Pearl Diving in the Gulf

A few weeks ago (before I left for Cairo), Lauren pointed out a very interesting article in the newspaper. There was going to be a traditional style pearl diving competition held in Doha for all the GCC countries (ie: Kuwait, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Oman, Qatar) from June 1st to June 3rd. I read it over and instantly the light bulbs were going off in my head.
This would be the perfect chance for a documentary filmmaking workshop! So I instantly started cracking on some logisitics. Who did we need to connect with? How do we make this happen? Who would be interested? etc.
With the support of Ben and Mohammed Al Ibrahim, I was able to bring this to life.
We met with the QMFOC (Qatar Marine Festival Organizing Committee), put out the word on the web, got many facets of DFI involved, and got the ball rolling.
The plan was executed perfectly because of the support from everyone involved.... especially Ben and Mo.
We gathered 4 incredibly enthusiastic students and set off for an extremely ambitious project.

The first step was bringing in an expert to talk to them about what a documentary is and how do you make one. It was nearly a no brainer when we reached out to Omar Khalifa from Al Jazeera. He was local to Doha and his films, "Shades of Doha" were incredible.
Much to our astonishment, he was completely interested and excited to work with us on this project.
He sat down with our students and gave them a crash course in everything independent documentary. It was an awesome course and he really helped them with their aspirations to make this competition into something incredible.
Next, they covered the official QMFOC press conference for the competition. This was their first real taste of event coverage and interviewing "professionals".
They made their minor mistakes and learned quickly not to repeat them. Especially since we were going to be sailing out to sea the following morning as the event kicked off.

I was able to journal the first day completely. This is the dictation from my notebook:
June 1, 2010 4:45am - The alarm goes off but my eyes wont open. A night of Beam and shit talk wasnt helping the cause. The snooze button became by best friend. 5:30am - Tribe Called Quest rang out through the apartment and I was up and at it (with my shorts on backwards). We were supposed to leave at 5:50am but Mo's stomach wasn't having any of that. He puked until 6am and then braved on. Ben, Dale, Mo, and I arrived at the Cultural Village to find Ali waiting in his Hummer. No sign of dhows anywhere. We walked along the sea front and through the corridors, yet still no sign of life. Umer and Salman appeared. We headed back to the cars and attempted to nap in the air conditioning as our patience wore thing and the sun grew hotter. Still, no sign of dhows. After about an hour, we moved to a new parking lot with a better view of the sea. Mo was struggling and kept warning us he was going to be sick. As we parked, we noticed 2 tiny dhows in the distance. We were excited and thought it was only a matter of time before they made it to where we were. But then it dawned on us.... A) They weren't moving B) If this was such a big event, why was there no one else here??? One thing left to do; Hustle. We jumped in the cars and sped to where we could see the boats. It took some maneuvering and a bit of off-roading but we made it around 8am. The participants were dragging their luggage in as others sat in a circle singing and playing drums. A rep from QMFOC posed for photos with a sheep that would later be slaughtered as a part of an age old tradition. The contestants were shuttled out on speed boats to their respective dhows. We waited and waited and waited for our boat to arrive. The sun was beating down on us and starting the fatigue early. (It reached 118 degrees) 9:30am - We saw our boat ("The Diver") approach. We grabbed the gear and headed for the beach. As I reached the bow, I turned and saw Mo drop like he was on the beaches of Normandy and spew like a fire hose as he gripped the sand with his fists. We tried to send him home, but he braved on yet again. We loaded on to the boat and headed out to the diving sites. The dhows were packed with men singing, playing drums, and dancing. Just then, all the fears and frustrations melted away. We were transported to another time. A time before oil. Before gas. Before Blackberrys and Prada. I felt like I was seeing the Gulf in its purest form. The way it was when men would leave their families for 4 months at a time in search of the only real treasure and source of income that existed in the Gulf; the pearl. We witnessed diving, singing, sailing, searching the shells.... we saw it all. The students were in rare form. They were looking like a real doc team. They boarded dhows, shot interviews, B-roll, and learned about the techniques by which these divers made their livings 60+ years ago. A few hours later, we sat on the back of our boat and reviewed the incredible underwater footage that Dale was shooting through the day......

This entry continues but I will leave it at that for now so you dont have to read a novel here.
The following 2 days were incredible. We lived on the island with the divers, we ate the same food, breathed the same airs, slept on the same sand, got attacked by the same ants..... It was like we were really a part of what was going on.
The students were incredible and received loads of press for their efforts.
*Ben and I even got some play.... here are 2 of the 8 articles that were run about them:

Scandar and I took up the trade ourselves and started diving with the competitors.

In about 30 minutes, we collected a little over 100 oysters from the sea bed. Of those, I opened about 40 and of those 40 that I opened, I found 2 pearls!!!!
From that point on, I knew what I my new hobby was going to be.
So much fun and so rewarding when you see those tiny glowing white orbs amidst that slimy white and yellow glob.

The film that the students shot will begin editing soon and we have very high hopes for what it will become. I cant say too much, but I can say, you WILL see it.

If there is one thing that this whole experience taught me (other than pearl diving is one of the coolest things ever) is that all it takes is some hard work and pride in yourself and you can accomplish anything you set out to do.
Cliche? So be it.
Truth? Completely.

Here are a few selected photos from the 3 days at sea (*More to come on my Flickr soon):