We Began By Measuring Distance by Basma Al-Sharif
19 min | 2009
The online presentation of films from „Arab Shorts 2009” on this site ended by 31 December 2011.
Long still frames, text, language, and sound are weaved together to unfold the narrative of an anonymous group who fill their time by measuring distance. Innocent measurements become political ones, drawing an examination of how image and sound communicate history, tragedy, and the complication of Palestinian nationalism. We Began By Measuring Distance explores the ultimate disenchantment with facts when the visual fails to communicate the tragic.
About the Filmmaker
Born 27 august 1983 in Kuwait. Spent early childhood in Brittany France. Educated in the US, earning BFA & MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Art & Design and was a guest student at the Malmö Art Academy, Lund University Sweden in 2004.
Basma’s work has been shown at: Rencontres Internationales Centre Pompidou, the Chicago Underground Film Festival Gene Siskel Film Center, 31st Festival International Cinéma Méditerranéen Montpellier, the 9th edition of DocuDays: Beirut International Documentary Festival, Homeland: Exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Centre of Southern Australia, the 9th edition of the Sharjah Biennial awarded 2nd Jury Prize, Ann Harbor Palestine Film Festival, Palestine Film Week Al-Balad Theater Amman, Chicago Palestine Film Festival Gene Siskel Film Center, The Jerusalem Show in 2008, Images du Moyent-Orient Musee Jeu Du Paume Paris, Cinema East Film Festival ARTEAST IFC theater NYC, and Gallery Peep, SWEDEN.
Currently based in Beirut Lebanon as a recipient of the Fundación Marcelino Botín Visual Arts Grant 2009-2010 developing a series of new projects in photography, film, and text.
Born 27 august 1983 in Kuwait. Spent early childhood in Brittany France. Educated in the US, earning BFA & MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Art & Design and was a guest student at the Malmö Art Academy, Lund University Sweden in 2004.
Basma’s work has been shown at: Rencontres Internationales Centre Pompidou, the Chicago Underground Film Festival Gene Siskel Film Center, 31st Festival International Cinéma Méditerranéen Montpellier, the 9th edition of DocuDays: Beirut International Documentary Festival, Homeland: Exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Centre of Southern Australia, the 9th edition of the Sharjah Biennial awarded 2nd Jury Prize, Ann Harbor Palestine Film Festival, Palestine Film Week Al-Balad Theater Amman, Chicago Palestine Film Festival Gene Siskel Film Center, The Jerusalem Show in 2008, Images du Moyent-Orient Musee Jeu Du Paume Paris, Cinema East Film Festival ARTEAST IFC theater NYC, and Gallery Peep, SWEDEN.
Currently based in Beirut Lebanon as a recipient of the Fundación Marcelino Botín Visual Arts Grant 2009-2010 developing a series of new projects in photography, film, and text.
