Memories of a Private Eye, 2015
Rania Stephan
Memories of a Private Eye, 2015
Digital video, colour and B/W
30 minutes
Arabic with English subtitles
Film still
Synopsis
Memories of a Private Eye is the first chapter in a trilogy, which investigates the filmmaker’s personal archive. Evoking the language of film noir, it foregrounds a private detective to help unfold deep and traumatic memories.
The film spirals around a lost image: the only moving image of the filmmaker’s dead mother. How is absence lived? What remains of love, war and death with the passing of time? These are the questions that are delicately displayed for contemplation. Weaving together images from different sources, (private archive, history of the cinema, television, YouTube) the film, while investigating the past, unfolds into a labyrinthic maze to create a blueprint of remembrance itself.
Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation.
