A little-known 1980 vinyl is the starting point of this film. “Rhymes and Songs for OPEC” is a special record by the Central University of Venezuela’s concert choir to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Layered on songs and rarely seen archives, the film reframes oil not as commodity but as a political leverage for the liberation struggles in Palestine and building Pan-Arab solidarity between 1960-1970.
This is the final episode of a trilogy of essay films by Sanaz Sohrabi that unpack the relationship between political economy of images, archival technologies, and visual cultures of resource extraction in Iran and broader West Asia.
Forgotten songs and archives tell a different story of the Third World’s political calendar of liberation movements and the fight for oil sovereignty.
