With the Nile mere meters away and the bustling sounds of Cairo coming alive as the night set in, Zamalek’s El-Sawy Cultural Wheel was a setting slightly different from what the Yale University-based group is used to.

Cairo is the fifth stop on their annual world tour.

Every year, the 13-member a capella group raises funds for a nine-week tour around the world, which takes place shortly after the members graduate from Yale. Their previous stops include Tokyo, Bangkok and New Delhi.

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“We had a pretty good turn-out,” said Nina Jankowicz. “We expected more originally, but I think that because the Obama campaign has been catching everyone at the doors to every building on campus, we likely got less people than we expected.”

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A new music documentary, American Harmony, will debut July 2 at 9 a.m. at the Sommet Center, during the Barbershop Harmony Society’s 70th Annual International Convention and vocal competitions. The screening is free and open to the public.

The film, which is a tribute to the human musical spirit, is more than three years in the making and was edited by Kate Amend, the editor of two Oscar-winning documentaries.

The movie is an in-depth look at the amazingly rich subculture of a true American art form. The camera follows the lives of some of the biggest names to emerge from international competition in the Society’s history, as well as interviews with rank-and-file members, called “Joe Barbershoppers.” The film features four prominent Society quartets – Reveille, OC Times, Max Q, and Vocal Spectrum – over a span of years, on stage and at home, in their personal quests for international recognition as they experience the thrill of victory, and the agony of not realizing a goal. American Harmony received an enthusiastic reception from film distributors and other non-Society audiences.

“The film is a mixture of obsession, singing, zany comedy and nail-biting competition,” says director Aengus James. “This is the story of several dreamers who journey from their ‘ordinary’ lives to the world stage in the hopes of winning the gold.

“Push aside your straw hats and striped vests, because this is not your grandparents’ barbershop quartet!”

Filmed during the Society’s last three international conventions, the candid footage and other elements combine to tell a compelling and entertaining story. A portion of the budget was subsidized by the Society and the Harmony Foundation, both 501 (c) (3) nonprofits.

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Half of the group are scientists from NASA and have made their name writing quirky, original songs about space and science. The group performs a unique brand of music that group member Padi Boyd described as ‘‘Weird Al meets Albert Einstein.”

The group has been together since 1995, though members have changed, and has released five albums, the most recent of which was ‘‘Committed” in 2007.

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