2021 - Cinematographer, Editor, Co-producer
An essay film by Dala Nasser
19’
Red in Tooth follows the drive towards the Wazzani River along the UN enforced Blue Line in the south of Lebanon. This trip questions the notion of freedom on the open road when borders are so violently enforced. Wild animals lead the way as they traverse the landscape taking us into their elsewhere realms. This wild body constantly gathers and processes the interventions ravaging their surrounding ecology; then in its judgement releases its ferociousness, and stands as a force against Human despotism.
Screened at
The Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany
Musée d'art de Joliette, Quebec, Canada
Westminster University - Art and Law event, London, England
Red In Tooth was conceived through sporadic road trips over the course of three months back an forth to the South of Lebanon. Bordering Lebanese and Palestenian territories, the wall was buil by Israeli occupation forces as a separatist gesture. The wall does not only reflect a politics of inaccessibility, but renders the surrounding environment uninviting to the locals, as well lends it as a territory for local resistance forces.
The video documents the road trip, the stretch of wall, the wazzani river - which flows between bot countries and which the local part was used for an illegal irrigation system by the same occupational forces.
Directed by Dala Nasser, this work was a closely intimate collaboration between Nasser, myself and
artist/architect/sound engineer Mohamed Safa. After extensive discussions we closely built the structure and conceptualized an aesthetic that allows us to freely input each their own appropriate understanding of the concerns raised in the film. Animation was done by architect/visual researcher Sabine Saba who conceived of the blue line as a separatist strip that, like a river, acts as a natural divider between lands. Additionally, trap camera footage and land location tracking were achieved with the help of Jawad Al Amin.