Jam Hassan produces The Desert said Dance for Monster Children Films

Jam Hassan is the executive producer of The Desert said Dance which premiered late last year with two sold-out screenings in California at cinemas in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.

During the next two months it will screen in Texas, Colorado, Italy, The Netherlands, Melbourne, Sydney, and the Gold Coast - with the rest of world to follow starting with Japan later this year.

Jam grew up in Dondingalong and went to school in South Kempsey. He moved to Sydney to work in the film production side of advertising and for the last decade he has been the executive producer at Monster Children Films.

His passion for visual production started with photography when his mum gave him a Pentax K1000 when he was 14 years old.

He says nature, adventure and culture are at the heart of everything he creates and his father always told him 'do whatever you want but have fun doing it'.

"It was my father that inspired my creative endeavours," Jam said.

"He has passed away but the energy that he put into the whole family is still there."

The The Desert said Dance follows the story of four men involved in The Baja 1000 and evolved from friendship Jam said.

"The whole production team is made up of Aussies," he said.

"We're all friends who work in film together and one of the guys had always had a lifelong dream to race in the Baja 1000."

The Baja 1000 is an annual Mexican off-road motorsport race held on the Baja California Peninsula. It is the longest non stop, point to point, offroad race in the world.

The fastest vehicles are expected to finish the 1000 mile marathon event in around 22 hours, and all vehicles have a 50-hour time limit to become official finishers in the elapsed-time race.

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"We were probably awake for 26 hours with 20 people in four production teams around Mexico and then our race support team had about another 50 people," Jam said.

The event brings people together with many support crews made up of friends, family and volunteers.

"Anyone can enter the Baja 1000, but not everyone finishes it," said Jam.

"Some aren't tough enough. Some don't have bikes that are tough enough. And some make mistakes that take them out of the race.

"It's an incredible story of courage, adventure and human spirit."

The idea for the documentary came about back in 2019 Jam said, but while the pandemic proved problematic and caused the team behind the film to redesign the production and marketing process, in the end it proved a blessing.

"Production and filming took around three months," Jam said.

"And then with COVID in 2020 we were able to take our time with post production.

"We were gifted the time to work with our editor and music composers at a crafted but slow, slow pace, in a way that you don't really get the opportunity to do usually - so that was a huge gift for us.

"Everyone got to give it such incredible energy in this world of uncertainty.

"And COVID changed the entire landscape for distribution via film festivals and cinema, so it took a long time to get out and for us to understand the new landscape of the world, and how best to not only create but distribute."

The pandemic has also meant there is a pent up demand for people to get out and gather after lockdowns all around the world. For the film's screening at the Orpheum Theatre in Sydney last week, 400 people came along.

"For a lot of people this was the first gathering with people so seeing something that that was about courage and the human spirit and adventure was nice I think," Jam said.

"With a film crew of equal enthusiasm and tenacity, we set out to find a different kind of story. A team of racers united in their rejection of traditional life.

"This is a cinematic ode to these riders, a testament to their spirit of improvisation and their skill."

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