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 this series showcase some of the many moving-image works that have been developed, produced, made, preserved, or rediscovered at Dar Jacir.
DAR JACIR, PGM 1:
Jumana Manna
FORAGERS
2022, 64 min, DCP. In Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles.
Shot in the Golan Heights, the Galilee, and Jerusalem, FORAGERS employs fiction, documentary, and archival footage to show the impact of Israeli nature protection laws on Palestinian foraging practices. The restrictions prohibit the collection of wild ’akkoub and za’atar, and have resulted in fines and trials for hundreds of people – exclusively Arabs. While Israel insists the laws are necessary to protect the native plants from extinction, for Palestinians they constitute an ecological veil for legislation that further alienates them from their land and culture. Though singular in its focus, FORAGERS provides a striking illumination of the links between land, food, indigeneity, law, and the quotidian defiance necessitated by life under occupation.
Preceded by:
Jumana Manna JOURNEYS TO THE ENDS OF SHU’FAT (2019/20, 4.5 min, digital)
Total running time: ca. 75 min.