Session V: Embracing Spaces

Moderated by Amir Mommartz & Ella Poniatowski

The screening and Q&As will be followed by a discussion with the curators and willing participants from the audience.

With Saturday’s final session we aim to leave a mark on the viewers’ senses. Whether it be in a society, mind, or body, embracing a space often necessitates adjustment. But is it yourself, or the space around you, that needs adjusting? This session consists of three films that address resistance and journeys of becoming. To resist in love, to act with conviction, and to remember with pride are such facets of embracement.

Marked (11 min)

Greece, 2023, French, Korean, Modern Greek / English sub.
Directed by Yoline Bourdon, Chang-hyun Choi, Konstantinos Giatras

What do boundaries mean when life is not set in stone? At the intersection of freedom and memory, two marked bodies are walking ‘like thieves’ through the lines imposed by society. This film is an embodied journey of life in-between, or at the edge. It mirrors the filmmakers’ interests in migration and queer issues, sensory experiences of urban spaces and seemingly insurmountable boundaries.

Chang-hyun Choi is an activist, anthropologist, and documentary filmmaker based in South Korea. Konstantinos Giatras studies Balkan, Slavic, and Oriental Studies at the University of Macedonia. Yoline Bourdon studies Sociology and Social Anthropology at the Central European University.

Content warning: scars, discrimination.

In the Wake of Remembering (19 min)

United Kingdom, 2024, English / English sub.
Directed by Sara Saini

Three women unearth and reflect on their memories of witnessing and supporting the Burnsall Strike, a 1992 workers’ resistance movement that was led by Punjabi women in Smethwick, Birmingham. From within their memories another voice emerges – reflecting the past and bringing the women’s experience in from the street to the domestic and personal. Together, the voices attempt to reconstruct the forgotten wholeness of the lives of South Asian women, against the political and social backdrop of the UK.

‘It is a story born out of exploitation, racism, and the necessity for change. The resistance that followed was formed through perseverance and solidarity – qualities that are shown to be inherently tied to the protagonists’ gender and Punjabi heritage. The movement allowed them to embrace the public space. The importance of language is emphasized, as said in the film: Punjabi, ‘the language of the home, now suddenly it was the language of the public space’. A space that still holds many of the same barriers’ – Amir Mommartz.

Sara Saini earned her Bachelor’s degree in Creative Arts, majoring in Film, from the Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore in 2018. She is currently pursuing her MA in Directing Documentary at the National Film and Television School, London.

Content warning: migration, exploitation, racism.

Locus Cordis (20 min)

Belgium, Syrian Arab Republic, 2022, Arabic / English sub.
Directed by Alhasan Yousef

Conquered by Israel in 1967, the Syrian Golan has a military border running through it, which families ‘cross’ by shouting to their loved ones. From his European exile, anxiety-ridden Alhasan Yousef attempts to break free from his inner isolation with this exploration of the power of sound, in an effort to reconnect with his lost country from afar.

‘Locus Cordis invites viewers into the filmmaker’s personal struggle with sentiments of loss and separation. The short film serves as an excellent exploration of the different ways a person can feel (dis)connectedness, as well as the effects of distance and sound on one’s body. It’s a creative act of reclaiming the spaces of loss’ – Ella Poniatowski.

Alhasan Yousef is a Syrian filmmaker and photographer based in Brussels. He holds a Bachelor’s in Audiovisuals from the Lebanese University, Beirut, and a Master’s in Documentary Film Directing from the DocNomads Programme in Portugal, Hungary and Belgium.