Noura's first draft

What have you been making? During the past months I’ve been working on different projects.

My most recent finalized work is the short film ‘FurFur and the watermelon’, which was made for the Eye Film Museum. It’s an animation based on a childhood children’s story that highlights the occupation in Palestine. The emphasis on the story is on the dialogue, through letting the thoughts on the storyteller bleed through.

How did you do it? The outcome of Fur Fur being an animation was actually a solution to a challenge I was facing. the film was initially suppose to be a completely different film as I was planning on going to Palestine for the first time in October. Here, I made plans to film with family and friends in order to highlight our community in a way that isnt directly related to war and pain - as this has become or normality when seeing anything about Palestine in western society (SOURCE). When the war escalated I wasnt able to go anymore and any film I would make related to Palestine, people would most probably link to the war anyway, so I took a different approach. I was aiming to touch people and even for the audience to sit in those feelings of motivation and hope.

Although I have very limited experience in animation, the choice all started with searching for a solution for me not having the footage that I wanted. It quickly crossed my mind to create it myself through drawings, also because at the time any footage that I would look for online, would have been images about the war and I honestly didnt want to see that the entire time. The story itself is inspired by a childhood story about FurFur that my grandmother used to tell us, and I wanted to switch it around and create a message.

I then started by writing the story. I ended up with 3 different stories and chose a direction by adjusting the version I liked best. For the easthetic, I started looking at family archive of images of Palestine and asked friends to share photos as well as looking online for images on historic Palestine for me to start of with a sense of the vibe of the drawings I wanted to go with. I then made sketches of each individual drawing and it linked with the script. In terms of editing, I used a software I didnt use before so the process was a lot of trial and error. The editing style was Inspired by the introduction of the film ‘Teta, alf marra’ (SOURCE). This helped me as I used it as a benchmark to work through this new software.

Relation to previous practise A big part of my interests is (but not limited to): preserving memory, senses of home, migration and diaspora, the subconciousness, community, nostalgia and decolonization. Some of these themes have occurred in my previous work as well. This interest is currently even bigger as I hope to inform, humanize and spread a hopeful message.

My journey into my next project began with reflections on my previous work with the Eye Film Museum, where I delved into themes as mentioned above. They have always fascinated me, I was able to take inspiration from a story and change the purpose of it so it created a statement. However, I found myself contemplating how to add a personal perspective, one that can show more about myself as well, in order to captivate the audience even more deeply and to feel more connected to the story I was telling. I felt this was a gap in the story, prompting me to consider a new approach for my next endeavor.

Inspired by this realization, I resolved to infuse my next project with a more personal touch. With a plan to delve deeper into myself and my family history, I will go on a journey to Tunisia, following in the footsteps of my grandfather, particularly through exploring landscape theory (SOURCE). My intention is to observe, research, and delve into the essence of my grandfather's experiences, drawing inspiration from the landscape and environment he once traversed. A further aspect I might want to add to this project is the importance of Tunesia for Palestine, as it became the headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Tunesian President was one of the reasons that de anti colonization movement in the arab world started (SOURCE). It would be interesting to have these stories parallel through the lens of me following the footsteps of my grandfather in a landscape matter. Despite my desire to maintain focus on urgent themes, I also wanted to explore my interest in surrealism and absurdism. Currently I am thinking of ‘filling the gaps’ of the stories (for instance; certain buildings arent there anymore, or an event that happened) by adding animated drawings.

By visiting my family in Tunis, I also hope to reconnect with my heritage as I havent been able to do so through visiting Palestine. This will furthermore help me with my projects later on.

As I prepare to embark on this creative journey in April, I started working on another project. I've been grappling with the political undercurrents in much of my art. While I'm passionate about addressing these issues, I dont want to limit myself because of them. Therefore, I've been drawn to the idea of incorporating surrealism into my work, allowing me to explore themes in a more abstract and imaginative way. Even though it is not my only interest, I've found it challenging to completely let go of the Palestinian heritage aspect, which has been a significant influence on my art thus far, as I currently feel the sense of urgency. As a result, a project I've been exploring is centered around Tatreez; a traditional Palestinian embroidery style that is unfortunately becoming increasingly extinct (SOURCE). I envision creating a photo series where I incorporate this embroidery style, using it as a means to honoring and preserving a cultural tradition that holds deep significance for me, but by applying it in a modern way through illustrations of my everyday western life.

lastly, during Kate's seminar, we explored different perspectives in storytelling. This eventually lead me to write a small story about a girl and her siblings. From the perspective of the girl and one of the sun. The story is about migration and a longing for home. the story is again inspired by my family members telling me how they remember poppyflowers growing at the beach. As a kid I always envisioned these flowers growing through the sand. which wasnt the case, but these stories have altered my memories of my homecountry. exactly these blurred lines between reality, memory and imagination are scenes in which I hope to apply absurdism, the absurdism lays in the lost translation of these stories being told down to different generations, but I do know if I ever see a flower growing through the sand i will get a sense of home.

To conclude, my bigger goal is for all these projects to serve as research for a bigger film project: Eventually it is not only about showing different cultures (main focus currently Palestine), but it is to connect different cultures as well. In this series, I want the story to be about a Palestinian person and their friends as they navigate a strange seemingly otherworldly creative industry, searching for stability. Much of the focus will be set on examining race, class, identity, existentialism and modern arabic-western culture through an surrealist lens.

aligned with the themes and projects I formulated 3 research questions to guide me through: - what kind of non-tangible senses can create a sense of home; think of memories, smells, stories, dreams, languages, traditions etc? - how do ⅔ generations stay in touch with their home? - what mixed media approaches can be applied to visualize preservation to gain a sense of home?