LBB Film Club: Journey Never Ends

“Morocco is about movement. The journey is the experience.” This observation was shared with Supply&Demand director Michael Haussman by Paul Bowles, author of the seminal novel ‘The Sheltering Sky’, more than 25 years ago in Tangier. Now, it opens Michael’s latest short film, ‘Journey Never Ends’.

Michael has crafted music videos for the likes of Madonna, Justin Timberlake, Chemical Brothers, Shakira and Kanye West, as well as campaigns for Levi’s, Diesel, Absolut, Bulgari, BMW, Yves Saint Laurent, and Guinness, but it is his personal, transformative experience of living in Morocco that takes centre stage this time. He was first inspired to broach its borders by Paul’s novel, going to meet him before following his path alone, from Tangier, across the Rif mountains, through Fez, to the Sahara desert. 

Retracing those steps all these years later, his whirlwind love letter brings the country to life in a vibrant collage of its sights, smells, and sounds: sun beating down on sand, fresh mint tea, the call to prayer broadcasting from tall minarets – and most importantly, the energetic array of people that call it home.

To uncover how Michael embarked upon his mammoth task – capturing an entire cultural experience in less than two minutes – LBB’s Zara Naseer sat down with the director.

LBB> What was your initial vision when embarking upon this project? Was a lot of it spontaneous?

Michael> The film is a documentary about a geographical and emotional journey told through an expressionistic eye. This means the film needed to leave a lot open to what could unfold on the journey. 

I always start with a script and progress to a shot list. In this case, the shot list was more of a blueprint highlighting significant encounters and emotional turning points which could be filled in with other unpredictable scenes. Everything can change, but it is important to have something to change.

LBB> Talk us through the cinematography and the vibe you were looking to curate.

Michael> I set out to capture a traveller's POV. As travellers, we don’t see things as giant postcards. Our senses are directed to a single detail in the big picture, such as a drape in the wind, the mane of a galloping horse, or the smell of mint tea. We selectively choose what we want to see from the wider world. I wanted to emulate this feeling in the way we shot the piece.

The idea was to direct the eye of the audience through focus, very similar to a tilt and shift lens used in still photography, but this tends to be too extreme, making things look like miniature toy worlds. We also needed something less time-consuming to compose because our moments would disappear as fast as they would appear.

Antonio Paladino, our amazing DP, had a glassmaker in Berlin prepare lens filters with bevelled glass which we could control quickly and easily, allowing us to place the desired detail in focus and let the rest fall out of focus. This is an effect you can achieve only through live filters, not in post-production, because of the way light refracts, flares, and changes during the shot and the poetic blur left by passing people or objects through these out-of-focus fields.

When the Rachid Taha music kicks in during the second half of the piece, there are far fewer of these filtered shots. The closeup of the eye-opening signals our traveller is no longer observing, but jumping in and now experiencing the world full on, so these shots are clearer, more real and less dreamy.

LBB> Can you shed some light on how you recruited the people who star in the film? 

Michael> We cast our lead man, Brice, before the shoot, but for others, we used a super talented ‘fixer’, as they call the role in Morocco. This is basically one person who is a producer, casting director, production designer, and location manager, that goes ahead of us to the next location accompanied by an assistant to handle things. 

The machine was moving fast, meaning we were looking at pictures two days before showing up. I remember being woken after a long day at 3am with four pictures of taxi drivers near the Sahara. Where they were finding these guys at night in the middle of the desert is still a mystery to me.

Mostly we would find people as we shot and ask permission. No matter where you are, it’s never a good idea to film someone without asking. There are many different social, personal, and religious beliefs out there, and it is a very intrusive thing to do which will usually only yield bad results. It’s also smart to never try to rip anyone off with money. Make a standard for paying all extras and stick to that number, as information has a way of travelling fast over Morocco. If you’re honest, your production can yield a lot of local favours; the minute someone catches wind that you’re paying different prices, the country can shut down against you.

LBB> Tell us about the music and sound that play a key role in the film.

Michael> To start, the traveller has just left home and entered a place of exotic, mystic beauty, but is alone and observing. The music should be hypnotic, choreographed to the slow motion of the visuals, and deliver this feeling of being far away. I did not think this piece of music needed to be Moroccan, necessarily, but it should feel like it’s from the same instrumental world. I used two simple tracks from Gustavo Santaolalla, ‘Un Divague’ and ‘The Last of Us’. 

