Marking the seventh year of the war in Yemen, 7 x 7 // 7 Artists, 7 Years is a program of short films by seven Yemeni filmmakers, that collectively push back against binary portrayals of Yemenis as victims and/or villains, and instead provide an expansive view on how Yemenis present themselves, on their own terms.
The program starts on March 19th at 7pm EST with the live stream premiering two short experimental films by Yemeni-Bosnian-U.S. multi-media artist, Alia Ali (Conflict is More Profitable Than Peace and Mahjar) followed by a dialogue + Q&A with Alia, hosted by AANM Film Curator Dave Serio. To go to the live stream event JOIN HERE
The program of films is available to stream for 48 hours after the live stream event.
Please note that some of these films may address difficult and sensitive topics, such as war, trauma, and sexual harassment which may be triggering for some.
This program is brought to you by the Arab American National Museum, Arab Film and Media Institute, ArteEast, The Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College, The Department of Art History at Pomona College, and Youth of the World Together.
Synopsis "Mahjar"
From the oasis to the desert, Yemen's Eutopia of terraced mountains, ancient architecture, jewelry, textile, frankincense and myrrh has become a dystopia of explosions, famine, disease, and suffering. Our land was looted of our most precious artifacts, which bear witness to this cruelty that we have endured. They are imprisoned in museums and collections far away, and we must pay our colonizers and looters for the visas and entrance tickets to access the sites on which they are held captive. Like us, they are nomads, not by choice but rather by consequence. We have been robbed of our archive and our narrative is fragmented.
And yet, there is a cosmic juncture: As children, we were told of النجم الأحمر / The Red Star, which was gifted to Belquis, our ruler, the Queen of سباء ( Saba’a/Sheba). النجم الأحمر negates placelessness and alienation, as generations into the future are built into this myth. This thread ties together Sabeans and their descendants, for when we gaze at the stars, we are connected by النجم الأحمر. It was visible then as it is now.
In 1997, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sent the Sojourner Pathfinder to “explore” Mars. Three Yemenis––Adam Ismail, Mustafa Khalil, and Abdullah al-Umari––filed a lawsuit against NASA for invading the land that they inherited 3,000 years ago (2). Suddenly, Mars became a point of reference and a rupture in the dystopic existence in which we reflect ourselves.
About the Filmmaker
Alia Ali (Arabic: عاليه علي // Sabean: 𐩲𐩱𐩡𐩺𐩲|𐩲𐩱𐩡) is a Yemeni-Bosnian-US multi-media artist. Having traveled to sixty-seven countries, lived in and between seven, and grown-up among five languages, her most comfortable mode of communication is through photography, video, and installation. Alia's work reflects on the politics of contested notions of linguistics, identity, borders, universality, colonization, mental/physical confinement, and the inherent dualism that exists in each of them.
Her work has been featured in the Financial Times, Le Monde, Vogue, and Hyperallergic. Ali has won numerous awards and has exhibited internationally. Her current exhibition, “Alia Ali: Project Series 53” curated by Senior Curator Rebecca McGrew with Independent Curator Hannah Grossman at the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College, presents expression on Yemeni Futurism as new explorations of Yemeni selfhood that are free from limitations of travel bans, borders, colonialism, trauma, and imposed linear timeframes. Her multi-media installation, النجم الأحمر // The Red Star (2020-21) calls upon Yemeni oral histories to conceptualize these narratives while reflecting on contemporary circumstances in Yemen and its diaspora.
Alia’s work is in collections at Princeton University, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the British Museum, and numerous international private collections. She lives and works in Los Angeles and Marrakech, and is currently in residency at the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program (RAiR) in Roswell, New Mexico.
http://alia-ali.com @studio.alia-ali.com
- Year2020
- Runtime14 minutes
- LanguageEnglish, Arabic, Invented Language (Sabyani)
- CountryYemen, Mars
- DirectorAlia Ali
Marking the seventh year of the war in Yemen, 7 x 7 // 7 Artists, 7 Years is a program of short films by seven Yemeni filmmakers, that collectively push back against binary portrayals of Yemenis as victims and/or villains, and instead provide an expansive view on how Yemenis present themselves, on their own terms.
