letter to a friend
by Emily Jacir, Palestine 2019, 43'
EDITING: Emily Jacir   ANIMATIONS: Ahmad Habash
PHOTOGRAPHY: Emily Jacir   COMMISSIONED BY: Fisher Center at Bard
LANGUAGE: vo: English; sub: Italian    

Schermo dell'Arte - Archivio Film  Presented at Lo schermo dell'arte 2020

In Bethlehem, Palestine, construction and military intervention by Israel have disrupted the geography and economy of the city, as well as the lives of its inhabitants, limiting their freedom and trampling on their rights. In this short film, Jacir launches an appeal to London research group Forensic Architecture to reconstruct the street where the house that has belonged to her family for over a century is located before Israeli soldiers requisition it. In addition to video, photographs and maps of the affected urban area reveal dramatic changes over time. Jacir shows a cross-section of the daily existence of people who struggle for survival amidst tear gas grenades and riots, surrounded by abandoned buildings, concrete walls and barbed wire.

Emily Jacir (Betlemme 1972, lives between Rome and Ramallah). She has been actively involved in education in Palestine since 2000 and deeply invested in creating alternative spaces of knowledge production internationally. She was awarded with Golden Lion to an artists under 40 years of the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007). Recent solo exhibitions include the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2016-17); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2015); Darat il Funun, Amman (2014-2015).

Selected Filmography:
Notes for a Cannon, 2017; Tal al Zaatar, 2014; Lydda Airport, 2009.

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