An Incomplete Calendar

What would we learn if we took a much broader look at the history of oil? Could oil have been not only a resource fought over, but also a means of building a better world? The film takes as its starting point a vinyl record released in the 1980s, featuring folk songs from members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela joined forces to strengthen the position of oil-producing nations in the global oil market and to resist Western companies that controlled trade. The film’s director pieces together a collage of archival footage, television recordings, magazines, newspapers, postage stamps, envelopes, photographs, and political documents, and asks: What happened to this dream? It is an attempt to piece together history from dates, objects, and fragments, while recognising that it’s never possible to have the complete picture – the calendar.

Sanaz Sohrabi (1988, Iran) is an artist, filmmaker, essayist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at Concordia University, Montréal. Her work investigates the impermanence and malleability of historical records and narratives.