4 September 2011
“For a Language to Come,” by Kelman Duran and Hyesung Moon, features Ahlam Khamis, a Palestinian theater student at the California Institute of the Arts (where the filmmakers are both graduate students). In the film, shot on 16mm, Khamis describes her work with the Ashtar theater group in Ramallah.
The filmmakers expressed the purpose of their film in an artists’ statement sent to The Electronic Intifada:
Our interests in art practice lie in the notion of an asymmetrical relationship between content and form that highlights political notions that bring about critical discourse. In “For A Language to Come” we wanted to explore semiotics through a directness that avoids aestheticizing a political subject. Stripping subjects of their politics is a dubious notion in art practice since it creates a generic version of the oppressed. We collaborated with Ahlam Khamis who worked with ASHTAR theater group in Ramallah. She explains to us her experience there and highlights notions in her discourse about oppression, power, and privilege.
