You think that you are an infinitesimal being
Though you encompass the entire universe
- Caliph Ali.
Our understanding of humanity’s place in the universe, and our humility of knowing its limitations - this universal question formed the core of our Jeddah program, which brought together filmmakers and scholars for whom the pursuit of spirituality, or faith, is part of their life and/or artistic and scholarly practice. In contemporary art parlance, faith and art are often perceived as distinct, if not diametrically opposed, spheres, but in this program, we moved beyond these binaries and explored the explicit and implicit fluidity of seeps, leakages, and imprints of faith and spirituality in the films and related discussions. Inspired by various traditions of jurisprudence, whereby multiple interpretations of a sacred text were often presented side by side, we welcomed a polyphony of opinions and considered the multivalent layers, meanings, and iterations in which spirituality can exist and flourish, in the broadest sense.
Naminata Diabate, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, Cornell University, USA, and the Africa Institute,
An examination of two contemporary African films prompts the following questions: How is spirituality conceived? What’s the relationship between the dizzying number of spiritual practices and monotheist religions in the generalized African context? And finally, how do filmic texts restage the ways in which women navigate these complex relationships to carve out a temporary space of meaningful agency? Answers can be found in two films of very different genres: the feature documentary on Liberian women Pray the Devil Back to Hell, by Gini Reticker, and the 1998 gender-bending farce about Malian women Taafe Fanga (Skirt Power), by Burkinabe filmmaker Adama Drabo. The two films highlight gender debates through innovative and entertaining cinematic practices and partially define the ever shifting contours of spirituality as it intersects with established religious precepts and women’s aspirations.
Naminata Diabate, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, Cornell University, USA, and the Africa Institute,
An examination of two contemporary African films prompts the following questions: How is spirituality conceived? What's the relationship between the dizzying number of spiritual practices and monotheist religions in the generalized African context? And finally, how do filmic texts restage the ways in which women navigate these complex relationships to carve out a temporary space of meaningful agency? Answers can be found in two films of very different genres: the feature documentary on Liberian women Pray the Devil Back to Hell, by Gini Reticker, and the 1998 gender-bending farce about Malian women Taafe Fanga (Skirt Power), by Burkinabe filmmaker Adama Drabo. The two films highlight gender debates through innovative and entertaining cinematic practices and partially define the ever shifting contours of spirituality as it intersects with established religious precepts and women's aspirations.
Naminata Diabate, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, Cornell University, USA, and the Africa Institute,
An examination of two contemporary African films prompts the following questions: How is spirituality conceived? What's the relationship between the dizzying number of spiritual practices and monotheist religions in the generalized African context? And finally, how do filmic texts restage the ways in which women navigate these complex relationships to carve out a temporary space of meaningful agency? Answers can be found in two films of very different genres: the feature documentary on Liberian women Pray the Devil Back to Hell, by Gini Reticker, and the 1998 gender-bending farce about Malian women Taafe Fanga (Skirt Power), by Burkinabe filmmaker Adama Drabo. The two films highlight gender debates through innovative and entertaining cinematic practices and partially define the ever shifting contours of spirituality as it intersects with established religious precepts and women's aspirations.
Ruba's Presentation, Researcher and Writer
Al-Sweel’s recent research in media theory looks at how platform capitalism and network spirituality breed a specific cultural moment, with a focus on regional practices. “Love and Revenge” (2021), by Saudi-based multimedia artist Anhar Salem, delves into the emancipatory capacities of the internet, following a Jeddah-based teenage girl who uses an Instagram filter to redefine her self-image. Set alongside, Al-Sweel’s own recent two-channel video-essay, “ vista in the sky ” (2023), an incisive and disturbing meditation on society ’s ambitions of growth under capitalism. Guided by Dhātu-Ba’dan, a disembodied spiritual healer named after the ancient Himyarite goddess of abundance, “ vista in the sky” looks at contemporary cartomancy practices by following popular TikTok tarot card readers from the Middle East. The two artist films play out as manifestations of a moment of incoherence, exploring regional anxieties, future imaginaries, cyber feminism, and their imbrications in wider systems of digital communication.
Sérgio Dias Branco, Assistant Professor of Film Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal
How can film contribute to interreligious dialogue? Nowadays, important international initiatives aim at interfaith conversation and exchange. One of them is the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID), known as the International Dialogue Centre, located in Lisbon, Portugal, since 2022. It promotes dialogue between religions and cultures to prevent and resolve conflict. With this purpose in mind, it compiles promising practices that can be implemented around the world, such as the Interfaith Movie Discussion. This presentation discusses the role that cinema can play in the dynamics of interreligious dialogue — for example, the theme of Christian and Muslim coexistence in Lebanese cinema.
