My band, Iraqis in Pajamas, has been shooting the music video for our song, “Cancer Is My Engine” (click link for song and back story) – the production of which was funded by the Lloyd Symington Foundation, with the fiscal sponsorship of nonprofit Healing Journeys. Here’s the storyboard. The photos in this post are from the filming of the drumming circle in the forest, and they were taken by the illustrious Ailisa Newhall, a musician herself!
It starts with me standing on a cliff, in a purple dress, overlooking an expansive water view, singing acapella the opening line of the song, “Cancer is my engine.” As I sing it, a beautiful purple candle is lit by my voice. Suddenly, as the bass, drums, and guitar start playing, I am transported to a forest, where I am searching in the dark with the light of that candle.
I come across a purple bear and pick it up. it represents my mother – it is the bear that I gave her in 2008, when she had a traumatic brain injury.
Suddenly an insurance agent and doctor appear and begin chasing me through the forest. As I run away from them, carrying the bear, I come to a fork in the road, with the doctor on one side and the insurance agent on the other, coming toward me. I stop, look in each direction, then run forward, through the part of the forest that has no path, heading toward the light. I keep running until I come to a cliff. The doctor and insurance agent are on my tail. I look behind me, look ahead, then decide to jump off the cliff.
Throughout this central scene, the video cuts to a drumming circle in the forest, with torches and candles. It also cuts to my band playing in a dark room, wearing all black, with a strobe light flashing on our faces.
When I jump off the cliff, I land in the middle of the drumming circle. I start dancing wildly. At some point, it changes, and I am sitting in the middle and drumming, while everyone else is dancing.
The video then starts to shift from magical realism and metaphor to real life shots. In one shot, my band is sitting around me in a vegetable patch. They are playing guitar and drums, as I shake fruit like a maraca, then start juggling them, then start using zucchini and carrots to play on the drums with my drummer.Â
Throughout it all, the video keeps returning to the cliff scene, where I am singing the words to the song, and to the scene of the band playing with the strobe lights. The video ends with me standing on the edge of the cliff and singing the last words of the song, exalting G-d, singing the original a cappella Iraqi prayer.
If you’d like to listen to the song and get the whole backstory, you can do so on
our Bandcamp page. I would love to hear your thoughts! Meanwhile, here are some more photos from the shoot!
