The films in this program delve into the various practices that keep us connected to our lands. Each of these films is marked by a displacement or disruption from the land that is ours: some are exiled from their homes, while others have never known it from their place in the diaspora. Nevertheless, the connection to the land is maintained through shared experiences that are passed on from generation to generation. These practices include making food, collecting herbs, upholding artistic rituals, preserving family memories, and reimagining ancient tales. The films show that, by carrying out these activities, we also exercise our self-reliance. The land has always provided all that we need to sustain ourselves for decades to come. Even if we are not physically there, we will always remain.
Curated by Nanor Vosgueritchian & Yasmina Tawil
A daughter returns to her father's village in Palestine, which was destroyed in 1948. She journeys through unfamiliar landscapes and is confronted with the reality of her own exile.
About the Filmmakers:
Zena Agha is a Palestinian-Iraqi writer, poet and multi-disciplinary artist from London. She is the author of Objects from April and May (Hajar Press, April 2022), which was a finalist for the Alice James Book Award (2020), the Omnidawn First/Second Book Prize (2020) and the Philip Levine Poetry Prize (2020). She has received fellowships from the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and the Millay Colony for the Arts. Zena’s short film, ‘The Place that is Ours‘, co-directed with Dorothy Allen-Pickard, premiered on Nowness in November 2021 and was selected for the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival in 2022. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Foreign Policy, The Nation, The Independent, Foreign Affairs, The Margins, NPR and El País. Zena previously served as the US Policy Fellow for Al-Shabaka: the Palestinian Policy Network, and is currently a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington D.C., where her areas of expertise include Israeli spatial practices, climate change and Palestinian adaptive capabilities. She was awarded the Kennedy Scholarship to undertake a Masters in Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, and is currently an ESRC-funded doctoral candidate at Newcastle University exploring colonial cartography in Palestine.
Dorothy Allen-Pickard is an award-winning filmmaker from London whose work has screened at festivals including London Film Festival, Clermont Ferrand, Oberhausen, Doc NYC and Sheffield DocFest, and on news and broadcast channels including PBS, Guardian Documentaries, Vice and the BBC. She has a particular interest in merging documentary and theatrical practices, blurring the line between performance and reality. She’s a founding member of the award-winning theatre company Breach and associate artist of Kestrel Theatre, who use the arts in prisons to help change lives. In 2019 she completed an MA in Directing Fiction at Goldsmiths University, received the BFI New Talent Award and was named as one of Broadcast’s Hotshots. In 2022 she worked as director's assistant on the Netflix series Kaos and was selected to take part in Network @LFF. She is currently a member of Bafta Connect and is developing her debut feature.
- Year2021
- Runtime13 minutes
- LanguageEnglish, Arabic
- CountryUnited Kingdom, Palestine, State of
- GenreDocumentary
- Subtitle LanguageEnglish
- DirectorDorothy Allen-Pickard, Zena Agha
- ScreenwriterZena Agha
- Executive ProducerChris Yim, Anu Henriques
- CastZena Agha
- EditorSander Houtkruijer
The films in this program delve into the various practices that keep us connected to our lands. Each of these films is marked by a displacement or disruption from the land that is ours: some are exiled from their homes, while others have never known it from their place in the diaspora. Nevertheless, the connection to the land is maintained through shared experiences that are passed on from generation to generation. These practices include making food, collecting herbs, upholding artistic rituals, preserving family memories, and reimagining ancient tales. The films show that, by carrying out these activities, we also exercise our self-reliance. The land has always provided all that we need to sustain ourselves for decades to come. Even if we are not physically there, we will always remain.
Curated by Nanor Vosgueritchian & Yasmina Tawil
A daughter returns to her father's village in Palestine, which was destroyed in 1948. She journeys through unfamiliar landscapes and is confronted with the reality of her own exile.
About the Filmmakers:
Zena Agha is a Palestinian-Iraqi writer, poet and multi-disciplinary artist from London. She is the author of Objects from April and May (Hajar Press, April 2022), which was a finalist for the Alice James Book Award (2020), the Omnidawn First/Second Book Prize (2020) and the Philip Levine Poetry Prize (2020). She has received fellowships from the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and the Millay Colony for the Arts. Zena’s short film, ‘The Place that is Ours‘, co-directed with Dorothy Allen-Pickard, premiered on Nowness in November 2021 and was selected for the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival in 2022. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Foreign Policy, The Nation, The Independent, Foreign Affairs, The Margins, NPR and El País. Zena previously served as the US Policy Fellow for Al-Shabaka: the Palestinian Policy Network, and is currently a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington D.C., where her areas of expertise include Israeli spatial practices, climate change and Palestinian adaptive capabilities. She was awarded the Kennedy Scholarship to undertake a Masters in Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, and is currently an ESRC-funded doctoral candidate at Newcastle University exploring colonial cartography in Palestine.
Dorothy Allen-Pickard is an award-winning filmmaker from London whose work has screened at festivals including London Film Festival, Clermont Ferrand, Oberhausen, Doc NYC and Sheffield DocFest, and on news and broadcast channels including PBS, Guardian Documentaries, Vice and the BBC. She has a particular interest in merging documentary and theatrical practices, blurring the line between performance and reality. She’s a founding member of the award-winning theatre company Breach and associate artist of Kestrel Theatre, who use the arts in prisons to help change lives. In 2019 she completed an MA in Directing Fiction at Goldsmiths University, received the BFI New Talent Award and was named as one of Broadcast’s Hotshots. In 2022 she worked as director's assistant on the Netflix series Kaos and was selected to take part in Network @LFF. She is currently a member of Bafta Connect and is developing her debut feature.
- Year2021
- Runtime13 minutes
- LanguageEnglish, Arabic
- CountryUnited Kingdom, Palestine, State of
- GenreDocumentary
- Subtitle LanguageEnglish
- DirectorDorothy Allen-Pickard, Zena Agha
- ScreenwriterZena Agha
- Executive ProducerChris Yim, Anu Henriques
- CastZena Agha
- EditorSander Houtkruijer