The film is out
Music Without Borders: The Story of Gaby Al Botros is out, and it is free to watch. It runs ten minutes, in Arabic with English subtitles, and it plays on the front page of this site.
Thank you to Gaby Al Botros, Jana Daher and the musicians of Music Without Borders and the Toronto Arab Orchestra, who let us in. The press release is below.
Press release. For immediate release.
Local filmmakers release documentary on the founder of the Toronto Arab Orchestra
Music Without Borders: The Story of Gaby Al Botros is free to watch online
KITCHENER, Ont. — A ten-minute documentary by two Conestoga College graduates follows musician Gaby Al Botros from his first concert in Damascus to the stage of the Toronto Arab Orchestra, which he founded in 2024.
Music Without Borders: The Story of Gaby Al Botros was directed by Anas Alkharbootly of Kitchener’s Peaceful Films and produced by Anas Alkharbootly and Darren Cherrey-Elliott of Mount Forest. It is free to watch at capstone.darrence.ca.
In the film, Al Botros tells the story himself, in Arabic with English subtitles. He began learning music at ten, studied economics because, as he puts it, “music doesn’t put food on the table,” and then won a place at the Higher Institute of Music in Damascus. His guitar quartet, Orontes, played its first concert to a full church, with people standing. The quartet moved to Lebanon and then, with help from the Artist Protection Fund, to Victoria, British Columbia, where it performed more than 55 concerts.
In Ontario, Al Botros and Jana Daher built Music Without Borders, an organization he describes as offering artistic projects to everyone, regardless of where they came from. It has since performed in Mississauga, Toronto, Oakville, Kitchener, Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary.
“Now I feel Canada is my home, just as Syria is my home,” Al Botros says in the film.
The documentary was made as a capstone project in Conestoga College’s Broadcasting – Television and Independent Production program, with Brian Fearon as executive producer. It is a Peaceful Films and DCE Photography production, made with Music Without Borders and the Toronto Arab Orchestra.
The Music Without Borders Festival runs October 9 to 16, with concerts in Mississauga, Milton, Brampton and Vancouver.
Watch: capstone.darrence.ca
Running time: 10 minutes. Arabic with English subtitles.
Stills and poster: available on request
Contact
Darren Cherrey-Elliott, producer and editor, DCE Photography
darren@darrence.ca
Anas Alkharbootly, director, Peaceful Films
info@peacefulfilms.com, +1 (519) 589-2333
Gaby Al Botros, founder of Music Without Borders and the Toronto Arab Orchestra
musicwithoutborders.ca, torontoaraborchestra.ca, Instagram @gabyalbotros