[spectre] Salloum at UCLA Film and Television Archive & L.A Freewaves

[JSalloum@aol.com]

The UCLA Film and Television Archive=20
& L.A Freewaves present:

in/tangible cartographies: new arab video
curated by Jayce Salloum

Thurday, November 14
7:30 p.m.
Works by: Elia Suleiman, Walid Ra=E2=80=99ad, Rashid Masharawi, Akram Zaatar=
i, Hassan=20
Khan, Tawfik Abu-Wael, Mounir Fatmi, Azza Al Zarouni, (see full program note=
s=20
below).

&

Sunday, November 17
7:00 p.m.
"untitled," recent videotapes by Jayce Salloum, 1999-2002

Tonight, Jayce Salloum, curator of our "in/tangible cartographies: new arab=20
video" exhibition, will present his own "untitled" project, an ongoing=20
videotape addressing subjects living through crises/change, personal=20
interventions in political realities, and the overarching theme of =20
interstitiality. In part 1: everything and nothing (1999-2001, 40 mins.),=20
Salloum, off-camera, talks with Soha Bechara, the ex-Lebanese National=20
Resistance fighter who was detained for 10 years in the notorious El-Khiam=20
torture and interrogation center in South Lebanon. In a riveting and intimat=
e=20
conversation, Salloum inquires about home, being interviewed to  death,=20
resistance, survival, and the distance between Paris, where Bechara now=20
lives, and Khiam. In part 2: beauty and the east (1999-2002,=20
work-in-progress, excerpt c. 20 mins.), Salloum turns obliquely to the forme=
r=20
Yugoslavia. In a kaleidoscope of interviews, refugees, migrants, asylum=20
seekers, and residents address topics ranging from identity and fascism to=20
optimism and monsters. In both anecdotal and theoretical recountings, they=20
lay out the issues currently at stake in this region of displacement and=20
redefinition; their words are located within images of cities and landscapes=
.=20
Also shown will be a preview sequence of part 3: (as if) beauty never ends=
=E2=80=A6=20
(2002, 11 mins.), in which a montage of orchids blooming and footage from th=
e=20
sites of the 1982 massacres at Lebanon's Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps p
rovides an elegiac response to the Palestinian dispossession.=20


Events are at the James Bridges Theater in Melnitz Hall, located on the=20
northeast corner of the UCLA Westwood campus, near the intersection of Sunse=
t=20
Boulevard and Hilgard Avenue. Tickets are available at the theater one hour=20
before showtime.  Admission is $7 general, $5 students, seniors and UCLA=20
Alumni Association members with ID. Parking is available adjacent to the=20
James Bridges Theater in Lot 3 for $7. For further information, please call=20
(310) 206-FILM or visit www.cinema.ucla.edu.

----
Full program notes below:

The UCLA Film and Television Archive & L.A Freewaves
Present

in/tangible cartographies: new arab video

We have (too) many images for this place/this region and as many names, but=20
none of them is accurate or adequate: Middle East, Near East, North Africa,=20
Maghreb, Levant, Holy Land, Arab world, Muslim world, the Orient. We have to=
o=20
few names for the people of these places. There is a certain violence in not=
=20
naming, just as there is an innate violence in the naming (i.e., "terrorist"=
=20
or "prisoner") that we engage in.

     This place (these people) has been over- and under-reproduced throughou=
t=20
the history of its representation by its visitors, its conquerors, its=20
"allies" and those who are passing through. These representations are ours.=20
We are implicated within these constructions.

     in/tangible cartographies seeks to provide an audience for a range of=20
work by Arab videomakers living in this (unnameable) region. It also include=
s=20
the work of those in exile, or "dispossession," as are Palestinian=20
videomakers inside and outside of the "occupied territories." In lieu of=20
being silenced and having one=E2=80=99s existence ignored or obliterated, th=
ese works=20
account for marginalized voices of experience, composing a history denied an=
d=20
substantiating a concrete body of work.=E2=80=94Jayce Salloum

This program is curated by Jayce Salloum, a media artist, curator and=20
cultural activist currently living in Vancouver, Canada.
Essay and notes by Jayce Salloum, abridged from a longer version.
All works are on video; formats vary.


Thursday, November 14
7:30 p.m.
in/tangible cartographies:=20
sliding life through narrow spaces forced into (cracks) where rivers could=20
not (yet) flow=E2=80=A6

UPSIDE DOWN
(Makloubeh)
(Palestine, 1999) Directed by Rashid Masharawi
The preparation of makloubeh, a traditional Palestinian dish, is served up a=
s=20
image and substance, reflecting on the nature of nourishment, the land and=20
culture. Masharawi uses a respectful humor and a bucolic freshness of images=
=20
in this short treatise on Palestinian identity.
In Arabic with English subtitles, 5 min.

