When I sat down to watch Sirens, I anticipated the prototypical band documentary, with the drama of how do they create, stay together, and the pressures of performing. This time centred on a female thrash metal band. What I didn’t anticipate, is that what would anchor the film would be generational trauma and queer love.
Creating a documentary is an art, you can approach it with one POV or intent but good documentarians are prepared to follow and adjust as the narrative leads them. Documentarian Rita Baghdadi met Lilas, one of the guitarists of Slave to Sirens, online and felt an instant connection to her and from that to make a film centred Arab women, in a way she always wanted to see growing up. And having read her statement where she states she wanted “simply feature them like everyone else: human, full of dreams and fueled by desire.” I believe she achieved her objective. Though I doubt her original intention was to focus the film solely on Lilas and Shery, shifting the other bandmates to the background, rather that was a result of the material.
The documentary begins during an exciting time for the band, they are invited to perform at Glastonbury, probably one of the most recognizable music festivals in the world. Their spirits are up, even as they are inundated with advice for the show on how to stand to bang their head more (Shery) or recommendations not to drink the night before. However, their performance at Glastonbury is a daytime slot. And anyone that has attended these weekend festivals can tell you, the attendance for these tends to be sparse. And it appears more so because of the open space. Their crowd in a club would’ve looked fine, but on that field, it’s understandable why Lilas was disheartened afterward. Despite how huge it is to be invited to a festival like Glastonbury, no one wants to play to what feels like an empty field. I’ve worked many concerts, and I’ve seen people that have gone on to sell out stadiums play to practically empty venues only a year or two earlier. However, it takes a lot of strength to keep going when what you think is the big break ends up feeling like more of a setback.
Lilas seems to take her frustration out on her fellow guitarist Shery. Shery reveals they had a past romantic relationship, one that Lilas had them keep from the band. Now if there’s one thing I’ve learned from Fleetwood Mac, dating in the band brings about some really good music, but it also brings about volatility that leads to the breaking of the band.
This is where you wonder about the presence of the documentarian. Did the camera, its presence creating a sense of accountability to self and self-preservation, drive Shery’s hand when she decided to leave the band? We already know how important music is to Shery. How for a metal musician, especially a female metal musician, there isn’t another option for her in Lebanon. This band is her home, it’s her family. So, would she have been strong enough to walk away if it wasn’t for the cold judgment of the lens watching her actions?
Sirens structures the erupting tensions of the band next to the erupting tensions in Lebanon itself, cutting between protests, and press conferences about another band Mashrou Leila, leading up to the August 4th explosion, to great effect. However, it’s not just about the tensions in the band, it’s about their generational trauma, the one they inherited and the one they carry on. Lilas and Shery met at a riot. It is fitting that in the aftermath of the explosion they are brought back together.
Now, most of the events after Glastonbury happened from fall 2019 onwards, leaving a summer gap in the documentary. What happened then? They played concerts, much better attended, which we saw at the end of the film. However, placing them in this order makes them seem like they happened after the reconciliation. I understand why Baghdadi did this, to show them thriving now that they are back together, something that would’ve been hard to capture with Covid restrictions and lack of concerts, so she structured the footage to fulfill the fantasy.
When I was looking up the events, I realized the concert Shery and Lilas reunite to play at happened before the explosion, instead of after like it seems to be portrayed in the documentary. However, upon reflection, although they use the explosion, it’s all about Lilas discussing dealing with her generational trauma, which she’s always had, so it doesn’t change the narrative having the events out of order, in this case.
Sirens premiered at the Sundance Film Festival as part of the World Cinema Documentary category.