The Multiflora Music Festival is super excited to present Group Doueh from Western Sahara for a debut screening and performance in Washington, DC. on October 6, 2017.
A screening of Oulaya’s Wedding featuring Group Doueh will show at Suns Cinema in Mt. Pleasant at 6PM on October 6 followed by a brief Q&A with Sublime Frequencies co-founder Hisham Mayet. This will be followed by a concert with the band at Tropicalia at 9PM later that evening
The now legendary Group Doueh have been playing in and around their native Dakhla, in the Western Sahara for over 27 years. The discovery of the group by Sublime Frequencies , via a song snatched from a AM radio broadcast in Morocco in 2005 (as well as an exploratory mission in 2006 that landed Hisham Mayet in the group’s compound after chasing an overland trail all the way to the Mauritanian border) sealed the band’s relationship with the label. A successful European tour with label mate Omar Souleyman in 2009 ensued and western audiences were finally able to witness the power of the group’s mighty live shows. Doueh’s guitar heroics and wife Halima Jakani and Bashiri Touballi’s soaring vocal interplay entranced all who were present. In 2010 Doueh hosted Tony Allen in his home town and joined in on some of his dates in Europe. Then they returned to Europe in triumph in May 2011 with new album Zunya Jamma in tow, delivering a blistering set at the Animal Collective ATP and sending the atmosphere skybound everywhere they travelled including a heroic USA tour in 2011 that entranced all American audiences alike.
About the film: Oulaya’s Wedding is an impressionistic account of love, family, gender roles and ecstatic music in the Sahara desert. It’s an intimate portrait of a family of wedding musicians, their court of extended friends and peripheral misfits, who are giving away their eldest daughter’s hand in marriage. The film portrays the emotional and logistical maelstrom of a Sahraoui wedding. Presented are candid and sincere accounts by the residents, hosts, guests and artists that make these weddings a foundation of Saharan culture in the city of Dakhla. Group Doueh, the most beloved family band in the Western Sahara, are the main subject of this documentary. Sublime Frequencies co-founder Hisham Mayet and his team, were Doueh’s personal guests and given unprecedented access to film and record the pageantry and stunning music of his daughter’s traditional Sahraoui wedding. The result is a film of warmth, humor and belonging through music in this remote and overlooked region in the midst of a rapidly changing Sahraoui culture.
Friday October 6: Multiflora Music Fest Presents: OULAYA’S WEDDING featuring Group Doueh 6PM $10. Seating is limited. Purchase advance tickets HERE. Suns Cinema, 3107 Mount Pleasant St. NW, Washington, District of Columbia, DC 200107
Multiflora Music Fest Presents: Group Doueh from Western Sahara at 8:30PM, $15 advance / $20 at the door at Tropicalia, 2001 14th ST NW (Lower level), Washington, DC 20001
