Explorations of ancestral history and psychological terror in new and innovative ways
By Keyvan Mohammadi Rad
Documentaries offer infinite possibilities as a film medium. Audio, structure and image can be manipulated to tell stories in new and interesting ways. The documentary form is something that, to the average consumer, represents the use of archival footage along with talking heads intercutting at periods, mostly about history, the biography of a celebrity and true crime. The works shown at this year’s Toronto Palestine Film Festival deviate from the typical expectations of documentary film — both boldly playing with the common expectations of sound, image and structure to deliver a wholly new experience.
Familiar Phantoms
Directed by Larissa Sansour alongside Søren Lind, this film is a documentary short about Sansour’s family history and childhood in Bethlehem, Palestine.
It incorporates actors into its narrative, notably when Sansour’s family story is narrated. In a memorable scene, toy soldiers are brought to life as they’re played by actors.
The film uses a split screen method, placing different clips and images side by side. This technique shows up when the toy soldiers are personified. The scene incorporates real footage of Sansour and her brother as kids playing with the figurines. This home video was shot on Super 8 film and splitting the screen next to it is a found-footage depiction of the same scene shot with high definition equipment.
Super 8 film stock was mainly used to capture memories before the advent of easily accessible digital cameras and eventually, our phones. In Familiar Phantoms, Super 8 film consistently represents real footage of Sansour’s childhood. In the form of memory, these candid clips provide glimpses of familiarity, showing us how our ancestors’ experiences impact the trajectory of our own lives. It becomes a window into another world.
There’s also the discussion of truth. Multiple versions of the same story have details left out depending on who’s saying it. In her father’s journey from Jordan, to the Soviet Union and back to Palestine, the version of events are skewed from multiple recollections. It has us consider the impact of colonial violence on children as they attempt to make sense of it all.
This film toys with the documentary format well, relaying anecdotes and family history with authentic family portraits and archival Super 8 footage.
The Diary of a Sky
Framed around phone footage shot and compiled by director Lawrence Abu Hamden — who is also an investigator and published his findings on the website, Air Pressure — this short film documents Israel’s violations of Lebanese airspace between May 2020 and May 2021. The film displays data of these violations, which began accumulating in 2006, while videos of Israeli fighter jets and other aerial objects simultaneously play on-screen.
Exemplified by its sound design done by Moe Choucair, the documentary touches on the psychological impacts of jet noises as a tool of oppression and psychological terror.
The noises of drones and fighter jets intensify during narration, making some speech barely discernible. Viewing this in a theatre, the effect quadrupled, as the sound blared louder and louder, at times being unbearable.
The framing of footage here is exceptional and the use of ear-splitting noises in some scenes help exemplify the point of the psychological impact this consistent noise has on the Lebanese population. It’s 45 minutes long but I implore you to try and seek out this film or just take a look at the research data made public by the director. I highly recommend it.
