An Incomplete Calendar, (currently in final stages of post-production), Essay film, 68 Minutes, DCP with 5.1, Canada, Venezuela, Iran | Expected festival release 2026
An Incomplete Calendar revisits pivotal moments in the history of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) established in 1960 in Baghdad, as the first oil alliance ever formed from the oil producing countries of the Global South, challenging the economic dominance of the Western oil companies during the global era of decolonization in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The film follows the remarkable and untold story of a musical vinyl titled Rhymes and Songs for OPEC, recorded in 1980 by the Concert Choir of Central University of Venezuela which used music as a tool to transcend language and a gesture of solidarity to commemorate the 20th anniversary of OPEC. The film is shaped around conversations with prominent historians, filmmakers, journalists, and former members of Central University of Venezuela's Concert choir who draw connections, reflections, and bring untold stories of oil’s capacities and limitations of worldbuilding for the Third World.
Culminating over six years of archival research around oil, An Incomplete Calendar pieces together a diverse repertoire of unseen archives such as newsreels, music, stamps, and anticolonial magazines from Iran, Venezuela, and the Arab world to assemble an audio-visual collage of nationalization movements between 1950-1970. A critical period when the political economy of oil played a significant role in shaping the visual grammars of the Third World’s political calendar of independence, liberation movements, and the fight for economic sovereignty over natural resources.
An Incomplete Calendar interweaves forgotten songs and shadow archives to tell a different story of oil, not as a commodity but rather as a political leverage that was used for the liberation movements in Palestine and building Pan-Arab solidarity, a transnational project that was shattered by the triumph of neoliberal economics in 1970s.
An Incomplete Calendar is the final episode of a trilogy of essay films that unpack the relationship between political economy of images, archival technologies, and visual history of resource extraction in Iran and broader West Asia.
An Incomplete Calendar is co-produced by Central University of Venezuela.