The program starts on March 19th at 7pm EST with the live stream premiering two short experimental films by Yemeni-Bosnian-U.S. multi-media artist, Alia Ali (Conflict is More Profitable Than Peace and Mahjar) followed by a dialogue + Q&A with Alia, hosted by AANM Film Curator Dave Serio. To go to the live stream event JOIN HERE
The program of films is available to stream for 48 hours after the live stream event.
Please note that some of these films may address difficult and sensitive topics, such as war, trauma, and sexual harassment which may be triggering for some.
This program is brought to you by the Arab American National Museum, Arab Film and Media Institute, ArteEast, The Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College, The Department of Art History at Pomona College, and Youth of the World Together.
Synopsis "Mahjar"
From the oasis to the desert, Yemen's Eutopia of terraced mountains, ancient architecture, jewelry, textile, frankincense and myrrh has become a dystopia of explosions, famine, disease, and suffering. Our land was looted of our most precious artifacts, which bear witness to this cruelty that we have endured. They are imprisoned in museums and collections far away, and we must pay our colonizers and looters for the visas and entrance tickets to access the sites on which they are held captive. Like us, they are nomads, not by choice but rather by consequence. We have been robbed of our archive and our narrative is fragmented.
And yet, there is a cosmic juncture: As children, we were told of النجم الأحمر / The Red Star, which was gifted to Belquis, our ruler, the Queen of سباء ( Saba’a/Sheba). النجم الأحمر negates placelessness and alienation, as generations into the future are built into this myth. This thread ties together Sabeans and their descendants, for when we gaze at the stars, we are connected by النجم الأحمر. It was visible then as it is now.
In 1997, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sent the Sojourner Pathfinder to “explore” Mars. Three Yemenis––Adam Ismail, Mustafa Khalil, and Abdullah al-Umari––filed a lawsuit against NASA for invading the land that they inherited 3,000 years ago (2). Suddenly, Mars became a point of reference and a rupture in the dystopic existence in which we reflect ourselves.
About the Filmmaker
Alia Ali (Arabic: عاليه علي // Sabean: 𐩲𐩱𐩡𐩺𐩲|𐩲𐩱𐩡) is a Yemeni-Bosnian-US multi-media artist. Having traveled to sixty-seven countries, lived in and between seven, and grown-up among five languages, her most comfortable mode of communication is through photography, video, and installation. Alia's work reflects on the politics of contested notions of linguistics, identity, borders, universality, colonization, mental/physical confinement, and the inherent dualism that exists in each of them.
Her work has been featured in the Financial Times, Le Monde, Vogue, and Hyperallergic. Ali has won numerous awards and has exhibited internationally. Her current exhibition, “Alia Ali: Project Series 53” curated by Senior Curator Rebecca McGrew with Independent Curator Hannah Grossman at the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College, presents expression on Yemeni Futurism as new explorations of Yemeni selfhood that are free from limitations of travel bans, borders, colonialism, trauma, and imposed linear timeframes. Her multi-media installation, النجم الأحمر // The Red Star (2020-21) calls upon Yemeni oral histories to conceptualize these narratives while reflecting on contemporary circumstances in Yemen and its diaspora.
Alia’s work is in collections at Princeton University, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the British Museum, and numerous international private collections. She lives and works in Los Angeles and Marrakech, and is currently in residency at the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program (RAiR) in Roswell, New Mexico.
http://alia-ali.com @studio.alia-ali.com
- Year2020
- Runtime14 minutes
- LanguageEnglish, Arabic, Invented Language (Sabyani)
- CountryYemen, Mars
- DirectorAlia Ali