This screening is part of: MY HOMELAND IS NOT A SUITCASE: ANNEMARIE JACIR, EMILY JACIR, AND DAR JACIR FOR ART AND RESEARCH

Film Notes

PART 3: DAR JACIR
Dar Jacir for Art and Research, founded in 2014, is a multi-disciplinary space devoted to educational, cultural, and agricultural exchanges in Bethlehem, Palestine. A process and practice-oriented platform, it is an experimental learning hub for the Bethlehem community and beyond. Through a participatory approach, collective knowledge is created, new works are produced, and structures for care and repair are fostered. Dar Jacir is the only artist-led space in the Southern West Bank that provides arts education and residency programs for both Palestinians and internationals, operating across visual arts, sound, cinema, performance, dance, literature, and agriculture. Dar Jacir for Art and Research is co-directed by Aline Khoury and Emily Jacir.

The two programs in the series showcase some of the many moving-image works that have been developed, produced, made, preserved, or rediscovered at Dar Jacir.

DAR JACIR, PGM 2:
Duncan Campbell & Samer Barbari NOTHING IMPOSSIBLE (2018, 4 min, digital)
This video documents the project Duncan Campbell created during his Dar Jacir residency, in which he worked with Samer Albarbari to restore and repaint a 1987 Peugeot 405 car.

Stéphanie Janaina VER EL MAR (2022, 7 min, digital)
“I have a game I enjoy playing with kids, called ‘What do you see that isn’t what it is but you believe it is?’. We randomly pick an object and explore all the possibilities it holds. This is how a pen can become a spaceship, a flute, an earring, a telescope, a car lever. However, how does this game function when, everywhere you turn towards, there’s a wall? How do you play this game when, despite the desire to see beyond the wall, you shouldn’t? Such a wall must be seen as what it is; transforming it into a poetic and imaginative possibility equals silencing and making invisible its reality. Because this wall, like many others, should not exist.” –Stéphanie Janaina

Eli Wewentxu & Nicolás Jaar IMPro PITXANTU (2023, 13 min, digital)
This video was made by musicians Eli Wewentxu and Nicolás Jaar during their Dar Jacir residency in October of 2023, which – due to the war in Gaza – took place at Wewentxu’s farm in Chomio, near Temuco in Wallmapu. The artists organized a community event that featured Mapuche activists discussing their struggles in their territory, while Jaar discussed the situation in Palestine, drawing parallels and identifying resonances between the anti-colonial and anti-racist resistance of the Mapuche and the Palestinian people.

Rolando Hernández THE THIRD OPTION (2020, 17 min, digital)
This audiovisual essay – which began as part of Hernández’s 2019 residency at Dar Jacir – is part of an ongoing research project trying to understand the nature of privilege, its politics and mechanisms, and how the concept of representation is linked with those of identity and territory.

Emily Jacir, Andrea De Siena, Laura Esposito & Luca Rossi PAESAGGIO UMANO (2022, 7 min, digital)
A select group of professional dancers and musicians who have previously attended dance and music workshops at Dar Jacir were invited to participate in this advanced workshop to create a dance and song. Prior to coming to the workshop, participants were asked to research topics related to land, farming, agriculture, memory, and earth. After sharing their research, they began building a piece together through dance and an original music score.

Andrea De Siena & Emily Jacir WHEREVER YOU SOW GRAIN, THE GRAIN GROWS (2022, 6 min, digital)
This piece emerged from a three-day music and dance workshop at Dar Jacir. The participants focused on the tammurriata – the dance of the earth – a peasant dance whose movements are inspired by agricultural work. The dance on the drum (tammurriata) represents one of the possible ways man connects with his own land; a land which signifies hard work and through divine invocation gives good fruits.

Dima Srouji PERFORMING ARCHAEOLOGY (2019, 6.5 min, digital)
This video explores the displacement and violence of the archaeological site, Sebastia, Palestine.

Monica Maurer YOM AL ARD / LAND DAY (1981/2019, 16 min, 16mm-to-digital)
This film – which was recently restored and digitized – portrays the fragmentation of the land, the experience, and the people of Palestine, showcasing the systematic efforts to disperse, fragment, and destroy the audiovisual memory and collective identity of Palestinians. It is composed of rare footage shot in the Galilee in celebration of the 5th Land Day Anniversary in March 1981.

Majdi El Omari AL NAWSS (THE QUIVER OF THE BRANCH BY THE WIND) (1989, 25 min, 35mm-to-digital)
AL NAWSS is a film about a Palestinian refugee questioning his yearning and belonging for a place he does not even know.

Total running time: ca. 105 min.