Invisible Hands – A Documentary Film
Film Screening w/ Live Music featuring Alvarius B. (Alan Bishop - Sun City Girls)
Made over the course of five years, Invisible Hands is a documentary film about Alan Bishop and the formation of his band, Invisible Hands. The camera starts rolling after the 2011 uprisings in Egypt and follows Bishop on his trip to Cairo and his subsequent collaboration with Egyptian musicians Aya Hemeda, Cherif El Masri and Adham Zidan. What started off as a one off project to translate some of Bishop’s works into Arabic, would then turn into the outfit The Invisible Hands. The film features documentary and archival footage, as well as diary narrations by Bishop. As well as The Invisible Hands members, also making an appearance in the film are: Richard Bishop, Hani El Masri, Mahmoud Hemeda, Sam Shalabi, Hany Zaki, Mervat Abou Oaf, Nabil Ali Maher, and Marcus Boon.Alan Bishop (AKA Alvarius B.) is a founding member of Seattle’s avant-garde and genre-defying Sun City Girls, whose career spanned 27 years and over fifty releases. His work in Sun City Girls, with Richard Bishop and Charles Gocher, alone stands as a testament to his fearless exploration of the outer reaches of improvisation and composition. And as Alvarius B., Bishop has penned hundreds of his own original folk songs in a primitive “out” style that is extremely unique. And as an interpreter of other people’s work, his songbook includes hundreds of cover songs from the obscure to the very familiar. This body of work is informed by an obsessive love of the singer-songwriter genre, folkloric music from beyond borders, Italian film soundtracks, and an extraordinary sense of humor. Over much of the past twelve years, Bishop has been based in Cairo, composing & recording new Alvarius B. material.
