From January 19 to February 1, 2022, “The Persistence of Resistance in the Actualization of Memories From the Past” ran as the fourth of five programs in e-Flux’s online film festival Memories of Forgetfulness Elsewhere. Utilizing experimental film techniques, each film in the program explores experiences of war, religion, and colonialism in the Middle East.
Through their depictions of spaces and landscapes, these three filmmakers do not attempt to portray objective reality; rather, they use place as way to draw their audience through an external landscape and into a more meaningful and resonate internal place.
As convincingly as film can mimic the real world, it can just as easily deconstruct reality in a way that reminds the audience of their positionality, both as spectators and as social beings.
Humanitarian aid agencies have the power to choose when and what kind of aid is delivered to refugees living in precarious conditions, which is a form of necropolitical sovereignty over the lives of the very people they are sent to help.
Dancing with Yacine & The Oriental Groove
In the shade of the Catalonia side of the Folklife Festival grounds, I found Yacine Belahcene i Benet, Alexandre Guitart, and Gabriel Fletcher lounging shoeless, comfortably digging into their lunches as the sounds of visitors, performers, and demonstrations filled the space around them.
Power of Three: Armenian History and Harmonies from Zulal
Creative people often talk about a “rule of three.” Stories have a beginning, middle, and end. Painters divide a canvas into thirds. A chord has at least three notes. Something in the human brain is drawn to groups of three, perhaps for reasons of simplicity, symmetry, or stability.