selected for participation in IDFA’s DocLab Forum,” said Dr. Brown. “Pitching at IDFA is not only important in bringing additional support for the project to grow—it is perhaps the most effective way to do so, given its high-profile status as a leading platform in the industry. We will be pitching to, meeting with, and learning from industry leaders who can significantly expand our vision and raise the caliber of work we can achieve, particularly in the immersive space, which benefits from unconventional thinking and innovative ways of connecting to audiences.”

In addition to filmmaking and immersive design, Dr Brown is also a musician, having learned classical piano as a child. During his time in Chad, where he spent part of his upbringing, he studied oud with Mahamat Ali Boukhary, who was also his formal Arabic teacher. This experience fueled his passion for music and shaped his early creative work, including his film Oustaz, nominated for a Golden Bear at the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival. The film recounts Brown’s return to Chad after Boukhary’s passing and reflects on the period when the two first began making films together.

Like Every Cloud builds on this and other earlier works. It captures not only the joys of the 2000s Chadian and Sudanese cassette culture but also the threat of its disappearance today, especially as neighboring Sudan, where much of the music was recorded, endures war. 

“Cassettes really outlasted CDs and other forms of musical storage in our part of the planet,” said Dr. Brown. “I imagine this was due to a number of affordances, among them durability. Unlike CDs, cassettes didn’t skip as a result of scratches, dust, or being played while driving on a bumpy road.” 

“The user gets to experience in three dimensions a cassette studio at its height, music blaring and the walls adorned with a collage of classic Sudanese and Chadian albums. Later in the experience, there’s a moment where the user returns to the studio years after its peak, and the cassettes have gathered dust. Digital music, shared for free on mobile phones, has rendered cassettes obsolete. Annour, the studio owner, has returned to his past livelihood as a tailor. Instead of melodies emanating from the cassette tape, we now hear the mechanical whir of the sewing machine. I want the user to feel the same way I did when encountering this moment of cultural loss in the face of technological change.”

“One of the biggest delights of my time at AUS is putting out a call for assistance on this project, and, as a result, getting to work with architecture student Hala Abdelrahim. I was amazed to discover that Hala had collaborated with the Modern Sudan Collective, focusing on the relationship between poetry and built spaces. She also had skills in 3D modeling and began immediately coming up with ideas for ways to bring the cassette studio to life.”

Photo caption: Studio owner Annour Ahmat explaining his journey from sewing to running a music studio (photo by Bentley Brown in Ati, Chad)

Most importantly, she was eager to work on a project connected to her own heritage. “This project means so much to me as a Sudanese individual, as someone who has lived abroad their entire life and has only seen home during summer visits,” Hala explained. “Sudanese music holds so much culture, and we see that through poetry and poems that have been sung. This project touches on the issue of the archive, the issue of keeping that culture alive.”

About the 3D modeling process, she added, “I worked interchangeably between Rhino, to create the overall structure of both studios, and Lumion, a rendering software. I used Lumion to add materiality to the walls and all the objects, then I created different atmospheres through sand and dust, depicting wear-and-tear on the equipment and on the walls.”

For more information about Like Every Cloud, visit the IDFA Forum Project Catalogue.

Discover how CAS’s Media Communication programs blend creative production with critical thinking and global awareness at www.aus.edu/cas/media-communication.