Arab weddings are known to be ostentatious affairs. Replete with copious amounts of delicious food, countless family members, and endless lines of dabke (a Levantine folk dance), they’re usually deemed occasions not to be missed.
In recent months, the productions of two specific Iraqi wedding videographers have been gaining traction and making the rounds in Arabic-language social media. For a number of reasons, it is safe to say they’re definitely not to be missed.
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With over half a million likes on Facebook (at the time of this writing), Zuhayr al-Atwani is one of the most prolific videographers and producers of viral Iraqi wedding videos at the moment. His catalogue is widely revered, and each of his videos can be commissioned by individuals for a number of special occasions. But they are overwhelmingly filmed for weddings, engagements, or a related ceremony and posted as uploads to his official Facebook and YouTube pages with an average run time near the 10-minute mark.
With over half a million likes on Facebook (at the time of this writing), Zuhayr al-Atwani is one of the most prolific videographers and producers of viral Iraqi wedding videos at the moment.
His online catalogue surely works as marketing material for those in the market for an event videographer, but it also provides a window into the fascinating and entertaining world of new trends in editing and presenting a new generation’s wedding celebrations.
Viewers can rest assured that each of al-Atwani’s uploads come teeming with some expected conventions and tropes. Dancing is often the highlight: in the street, at the wedding, in cars, in bedrooms. All the while, the camera pans from attendee to attendee, and all of the excited wedding-goers seem to revel in the limelight, basking in the attention or vying for it for before the camera.
One of al-Atwani’s most popular videos purports to show the preparations for and celebration of the ‘youngest groom in Iraq’. In it, we see a jovial pre-pubescent male surrounded by his friends, all clapping, dancing, and celebrating before the camera. Video cut from what seem to be multiple days of celebration follow, including shots of an in-mosque religious ceremony, and it seems al-Atwani’s video seem to spare no detail of the wedding affair.
In most of al-Atwani’s videos, grooms and guests alike dress in colorful outfits — suits or not, the commonplace navy, black, and brown outfits are absent here. The events themselves exude more of festival rather than wedding atmosphere per-say, perhaps aided by al-Atwani’s videography or editing skills.
One of al-Atwani’s most popular videos purports to show the preparations for and celebration of the ‘youngest groom in Iraq’. In it, we see a jovial pre-pubescent male surrounded by his friends, all clapping, dancing, and celebrating before the camera
Some of al-Atwani’s edited scenes are a type of sensory-overload. In one clip, plastic chairs spread out on a thoroughfare prepared for the wedding get picked up and become dance objects. Meanwhile, the camera zooms in on attendees and back out again, as colored smoke fills the air.
There seems to be a general format to most of al-Atwani’s videos: they usually begin at home, with the groom’s preparation (loaded with dancing breaks), before transitioning into a moving-car scene (also dance-filled), followed by the actual celebration (where dancing is at its peak). For example, one video begins with the groom still in bed. In the creatively rehearsed scene, the groom gets out of bed before friends and family — included an ecstatic elderly female relative — enter the bedroom to dance around him in celebration.
Eventually the groom is poking out of a white GMC bedecked with flowers as friends dance around the car as it makes its way down the street.
Although, by comparison to al-Atwani, Ahmed al-Rubayi has only a meager 137 thousand likes, his videos are no less compelling, and they tend to follow the same general format and exude the same energy. Without the watermark that includes a phone number for bookings that both videographers employ, it would be hard for the non-initiated to tell who was behind the video playing before their eyes.
Similar to one of al-Atwani’s most popular clips, one of al-Rubayi’s videos captures the wedding of what the caption claims to be ‘the world’s youngest groom’. Shots in the video focus on hairstyling at home – a matter involving powders, creams, and copious amounts of gels and sprays that can take hours – as family and close friends dance around the groom. Interspersed throughout are clips of the groom driving around town in classic cars:
Another follows the life of a party that spills out onto the streets of one neighborhood. The camera zooms in on the jovial participants, all well-dressed in colorful suits. Some other videos even show barbers perfecting the hair of the groom. In this case, not only the groom, but an overwhelming amount of the guests have impossibly impeccable hairstyles. Outfits range from skin-tight jeans to light orange and pink suits, but the youngsters dance around in celebration of their friend who is incessantly showered with kisses.
In one of al-Rubayi’s latest works, men with ostentatious hairstyles abound. Starting in a bedroom, where close family and friends dance with balloons and shower each other with kisses, it eventually follows the car-procession and the groom who, leaning out the window, flaunts a pistol. At the ceremony large banners feature very flattering photos of the groom (in this case, a selfie) and photos of his best male friends that commissioned the banner to wish him all the best.
Both of these Iraqi wedding videographers have commissioned original songs that emphasize their popularity. In one, a singer implores the videographer by name to keep on shooting (sawir sawir, ya Atwani). Al-Rubayi’s song tells the videographer to shoot the groom “with the HD camera”. They’re both quite catchy tunes, and to be sure, the videos are edited to fit the beats’ highs and lows.
What is of equal importance to what we do see in these clips, is what remains notably absent. The truth is that these videos are all-male affairs, a reality that reflects broader gender norms. Female videography and videographers may exist, but such productions would have to be reserved exclusively for private consumption. Their productions of such producers will have to stay under-wraps.
It’s also important to note that not all of al-Atwani and al-Rubayi’s event videography and content is necessarily celebratory. Some of the videos that Atwani and Rubayi produce and post are actually from somber occasions at funerals or wakes.
not all of al-Atwani and al-Rubayi’s event videography and content is necessarily celebratory. Some of the videos that Atwani and Rubayi produce and post are actually from somber occasions at funerals or wakes.
Friends and family perform in front of the camera that zooms in on tearful eyes and mourning faces – they are intensely personal and moving:
Both of their content outputs are relentless. Whether you are simply curious, or are in the market for a wedding videographer, make sure to keep tabs on their Facebook pages for the latest content.
