Now Supported by National Geographic

National Geographic's All Roads Film Project is awarding On Look Films with a generous seed grant for Voices and Faces of the Adhan. This is extremely exciting news because the support of National Geographic - an internationally celebrated organization – will aid On Look Films in raising the funds necessary to realize this project.

On BBC Last Week

On Thursday, November 5, BBC correspondent Christian Fraser reported that the Ministry of Religious Endowment in Cairo is changing the 1400 year old tradition of thousands of muezzins performing the call to prayer five times daily to a single recorded voice being projected over Cairo using wireless receivers by January of 2010.

This means we must move fast to acquire the rest of our funding. Lightning speed, at that!

With the support of National Geographic and Hartley Film Foundation, we now have the credibility that donors look for when backing new projects. Considering we now have but until the end of 2009 to document this ancient tradition, we can't simply wait for word to spread through the film industry or for our short film, Voices of Cairo, to hit the festival circuit; we need to make things happen on the ground.

This means we need your help NOW more than ever.

If we only have until January to document the 1400 year old tradition of the adhan in Cairo, then it is imperative that we raise the remaining $140,000 necessary to begin principal photography and the sound archiving of Cairo's 4000+ mosques within the next 30 days.

Help us by donating what you can and by passing this email on to everyone you know.

Please direct all larger and tax-deductible donations here. As a special thank you, donations of over $2000 will receive a donor credit in the film. Please contact us with inquiries on how to receive a producer credit and for information on additional benefits when making sizeable donations.

Voices and Faces of the Adhan: Cairo

A documentary about a 1400 yearold oral tradition that is about to be erased forever from the audioscape
of Cairo.

Five times each day, muezzins cry out the adhan, the Islamic call to prayer, from over four thousand mosques in Cairo. Voices and Faces of the Adhan: Cairo tells the story of the adhan in Cairo, introducing the muezzins of this generation and recording the adhans they recite.

In 2010, the government plans to systemize the call to prayer, reducing this daily symphony of countless diverse voices to a single pre-recorded adhan broadcast throughout the city using wireless receivers.

Voices and Faces of the Adhan: Cairo intends to create a visual and aural portrait of this soon-to-be-lost ancient tradition in the modern world - before it ceases to exist.

Look How Far We've Come in One Year!

With your help, in the last ten months On Look Films has:

• Grown from one person with a dream to an internationally renowned
  team of eleven filmmakers and artists
• Held several benefit events in Chicago
• Raised over $3,000 in production funding through events and Internet donations
• Received a seed grant and became fiscally sponsored by
  The Hartley Film Foundation
• Become an LLC
• Taken a research trip to Cairo which yielded nine hours of footage 
  and 20 hours of audio from various Cairene mosques
• Cut Voices of Cairo, an 8 minute short film intended to act as a fundraising
  piece - a calling card - for the next stage of the project
• Launched our new website, soon to feature a multimedia library
• Received a seed grant from National Geographic's All Roads Film Project

Make 2010 not only the year when adhan unification takes
place, but also the year that documentation occurs!

We appreciate all of your support.
Without you, none of this would be possible.
Thank you!

For an inside look at what's happening at On Look Films,
visit www.onlookfilms.com/insidelook.html