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Measures of Distance/Women Without Men

Presented by International House Philadelphia at The Ibrahim Theater at International House

October 9, 2010

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Measures of Distance dir. Mona Hatoum, UK, 1988, BetaSP, 16 mins, color, English voiceover. This stunning video essay by UK-based Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum is composed of two visual and two sound elements. Arabic script from a series of letters between the artist and her mother is superimposed over still images of her mother’s body taken during a visit to her parent’s home in war-torn Beirut. The soundtrack consists of conversations in Arabic between Hatoum and her mother, taped during the visit and the artist’s voiceover reading the text of the letters. Layers of sound and image, frame and screen, flesh and text are charged with the longing of separations imposed by war, exile, and personal history. Followed by Women Without Men–Philadelphia Premeire dir. Shirin Neshat in collaboration with Shoja Azari, France/Germany, 2009, 95 mins, color, Farsi with English subtitles. In her feature-film debut, renowned visual artist Shirin Neshat offers a powerful, stunningly crafted view of Iran in 1953, when a British-backed and CIA-orchestrated coup removed the democratically elected government and reinstated the Shah. Adapted from the banned 1989 magic realist novel by Iranian feminist author Shahrnush Parsipur, the film first took shape as an installation piece. Women Without Men brings together four diverse women who find refuge in a metaphorical garden during those traumatic days.