Overview

Emily Jacir introduces ‘Introduction to the End of an Argument/Intifada—Speaking for Oneself...Speaking for Others’ [مقدمة لنهائيات جدال] (1990)by Jayce Salloum:

‘This is one of the first experimental documentaries I had ever seen and which today is just as relevant as it was when it was made. This seminal work subverts the accumulation of deliberate misconstructions and misrepresentations. In doing so it reveals, with irony and dark humour, the inherent racism, political agenda and colonial constructions imposed on us. The film reclaims and redefines a history of struggle through its montages and the use of text, opening up a space from which to speak.’

About the work:

‘Introduction to the End of an Argument/Intifada—Speaking for Oneself...Speaking for Others’ is a fast-paced montage of Hollywood, European and Israeli films, documentaries, newsreels and clips of Salloum’s live footage shot in the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel, that are woven together and organised by inter-titles like 'INTIFADA', 'SPEAKING FOR ONESELF...SPEAKING FOR OTHERS', and 'ABSENCE'.

The video depicts the mainstream media's modes of representation and subverts their methodology and construction to critique the Western-produced representation of the Middle East, Arab culture and the Palestinian people. The images and ideology are displaced and deconstructed in order to decolonise and recontextualise them. Doing so creates space for a marginalised voice that is consistently denied expression in the media.

The video has been screened at numerous international exhibitions including Vienna International Film Festival, Vienna (2021); International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), (1991 and 2017), Kino der Kunst, Munich (2015); Brecht Forum, New York (2011); National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2007); 9th World Wide Video Festival, Amsterdam (1990); among others.

Screening and Booking Information

Introduction to the End of an Argument/Intifada—Speaking for Oneself...Speaking for Others [ مقدمة لنهائيات جدال]
1990
Jayce Salloum in collaboration with Elia Suleiman
Canada
Experimental | 45 minutes
Arabic and English

This film is a part of Genealogies in the Middle East and Latin America, which explores historical and contemporary relationships between artists in these regions and unfolds along narratives revealed by the artists' personal accounts that provide critical alternative perspectives and insights, decentralising dominant narratives, schools and paradigms produced and affirmed in the West.