‘Imagining Palestinian Liberation’: reflections on the use of film props to dismantle settler colonialism

Abstract

‘Imagining Palestinian Liberation’ is an artistic research project which develops through film practice methods described as speculative non-fiction. The project seeks to develop a cinematic language that arises from imagining, as the title suggests, a liberated Palestine. By staging her imagined return, the author runs into ethical dilemmas, including self-censorship, the quandary of representing so-called others and the elusive role of cinematic catharsis. Her interest in staging simulated pasts, as was the focus of her earlier documentaries, and then staging speculations of futures in her current work stems from a longstanding frustration with the documentary’s lack of fortitude in creating the aesthetic means for articulating and imagining a more liveable world today. Her recent short film Levitations, tries to overcome the limitations of the documentary method and its insistence on documenting so-called reality. Levitations commits to framing a visual travelogue in a fictional, liberated Palestine, thereby constructing an alternative reality. An emancipatory process starts to take shape.

The film’s key ‘props’ such as the separation wall and the Israeli flag, a tape recorder and tree are here analysed as narrative tools to visualize the liberation. The article, or, rather, essay offers insights into their use to articulate how speculative non-fiction methods may transform diasporic Palestinian angst, daring to imagine and show a liberated homeland.