Syed Haider, Lecturer in World Cinema, University of East Anglia
Religion and spirituality are deeply ingrained in India’s public culture and have featured prominently in Indian cinema from its very inception. Many Hindi films (popularly termed Bollywood) explore religious themes, such as the struggle between good and evil; the power of faith, prayer, and devotion; and the importance of forgiveness and redemption. Hindi films have also contributed to the syncretic public culture of the nation by depicting traditional Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, or Christian rituals and practices. For example, Hindi films often feature elaborate sequences that are based on traditional religious ceremonies, and enjoy depicting religious festivals because they give filmmakers and audiences a chance to indulge in what Bollywood is best known for: lavish sets, sweeping cinematography, and large ensemble casts. Thus Bollywood’s picturisation of religious celebrations works strategically to celebrate the religious diversity of the Indian nation itself.
Baraa Alem and Maha
Sultan
DivingInto The Picture
Dir Ismaël Ferroukhi, France/Morocco/Bulgaria, 108 minutes
A few weeks before his college entrance exams, Reda, a young man from the South of France, finds himself compelled to drive his father to Mecca. From the outset, the journey appears arduous. Reda and his father have nothing in common, and their conversations are kept to a minimum. Reda desires to experience the trip in his own way, while his father demands respect for himself and the pilgrimage. As they traverse different countries and encounter diverse individuals, Reda and his father eye each other with suspicion. How can they forge a relationship when communication seems impossible? Their route, covering more than 3,000 miles, takes them from the South of France through Italy, Serbia, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and finally Saudi Arabia.
Dir. Gini Reticker and Abigail Disney, USA/Liberia, 72 minutes
This documentary bears witness to the travails and triumphs of the women who contributed to ending the bloody fourteen-year Liberian civil war in 2003. During intense peace negotiations between warlords, Leymah Gbowee, the women’s leader (who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011), threatened to use spiritual beliefs to curse those who sought to stall the negotiations. Gbowee’s powerful strategy sheds light on the spiritual dimension of many conflict management tactics.
Dir. Ali Cherri, Lebanon/UAE, 24 minutes
Shot in the Sharjah desert in the United Arab Emirates, “The Digger ” follows the everyday life of Sultan Zeib Khan, the Pakistani caretaker who has been guarding the ruins of a Neolithic necropolis for twenty years. A witness to the nation’s founding mythologies, Sultan preserves archaeological ruins, keeping them from disrepair. Yet in these empty graves that echo the
Dir. Mo Harawe, Somalia, 28 minutes
Somalia. A prison. Organizational machinery starts up around young Farah. He is examined by a doctor, instructed by the bailiff, and looked after by an imam. Farah is waiting for his parents to visit. “How are you?” is the question everyone asks him. Each time, “Good” is his concise answer. Only when a policewoman takes Farah out of town the next morning does the unspeakable become a painful reality.
Dir. Paul Schrader, US, 113 minutesDir. Paul Schrader, US, 113 minutes
historical, and empty church. An ex-military chaplain, Toller is tortured by the loss of a son he encouraged to enlist in the armed forces. As Toller struggles with his faith, he is further challenged after a young couple, Mary and her radical environmentalist husband, Michael, come to him for counseling. Finally, consumed by thoughts that the world is being destroyed by big business and discovering the church’s complicity with unscrupulous corporations, Toller embarks on a dangerous self-assigned undertaking with the hope that he may finally restore the faith and purpose he’s been longing for in his mission to right the wrongs done to so many.
Dir. Glauber Rocha, Brazil, 120 minutes
Manuel is a cowboy who rebels against the exploitation imposed by Colonel Moraes. Manuel and his wife, Rosa, join the followers of Blessed Sebastian, who promises to end their suffering through a return to mystical and ritual Catholicism. Meanwhile, Antônio das Mortes, a hired killer who works for the Catholic Church and the region’s landowners, begins exterminating the blessed followers.
Dir.Abdessamad El Montassir, Morocco, 18 minutes
While investigating an event that profoundly changed the landscape of the Sahara, the filmmaker Abdessamad El Montassir was faced with the silence of previous generations, who remain haunted by a history they cannot tell. With “Galb’Echaouf, ” El Montassir focuses our attention on landscapes, plants, and poetry in search of answers or elements that could participate in the reconstruction of this amnesia and the transmission of the narratives.
Dir. Jimmy Conchou, France, 2 minutes
A story about love, wedding and passion fruits.
Dir. Majid Al-Remaihi, Qatar, 13 minutes
In this elegiac contemplation on familial memory and loss, filmmaker Majid Al-Remaihi meditates on the experience of witnessing his mother’s gradual and terminal memory loss over many years. Using a personal family archive and reenacted dreams and rituals, the film highlights the promise of cinema as a medium for preserving memories, even at their most irretrievable.
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