CYBERPALESTINE
(Palestine, 2000) Directed by Elia Suleiman
Displaying sardonic wit and attention to detail, Suleiman creates a terse bu=
t=20
forceful transposition of the biblical story of Mary and Joseph to illustrat=
e=20
the repressive control of movement and the abuses of daily Palestinian life=20
suffered under Israeli military occupation.
Intertitles in Arabic and English, 16 min.

BLUE
(United Arab Emirates, 2000) Directed by Azza Al Zarouni
Private space as discomforting comfort zone at home in Abu Dhabi. Ubiquitous=
=20
cell phone ringing punctuates this stream of dissatisfaction with pop cultur=
e=20
salvation.
3 min.

RED CHEWING GUM
(Al-llka Al Hamra)
(Lebanon, 2000) Directed by Akram Zaatari
Within the changing urban environment of Beirut, two souls find themselves i=
n=20
a cycle of loss, departure, rupture and celebration. An impressive video let=
t
er inspired by a story of separation between men.
In Arabic with English and French subtitles, 10 min.

FUCK THIS FILM
(Kos om el film dah)
(Egypt, 1998) Directed by Hassan Khan=20
Surrounded by a multitude of reasons to tape and seeing none, the videomaker=
=20
runs at life with a soul lost to despondency.
In Arabic with English subtitles, 4 min.

SURVIVAL SIGNS
(Morocco/France, 1998) Directed by Mounir Fatmi
Fatmi analyzes how language has lost its power of understanding and=20
communication; "deep in the mouth, the tongue is nothing more than a muscle.=
"=20
Full of clutter, the tape shows how speech and the corollary of being heard=20
are necessary ingredients for survival. In French and German with English=20
subtitles, 13 min.

THE DEAD WEIGHT OF A QUARREL HANGS
(Lebanon/US, 1996-99) Directed by Walid Ra=E2=80=99ad
A videotape in three parts exploring the possibilities and limits of writing=
=20
and imaging a history of the Lebanese civil wars (1975-1991).
17 min.

DIARY OF A MALE WHORE
(Yawmeyat A=E2=80=99her)
(Palestine, 2001) Directed by Tawfik Abu-Wael
A videotape about memory positioning itself in relation to the "other," it=20
can be seen as a metaphorical account of the Israeli-Palestinian "peace=20
process." Based loosely on the novel For Bread Alone by Moroccan writer=20
Mohamed Choukri.
In Arabic with English subtitles, 14 min.

Total running time: 82 min.

In person: Jayce Salloum


----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
--

--------------------------

Sunday, November 17
7:00 p.m.
"untitled," recent works by Jayce Salloum

untitled part 2: beauty and the east (excerpt)
(2002)
In a kaleidoscope of interviews from the former Yugoslavia, refugees,=20
migrants, asylum seekers and residents address topics ranging from identity=20
and fascism to optimism and monsters. In both anecdotal and theoretical=20
recountings, they lay out the issues currently at stake in this region of=20
displacement and redefinition.=20
25 min.

untitled part 3b: (as if) beauty never ends=E2=80=A6
(2002)
Ambient images=E2=80=94orchids blooming, plants growing, clouds and water=
=E2=80=94are=20
superimposed over raw footage of the carnage at the Sabra and Shatila refuge=
e=20
camps in Lebanon after the 1982 massacre, with the voiceover of Abdel Majid=20
Fadl Ali Hassan (a 1948 refugee living in Bourg El Barajneh camp) recounting=
=20
a story told by the rubble of his home in Palestine.
11 min.

untitled part 1: everything and nothing
(2001)
An intimate dialogue with ex-Lebanese National Resistance fighter Soha=20
Bechara in Paris, taped (during the last year of the Israeli occupation) one=
=20
year after her release from captivity in El-Khiam torture and interrogation=20
centre in Lebanon where she was detained for 10 years, six in isolation.=20
41 min.

Total running time: 77 min.

In person: Jayce Salloum



for more info and clips on Jayce Salloum's video work:
http://www.vdb.org/smackn.acgi$artistdetail?SALLOUMJ
http://www.wwvf.nl/2001/programme/0salloum.htm
http://www.cinematheque.bc.ca/JayceUntitled.html



TV OR NOT TV, L.A. Freewaves=E2=80=99 8th Celebration of Experimental Media=20=
Arts,=20
takes place throughout greater Los Angeles during the entire month of=20
November. Selected from a wide pool of entries, TV OR NOT TV's extraordinary=
=20
programs present puzzling questions and dynamic alternatives to=20
corporate-filtered entertainment and alarmist, biased news reporting:=20
www.freewaves.org


Events are at the James Bridges Theater in Melnitz Hall, located on the
northeast corner of the UCLA Westwood campus, near the intersection of
Sunset Boulevard and Hilgard Avenue.

Tickets for events at the James Bridges Theater are available at the theater
one hour before showtime.  Admission is $7 general, $5 students, seniors and
UCLA Alumni Association members with ID.

Parking is available adjacent to the James Bridges Theater in Lot 3 for $7.
For further information, please call (310) 206-FILM or visit
www.cinema.ucla.edu.