During this section, we also selectively focused on single sounds that call attention to what the traveller is hearing at a given moment. It is not always literal, like horse hooves or book pages turning, but can sometimes be a heartbeat or distant child’s chatter, expressing the nervous anticipation of a place or something heard but not seen. 

When we enter the second chapter, as the close-up eye opens, we experience getting inside the place and living with the people. This needed to feel like a whirlwind of emotion – fun, dangerous, sexy, enticing, daring, even life-changing. I knew I wanted to use something very North African, but not the belly dancing cliché track. Instead, one of my all-time favourite solo artists in the world, Rachid Taha from Algeria, who passed away too young. I have been a huge fan of his for many years and was set on using one of his tracks at some point. The music is offbeat, the lyrics are fun, it pulls you in and dares you. It is Morocco today. The first time we set this track to a string of selects, I knew it was perfect. 

LBB> There’s a shift in energy halfway through – what are you conveying through this transition?

Michael> I set out to tell the story of this journey in four parts. 

The very beginning is the introduction. Where are we and what are we watching? Ok, it’s a documentary about a personal journey through Morocco. With this said up front, I can now take the audience anywhere, uninterrupted, for the journey. 

The rhythm starts slow, studied, hesitant, and poetic, but falling in love and heading deeper. This first half capitalises more emotionally on the traveller being alone, not yet surrendering to the place, but reexamining himself in this context. It is observing Morocco for the first time. There were a few key quotes by Paul Bowles which I wanted to visualise in this section: “A traveller wants to get as far away from the place where they were born, both geographically and spiritually,” and, “I was vaguely certain that sometime during my life I should come into a magic place, which in disclosing its secrets would give me wisdom and ecstasy.” 

For the third part, it is time for our traveller to dive fully in and experience the people and culture. Like Bowles said, “Life is very short, and the world is there to see.” I wanted to truly define the difference between a tourist and a traveller: a traveller is living with the people, moving without a schedule, living for the moment, not knowing when to return home. The pace quickens, jumping fully into the whirlwind of life and all the emotions a place can offer. 

We end on the absolute stillness of the Sahara and an open-ended quote which answers the statement made in the beginning, ‘The journey never ends.’ It is the collision of the journey through Morocco and the metaphorical journey of our life. It sets our sights on the horizon, to continue this journey and many more. It is a very short way to deliver a great line of Paul Bowles, “Once you have been under the spell of this vast, luminous, silent country, no other place is quite strong enough, no other surroundings can provide the supremely satisfying sensation of existing in the midst of the absolute. The traveller will return, whatever the cost in comfort and money.” Or, ‘The Journey Never Ends.’

LBB> How did you work to capture the experience of Morocco in a way that feels respectful and fresh, rather than relying on tropes?

Michael> It is in the DNA of the piece, which was created early on and developed during the shoot. I set out to document a journey through the expressionistic eye of a traveller, not a tourist, which is entirely different, with different values, sense of purpose, and observations. With this simple philosophy, a set of rules came into play regarding what to photograph:

• See the Morocco people do not normally see. 
• Avoid all postcard shots. 
• Avoid any person acting for the camera. 
• Find beauty in the dirt and grit. 
• Humanity of the common person. 
• Film with a sense of humility. 
• Do not change the place; adapt. 
• Observe, do not manipulate. 
• Morocco is about movement.
• The journey is the experience.

Above all, there was a constant rule to shoot what we did not expect. This was a constant theme.

Morocco has a great way of moving forward in time while ignoring modernisation as a passing fad or simply interpreting it with its own inventive sense of humour. This humour is unique to Morocco, and we captured it through the people and places. 

With all these rules firmly planted in our heads, Antonio and I constantly policed and inspired each other. It is not a checklist of rules but a very important shorthand which establishes the film’s DNA and gives it its own true character. This kept me from falling back on any ‘tropes’ because no ‘trope’ ever made it past the shorthand into the DNA.

LBB> Lastly, what are you most proud of with this film?

Michael> I am most proud that this film has found an audience out there. It is not a music video, not a commercial, not a short film in the narrative sense, and not really a complete documentary. It is a short love letter, a travel film, which is meant to give you a glimpse into Morocco today – the humanity, culture, love, danger, sexiness, mystery, and beauty – while holding a mirror up to the traveller, the audience, and examining their own life along this journey. 

This short film is meant to entertain and inspire one to jump on a plane and find their journey, to reexamine one's life in context to this whole other world out there. 

The end message is universal. It is about change, how Morocco has changed, and how you, the traveller, have changed. In the end, the last line is so true: the journey never ends. Everything is changing, and it will continue to change.