Readings & Films (week 4)

Displacement: Readings 

In 1943, Hannah Arendt published a short article titled “We Refugees Links to an external site.,” in which she declared: “Refugees expelled from one country to the next represent the avant-garde of their people.”  Over 50 years later, Giorgio Agamben elaborated Arendt's perspective in his article, also titled “We Refugees, Download We Refugees,” when declaring “the refugee is the sole category in which it is possible today to perceive the forms and limits of a political community to come.” Amid the ongoing erosion of the sovereignty of the nation-state and the large scale corrosion of traditional legal-political categories, Agamben writes, our capacity to imagine a new political subject and “to reconstruct our political philosophy” may only be possible by  "beginning with this unique figure" (114). 

In curating course materials for this week, I'm encouraging us to think with the figure of the refugee as "the avant-garde of their people" in relation to what Patricia White calls the "project" of women's cinema in the world, which is to  "construct a new social subject," and by extension a new cinema and a future vision of feminism.    I've embedded the essays by Arendt and Agamben in the above for ease of access to read at the outset of this week, as a framing device.  [And for anyone struggling to find a critical text to use in their epigraph exercise, these might prove interesting options!]

These various futures can only be imagined if people (like us) ask different questions of cinema (and of the world) today.  As budding videographic critics, we may find inspiration in what Girish Shambu terms "A New Cinephilia Download A New Cinephilia" in his short manifesto published in Film Quarterly in 2019.  Read Shambu's polemic either before or after watching the films for this week: Blackboards Links to an external site. (2000, Iran) directed by Samira Makmalbaf Links to an external site.; Capernaum Links to an external site. (2018, Lebanon) directed by Nadine Ladaki Links to an external site.; and For Sama Links to an external site. (2019, Syria) directed by Waad Al-Kateab Links to an external site. & Edward Watts.  

A note: although For Sama is not required, I've kept the readings very short in hopes you will have time, and will seize the opportunity, to watch it as well.  And if you wish to read supplementary scholarly work, I recommend this essay by Jana Schmidt on Bertold Brecht's Refugee Conversations Download Bertold Brecht's Refugee Conversations (2020).

Blackboards streams below on Canvas, and For Sama streams here on the Internet Archive Links to an external site.. I ripped the file for Capernaum from Blu-Ray, and it is too large to upload to Canvas.  You will find both the original language version and a version with English captions on the class google drive.

Displacement: Films

Blackboards (2000, Samira Makmalbaf, Iran)

Capernaum (2018, Nadine Ladaki, Lebanon)

For Sama Links to an external site. (2019, Waad Al-Kaateab & Edward Watts, Syria)