2 channel 4k Video installation 2025 duration: 25:25
Fatherland Archives is a research-based two channel video installation that consists of
two video projections, projected on to two walls that meet at a corner. The work is an
ode to Egyptian Jewish culture through live testimony, my family’s archival documents,
and fragments of manuscripts from the 9th-19th centuries from the renowned Cairo
Geniza which was discovered in the 19th century. Mixing documentary and surrealist
elements, close-ups of hands handling these old documents mix with scenes filmed in
a chaotic used bookstore in Brooklyn NY that specializes in Middle Eastern Jewish
culture. Stories and oral histories told by historians and elders of my family will give
insight into these presented documents.
Live snakes and lizards crawl across books and documents throughout the film. These
ancient desert reptiles appear in the stories and documents and they are also
metaphors for a resilient ancient culture that blends into the local landscape just like
the Jews in Egypt did for a millennia until they were expelled in the mid-20th century.
Scenes of the soundtrack being created in a recording studio appear in the works 2nd
video channel where my Egyptian-born professional drummer father and his vocalist
sister perform hits by the legendary Egyptian star Umm Kulthum and Jewish prayer
songs composed by my grandfather, as well as other foley sound effects. Elders are
like living libraries. Their viewpoint can give young people new perspectives that are
less binary about history, places, and people and how abruptly things can change
