Please join us at the New Athenaeum Theatre from 5:30pm on Thursday, December 12 for a screening of Jumana Manna's Foragers (2022) and Rosalind Nashashibi's Electrical Gaza (2015).
Past Event
Rosalind Nashashibi, Electrical Gaza (still), 2015. Courtesy of the artist
This screening is to tautoko Stitching Solidarity: Artists for Palestine, who are hosting events and exhibitions in Ōtepoti from Thursday, December 12 to Saturday, December 14.
Stitching Solidarity is a collective kaupapa led by artists and arts workers across the motu. The activities aligned with this kaupapa are dedicated to building kotahitaka with Palestinian whānau in Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu and to elevating awareness of Palestinian cultural heritage.
We will be screening:
Jumana Manna, Foragers, 2022
Duration: 64 minutes
Foragers depicts the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine/Israel with wry humour and a meditative pace. Shot in the Golan Heights, the Galilee and Jerusalem, it moves between fiction, documentary and archival footage to portray the impact of Israeli nature protection laws on these customs. The restrictions prohibit the collection of the artichoke-like ’akkoub and za’atar (thyme), and have resulted in fines and trials for hundreds caught collecting these native plants. For Palestinians, these laws constitute an ecological veil for legislation that further alienates them from their land while Israeli state representatives insist on their scientific expertise and duty to protect. Following the plants from the wild to the kitchen, from the chases between the foragers and the nature patrol, to courtroom defenses, ‘Foragers’ captures the inherited love, joy and knowledge in these traditions alongside their resilience to the prohibitive law. By reframing the terms and constraints of preservation, the film raises questions around the politics of extinction, namely who determines what is made extinct and what gets to live on.
Rosalind Nashashibi, Electrical Gaza, 2015
Duration: 17 minutes, 53 seconds
In Electrical Gaza Rosalind Nashashibi combines her footage of Gaza, and the fixer, drivers and translator who were her constant company, with animated scenes. She presents Gaza as under a spell; isolated, suspended in time, difficult to access and highly charged. She shows us Gaza as she experienced it in the quiet pause before the onslaught of Israeli bombardment in the summer of 2014. Nashashibi travelled to Gaza with producer Kate Parker and cinematographer Emma Dalesman.
This screening will be free to attend, though QR codes will be available to make a donation to a group of charities.
The New Athenaeum Theatre can be found at 23 the Octagon, and is fully wheelchair accessible. Please let director@blueoyster.org.nz know if you have any specific accessibility requirements.
Rosalind Nashashibi's Electrical Gaza will also be screening between December 12 to 14 on the Cube at the Dunedin Public Library during opening hours.
With thanks and gratitude to the artists for loaning their works, the New Athenaeum Theatre and Stitching Solidarity.