Caminar el Tiempo
Spore Hosts: Weaving India, Stitching Palestine
Screening of two films and discussion with filmmakers
11. July 2024
18.30-21.30
18.30-21.30
Save the Date
For free
all ages welcome
in English/multilingual
Please join us for an evening of film and discussion with the filmmakers of Stitching Palestine and Handloom Futures, drawing connections between the history and politics of textiles in India and Palestine. In Stitching Palestine (2017), twelve Palestinian women’s narratives are connected by the enduring thread of the ancient art of embroidery. Lawyers, artists, housewives, activists, politicians and more stitch together the story of their homeland, their dispossession, and their unwavering determination that justice will prevail.
Ulatbansi / Zigzagging (2021) draws on the mystic poetry of 15th century weaver/saint - Kabir Das to expose how knowledge politics dispossesses handloom artisans in India of the ownership of their knowledge. The film zig zags between the weaving and musical practice of weavers in Kachchh, Gujarat, and the one lone weaver in Chirala, Andhra Pradesh, who holds the memory of a time before the Jacquard loom robbed them of the language of weaving. Some of the artisans will join us over Zoom from India.
Weaving, embroidery, and other textile arts are often praised for their artistic and cultural value, while their role as technologies and philosophies are downplayed. In this event, we will learn more about how weaving and stitching are ways of knowing, and how communities keep them alive in the face of forced displacement.
The event is facilitated by:
Muna Khalidi and Carol Mansour from Forward Film Productions and by Vivek S. Oak and Gauri Nori, Handloom Futures Research Fellows
The Event is fully accessible in English with Arabic, Hindi and Telugu elements.
