FAMILY PORTRAIT presents a compelling program of personal works by filmmakers who courageously turn the lens on their own families, revealing the resulting fractures that shape the fabric of their personal identities. Through these films, the filmmakers embark on a journey of excavation, unearthing their family histories and sharing intimate narratives that illuminate the interplay between individual stories and the broader cultural and political contexts in which they unfold.
Yto Barrada's Hand Me Downs combines blurry vintage amateur videos from private family albums from the 1960 to skillfully construct 16 myths of biographical identities that reflect the fractures of a changing colonial era.
A Radiograph of a Family by Firouzeh Khosrovani intimately explores the filmmaker's own family history in Iran, unraveling the complexities of her parents' lives against the backdrop of shifting political landscapes, from the Shah's regime to the Islamic revolution and the Iran-Iraq war. Through photographs, archive footage, and letters, she uncovers the fractures and transformations that rippled through her family, reflecting how Iranian cultural struggles between tradition and modernization fractured her family and personal identity.
In Echolocation by Nadia Shihab, distant and nearby voices merge to create a layered exploration of family memories. Through recorded voice messages and stacked photographs, Shihab constructs a poetic narrative that transcends time and space, reflecting on loss and change.
Together these filmmakers offer a portrait of their families, portraying how the broader sociopolitical context shaped their identities.
Hand-me-downs, Yto Barrada, Morocco 2011, 16 min.
English
Barrada digs into her family history and narrates 16 myths based on unreliable narrators and unverifiable stories, illustrated with strangers’ home movies found at flea markets and archival films from the last half-century in Morocco.
About the Filmmaker
Yto Barrada (b. 1971, Paris) is a Moroccan-French artist recognized for her multidisciplinary investigations of cultural phenomena and historical narratives. Engaging with the performativity of
archival practices and public interventions, Barradaʼs installations reinterpret social relationships, uncover subaltern histories, and reveal the prevalence of fiction in institutionalized narratives. In
2006, Barrada founded the artist-run Cinémathèque de Tanger, North Africa’s first cinema cultural center, now an internationally appreciated institution.
Her work has been exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum, Mass MoCA, Tate Modern, the Barbican, The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Renaissance Society, the Walker Art Centre, Whitechapel Gallery and the 2007 and 2011 Venice Biennales. Barrada has received multiple awards, including the Mario Merz Prize (2022); the Queen Sonja Print Award (2022); the Roy R. Neuberger Prize (2019); the Abraaj Group Art Prize, UAE (2015); Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography (2013); Deutsche Guggenheim Artist of the Year (2011).
- Year2011
- Runtime15 minutes
- LanguageEnglish
- CountryMorocco
- DirectorYto Barrada
- FilmmakerYto Barrada
- EditorDominique Auvray
FAMILY PORTRAIT presents a compelling program of personal works by filmmakers who courageously turn the lens on their own families, revealing the resulting fractures that shape the fabric of their personal identities. Through these films, the filmmakers embark on a journey of excavation, unearthing their family histories and sharing intimate narratives that illuminate the interplay between individual stories and the broader cultural and political contexts in which they unfold.
Yto Barrada's Hand Me Downs combines blurry vintage amateur videos from private family albums from the 1960 to skillfully construct 16 myths of biographical identities that reflect the fractures of a changing colonial era.
A Radiograph of a Family by Firouzeh Khosrovani intimately explores the filmmaker's own family history in Iran, unraveling the complexities of her parents' lives against the backdrop of shifting political landscapes, from the Shah's regime to the Islamic revolution and the Iran-Iraq war. Through photographs, archive footage, and letters, she uncovers the fractures and transformations that rippled through her family, reflecting how Iranian cultural struggles between tradition and modernization fractured her family and personal identity.
In Echolocation by Nadia Shihab, distant and nearby voices merge to create a layered exploration of family memories. Through recorded voice messages and stacked photographs, Shihab constructs a poetic narrative that transcends time and space, reflecting on loss and change.
Together these filmmakers offer a portrait of their families, portraying how the broader sociopolitical context shaped their identities.
Hand-me-downs, Yto Barrada, Morocco 2011, 16 min.
English
Barrada digs into her family history and narrates 16 myths based on unreliable narrators and unverifiable stories, illustrated with strangers’ home movies found at flea markets and archival films from the last half-century in Morocco.
About the Filmmaker
Yto Barrada (b. 1971, Paris) is a Moroccan-French artist recognized for her multidisciplinary investigations of cultural phenomena and historical narratives. Engaging with the performativity of
archival practices and public interventions, Barradaʼs installations reinterpret social relationships, uncover subaltern histories, and reveal the prevalence of fiction in institutionalized narratives. In
2006, Barrada founded the artist-run Cinémathèque de Tanger, North Africa’s first cinema cultural center, now an internationally appreciated institution.
Her work has been exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum, Mass MoCA, Tate Modern, the Barbican, The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Renaissance Society, the Walker Art Centre, Whitechapel Gallery and the 2007 and 2011 Venice Biennales. Barrada has received multiple awards, including the Mario Merz Prize (2022); the Queen Sonja Print Award (2022); the Roy R. Neuberger Prize (2019); the Abraaj Group Art Prize, UAE (2015); Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography (2013); Deutsche Guggenheim Artist of the Year (2011).
- Year2011
- Runtime15 minutes
- LanguageEnglish
- CountryMorocco
- DirectorYto Barrada
- FilmmakerYto Barrada
- EditorDominique Auvray