The Body Undone Film Screening: “Let My Body Speak”, “No Crying at the Dinner Table” & “Kaala”

The Body Undone: In Conversation with Loss is a programme of film screenings and discussions organised by Sana Rizvi for Oyoun's EMBODIED ARTS FESTIVAL. The selected films look at various kinds of loss held by different bodies - with a focus on storytelling from new voices. Using film, an embodied memory in itself, an invitation is made to reflect on the question: can we discover new possibilities in the workings of loss and grief by allowing spaces for these feelings to be held and acknowledged in an embodied way?

Each film is available for a selected timeframe during Oyoun's EMBODIED ARTS FESTIVAL.

Contact us at hallo@oyoun.de to get sent the link and password to view the films. (This is limited to people in Germany) 

There is a Q&A event happening with the directors of Let My Body Speak" and "No Crying at the Dinner Table on 18th April at 16:00, see here for details.

Let My Body Speak

Madonna Adib
10” | UK/ Lebanon | 2020 | Arabic with English subtitles

“'When I left Syria, my body became my only land. It is the only thing I own.”

This documentary is a personal and intimate journey exploring the repression experienced by the filmmaker during her childhood when she faced sexual control in a Damascus also experiencing a growing socio-political repression in the late 80s early 90s. Through the creative use of family archive in Damascus mixed with current footage of her body she reconstructs the pain of the past absorbed by her body.

Independent filmmaker and artist, Madonna Adib was born in Damascus, Syria, in 1986. She has received her B.A. in Fine Arts from the University of Damascus and went on to study Film Animation at Concordia University. She created experimental documentaries and experimental short drama films that were screened in film festivals and contemporary art museums across the world. She is one of the six founders and a photographer in the project Syrian Eyes of The World. She currently lives in Beirut, Lebanon.

Director: Madonna Adib
Production: Noe Mendelle for Scottish Documentary Institute
Cinematography: Elsy Hajjar
Editing: Sandra Fatte

No Crying at the Dinner Table

Carol Nguyen
2019 | Canada | 15 min | Vietnamese, English with English subtitles

Filmmaker Carol Nguyen interviews her own family to craft an emotionally complex and meticulously composed portrait of intergenerational trauma, grief, and secrets in this cathartic documentary about things left unsaid.

Carol Nguyen is a Vietnamese Canadian filmmaker based in Toronto and Montreal. Her films often explore the subjects of cultural identity, family and memory. Carol is a 2018 Sundance Ignite fellow, Adobe Creativity Scholar and a TIFF Share Her Journey ambassador, where she strives to empower diverse voices and women through her own stories and personal experiences in the film industry. Today, Carol is working towards developing her first documentary feature as well as an animated short.

Director: Carol Nguyen
Producers: Carol Nguyen, Aziz Zoromba (Concordia Film School)
Cinematographer: Walid Jabri
Editors: Carol Nguyen and Andrés Solis
Sound Design: Giulio Trejo-Martinez
Music Composer: Arie Van de Ven
Cast: Thao Nguyen-Duong, Ngoc Nguyen, Michelle Nguyen, Carol Nguyen

carolnguyenfilms.com/no-crying-at-the-dinner-table

This short film is also available online here.

Kaala

Sourav Das
4.26” | India | 2020

Kaala, a musical mood piece about a boy finding his liberation from social stigmas.

Sourav Das, a 23 year old self-taught filmmaker who comes from a very small town in Assam, India. Das currently resides in Mumbai and makes a living by making films.

Writer/Director/Cinematographer: Sourav Das
Featuring: Ajay Das, Jeevan Sanyasi
Producer: Seba Das
Editor: Mitali Solanki, Sourav Das
Music: Shafer Youssef
Sound: Mitali Solanki, Sourav Das

This short film is also available online here.

---

EMBODIED ARTS FESTIVAL

Curators, artists and cultural practitioners have been exploring identities, belonging and embodied memories through diasporic, decolonial and queer perspectives as part of Oyoun’s first curatorial focus: EMBODIED TEMPORALITIES. The outcomes, encounters and queries will be presented and celebrated during the EMBODIED ARTS FESTIVAL from 8th - 18th April. View all events here.