5 Broken Cameras: Landscape, Trauma, and Witnessing
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5 Broken Cameras: Landscape, Trauma and Witnessing Saeedeh Asadipour BA Architecture, Shahid Bahonar University, 2013 A thesis submitted to the Art History Faculty of the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Master of Arts in Art History Committee Members Morgan Thomas, Ph.D. (chair) Nnamdi Elleh, Ph.D. Ethan Katz, Ph.D. March 2016 Abstract In the last quarter century, Palestinian cinema has appeared as a major artistic force on the global scene. Deeply rooted in the historic struggles for national self-identification and self- narration, this cinema is among the most important artistic expression of a suffering people. Despite the increasing significance of Palestinian cinema in the global scene, most of these films are from the perspective of refugees outside of the conflict zone and there is no significant film from the heart of the conflict. 5 Broken Cameras, while as a documentary film covers conflict occurrences in the village of Bil’in (the village on the border of Israel and Palestine) gives a first- handed perspective of a citizen’s family life involved in the conflict. The thesis has been shaped in three chapters. The first chapter examines representation of the landscape as a sublime object (land as the lost object and the Israeli city-landscape as astonishing and horrifying complexes that symbolize the civilization and leave the Palestinians out of its territory.) In the second chapter, the subjectivity of the Palestinian bodies in the cinema is studied and it is argued that the trauma is the main constitutive of the Palestinian visual and cinematic narration. The third chapter focuses on the film as an independent subject that carries significant testimonial weight. It argues that amateur film with blurred images and original raw sound because of a hyper- mobilized camera work creates a sense of muteness and paralysis around the trauma. The third chapter proposes that 5 Broken Cameras as an example of citizen camera witnessing is a form of alter-narration of the Palestinian national history and it strongly affects the top-down organization of media system. Finally, in all the three chapters, this thesis argues that “speechlessness,” passivity and dysfunctionality constitutes a very important part of the film’s representation of the situation, whether in the director’s attempt to represent the “lost” land, the psychical “wounds” and the “blurred” images and also by naming the film 5 Broken Cameras. ii This thesis argues that this “silence” brings another kind of subjectivity that has moral power in the eyes of the global audiences. iii © Saeedeh Asadipour All Rights Reserved iv Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... ii Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1: Background as Foreground ....................................................................................................... 11 Figures of Chapter 1 ............................................................................................................................ 24 Chapter 2: Cinematic Subjectivity ............................................................................................................... 27 Figures of Chapter 2 ............................................................................................................................ 39 Chapter 3: Citizen Camera-Witnessing: Reclamation of History ................................................................ 41 Figures of Chapter 3 ............................................................................................................................ 49 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 51 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................ 55 v Table of Figures Figure 1. Villagers gathered up around the constructing machine ............................................................ 24 Figure 2. Burnets Father is seeding the land. ............................................................................................. 24 Figure 3. Children accompanying adults in protest. ................................................................................... 25 Figure 4. Israeli’s residential complex on the hills. ..................................................................................... 25 Figure 5. A scene after breaking the first camera. ...................................................................................... 26 Figure 6. Youngest son of the Burnat watches the conflict from top of the roof....................................... 39 Figure 7. A Palestinian youth throwing stone. ............................................................................................ 39 Figure 8. Burnat’s youngest son watches the conflict from a close distance. ............................................ 40 Figure 9. Burnat with his five broken cameras. .......................................................................................... 49 Figure 10. Protesters escaping the shooting quarrel. ................................................................................. 49 Figure 11. Bassem Abu Rahman got shot dead in the eyes of camera. ...................................................... 50 vi “Just as none of us is outside or beyond geography, none of us is completely free from the struggle over geography. That struggle is complex and interesting because it is not only about soldiers and cannons but also about ideas, about forms, about images and imaginings.” Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism1 Introduction Palestinian cinema is one of the most promising emerging national cinemas, and its motifs have been transformed into a global event as they are tied to political issues and social upheavals. The very existence of this cinema, however, is paradoxical, and it is through this paradox that it needs to be theorized and contextualized. The apparent paradox in general can be perceived when we talk about the national cinema generated by a stateless nation.2 The very presupposition of a sufficient basis on which to create a Palestinian cinema after 1948 points to a collective memory of war, displacement and dispossession, as Palestinians continue to hold a strong sense of nationhood. Although the origin of Palestinian cinema pre-dates the dispossession of their historical homeland, it has flourished in recent years and received high critical acclaim from around the world. This cinema retains a strong connection to the Israeli occupation, however, for as Hamid Dabashi, in his book Dreams of a Nation: On Palestinian Cinema, writes, “The central trauma of Palestine, the Nakba, is the defining moment of Palestinian cinema.”3 Thus, in this study, the term “Palestinian cinema” refers to films made after 1948 by Palestinian directors inside or outside of Palestine’s borders. 1 Edward said, Culture and Imperialism,(New York, Vintage Books, 1994.), p. 8. 2 Hamid Dabashi, Dreams of a Nation: On Palestinian Cinema, (New York, Verso book, 2006.), pp. 3-4. 3 Ibid. Postcolonial scholar and theorist Edward Said is perhaps best able to illuminate the strong relationship between Palestinian cinema and their lost land. In his keynote speech on the opening night of “Our Dreams of a Nation: Palestinian Film Festival,” in January 2003, Said argues that the significance of Palestinian cinema is related to the general problem of the historical, the political, and the aesthetics of visibility. So, the relationship of Palestinians to the visible and the visual was deeply problematic. Said reminded the audience of a slogan from an early mobilizing phrase of Zionism: “We are a people without a land going to a land without people,” a phrase which pronounces the emptiness of the land and the non-existence of people. Said then suggests that Palestinian cinema must be understood in this context, as first and foremost a cinema which aims to resist against invisibility and tries to give an alternative visual articulation of the Palestinian existence to the world.4 Drawing its cue from this brief mention of the significance of the land, the first chapter of this study aims to undertake a closer reading of the Palestinian cinema with particular focus on the crucial role of landscape in it. Another key context for understanding Palestinian cinema may be found in the long- lasting and controversial discussion about the reasons of the absence of visual narrative(especially cinematic narration) in Palestinian society. Palestinian cinema specifically in Gaza Strip and West Bank can be considered as phenomenon which seek to compensate for such a lack of narrative. Palestinian films come from different geographical areas, for instance the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Israel, US and Europe, to recollect and gather together what has been lost since 1948. The absence of strong visual narrative, scholars believe, has been caused mainly because of two reasons, firstly, segregation and the lack of a cultural center and, secondly and 4 Hamid Dabashi, Dreams of a Nation, (New York: Verso Books, 2006). p. 9. 2 most